An Ethiopian restaurant where Taco Bell used to be. A vintage shop in the former RadioShack. A fashion boutique taking a regional bank’s onetime space.
Jevon Taylor has 18,000 square feet of retail space along the 16th Street Mall and he’s going all-in on local operators, with the help of an expected $2.7 million from Denver’s Downtown Development Authority.
“We’re bringing some of the top small businesses that Denver has to offer, everything from cultured foods, from Ethiopian restaurants, Mexican restaurants, coffee shops, clothing retailers, bookstores, really just creating a cultural hub,” the Colorado native said.
Taylor is the CEO of Green Spaces, a three-person RiNo business that blends coworking with local retail, making its money on memberships and events. He’s leasing two buildings on the mall between Welton and California streets from Evan Makovsky, the founder of the real estate brokerage NAI Shames Makovsky.
“Obviously, I’m gambling along with Jevon and the city,” said Makovsky, adding he leased the space at a “lower” rate.
Makovsky owns the McClintock building at 16th and California, having bought it for $8.25 million in 2008. He has a 99-year lease on the other building, which he inked back in 2007, he said.
“There is a degree of artificial stimulation, and that’s what the city is doing with these (DDA) funds. This is an artificial stimulation to get stores to open up prior to getting the people walking the streets,” Makovsky said.
Much of the retail space went vacant during the pandemic or the subsequent years-long construction on the mall. He said the mall has improved dramatically recently, but that it’ll take time to alter its public perception.
“It doesn’t take much to ruin a reputation. It’s very hard to make a good reputation, whether that’s the mall, a human being,” Makovsky added.
Taylor said the retail buildout will cost about $4 million and will introduce nine new permanent retailers to the block.
First, there’s the Green Spaces Market at the corner of 16th and Welton, which will be part cafe and retail storefront and part art gallery and event space. Within that will be:
– Migas Coffee, which also operates in Taylor’s original Green Spaces at 2590 Walnut St.
– Matter, a bookstore that operates in Ballpark
– Lunar Plus, a tech accessory shop
– Be A Good Person, a local clothing brand
The basement beneath that, where local hotel operator Sage Hospitality once built prototype hotel rooms, is set to become an art gallery and event space.
Next door in the McClintock building, the former Taco Bell will become the third location for Konjo Food, which operates in Edgewater and downtown’s Milk Market.
An old TCF Bank location will host Puppet Theater, a fashion and clothing store moving from Sakura Square.
Jimmy Johns’ empty storefront will give way to Khoran Horn’s “dual food and beverage concept” that will sell sweets by day and cocktails by night.
RadioShack’s old space is set to become a second location for Common Collective, a thrift and vintage store in Cap Hill.
Finally, former La Diabla chef Paul Ramirez will round out the building with a Mexican restaurant dubbed Fake Cowboys Club, in what used to be an Anthony’s Pizza.
Taylor plans to charge a deeply discounted rent of $15 a square foot annually. He said the DDA dollars — which the Denver City Council still needs to approve — are the only funding he’s secured so far, but “we’ve been in talks with other foundations and banks and other groups that want to be a part of this project.”
“In the past couple decades, it’s been very corporate,” Taylor said. “When (the mall) was cool, you had your ESPNzone, you had your Nike factories — these are huge companies and those no longer are here. So now my goal is to offer space where you’re able to get a taste of Denver.”
Taylor also plans to lease 20,000 square feet of vacant office space above the retail space at 16th and Welton. While DDA dollars won’t go toward that portion of the project, he intends to make it something akin to the coworking component of the original Green Spaces.
Taylor took over as CEO of Green Spaces in 2022. The George Washington High School alum said the business eclipsed $1 million in revenue for the first time last year.
