The new operator of the long-struggling Zeppelin Station food hall says he has walked away from his lease, a move that could complicate efforts to sell the RiNo building.
Josh Schmitz of Ruckus Hospitality told BusinessDen Monday that an investor he expected to finance his $1.4 million build-out of the food hall as Clever Girl backed out after learning the property was in receivership.
“Unless we had the capital to make it a destination, we couldn’t make it financially viable,” he said.
The receiver that oversees the four-story building at 3501 Wazee St. described the situation with Ruckus somewhat differently in a court filing last week, writing only that Clever Girl “did not pay the July 2025 rental payments required by the lease.”
“The Receiver believes that if the food hall tenant defaults and is forced to close, it could have a significant negative impact on the potential price of the building,” the Stapleton Group wrote in its July 31 filing, adding that it might have to initiate eviction proceedings.
The 105,000-square-foot Zeppelin Station has had a food hall on the ground floor since the office building was completed in 2018 by Denver-based Zeppelin Development, which still owns it.
The Stapleton Group was appointed as receiver in the spring of 2024 at the request of Wells Fargo, which lent $32 million against the building in 2019. That loan has been in default since 2021 for failing to meet income-to-debt ratios, according to the lender.
It was the Stapleton Group that brought Schmitz in to operate the food hall, which racked up losses in recent years. The receiver wrote in court filings that Zeppelin Development had made the introduction.
Schmitz, whose concepts include the Disco Pig and Ghost Saloon bars in Larimer Square, told BusinessDen in February he signed a five-year lease and would rebrand the space Clever Girl. The food hall had previously just been known as Zeppelin Station, like the building as a whole.
Schmitz wanted to make the food hall a family-friendly destination with a prehistoric jungle theme. The plan was to install animatronic dinosaurs.
But no dinosaurs were ever installed. At 1 p.m. Monday, just two food stalls operated in the space designed for a dozen. Eight people were there, not counting workers.
Schmitz said the terms of Clever Girl’s lease, which didn’t include a personal guarantee, were “great,” but he didn’t have the capital to make up for the loss of his investor, with whom he’d worked previously.
“I tried to bootstrap it as much as I could,” Schmitz said, adding that he spent $190,000 on renovations.
Other issues made the deal “a whole can of worms,” according to Schmitz. He was expected to take over contracts that had been in place before his lease started, he said, and it was a struggle to get people to think of his space as anything other than the Zeppelin Station food hall.
“That location is tough, overcoming the reputation to rebrand is tough and getting outside investment is even tougher,” he said.
Schmitz said he doesn’t know what will happen to Sushi Kuro and Uptown & Humboldt, the two stalls inside the food hall, but he’ll “present opportunities” to bring them to his other local concepts.
Besides bringing in Ruckus Hospitality, the Stapleton Group’s other major move has been to attempt to sell the building. A new listing agreement with JLL went into effect July 18, according to court filings — despite pushback from Zeppelin Development, which also objected to having a receiver in the first place.
Zeppelin Station is 80% leased, according to JLL, whose online listing still referred to “the renowned Ruckus Hospitality now overseeing operations of the food hall and bars” as of Monday.
Zeppelin Development CEO Kyle Zeppelin told BusinessDen that the failure of Clever Girl is “further indication that the bank and receiver continue to mismanage the property.”
“It’s been a year and the property is worse off under their watch,” Zeppelin said.
In addition to the food hall, there’s also uncertainty with Zeppelin Station’s largest office tenant: Alterra.
The Denver-based ski giant is headquartered there but is considering whether to stay or move to another building in or near downtown Denver, real estate sources tell BusinessDen.
The Stapleton Group said in a July 25 court filing that a deal to stay at Zeppelin Station would involve expanding Alterra’s footprint, but “negotiations are still an ongoing matter.” An Alterra spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.
