The Cones Are Gone From East Colfax Between Broadway and Colorado. Now the Street Is Asking Neighbors Back.

If you drive west on Colfax from Aurora, you pass closed lanes, torn-up sidewalks, fencing and long rows of orange cones. Then you cross Colorado Boulevard, and Westword described what comes next this way: "The road is smooth and freshly painted. Sidewalks are open, and in some stretches full of pedestrians." The same piece compared the change to a film switching from black and white to color.

That change happened on Friday, Sept. 25, when two years of Bus Rapid Transit construction ended between Broadway and Colorado Boulevard. A month later, this part of East Colfax is mostly finished construction. The harder part is getting the neighborhood to come back, and this fall that work rests on a handful of small independent openings and a calendar of low-cost events from the street's business district. Both are built for people who live within walking distance, and both are taking place almost entirely on the finished blocks.

What changed on the street, and what didn't

Since Sunday, Sept. 27, the two center lanes between Broadway and Colorado have been bus-only. Cars use the outer lanes, and riders on RTD's 15 and 15L routes board at platforms in the middle of the street. That is the part locals have been waiting for. The project as a whole is not done. Denver's East Colfax BRT project page lists active construction from Colorado Boulevard to Yosemite and from Yosemite to I-225 in Aurora. RTD's Sept. 8 update treats the Sept. 27 lane opening as separate from full BRT service, which it targets for late 2027 or early 2028.

Parking has also changed for good. From Broadway to Yosemite, the city estimates that about 300 of the corridor's 970 on-street spaces will be removed once BRT is in place. That works out to roughly three spaces in ten. If you used to park right outside your favorite bar on a Friday, that habit may need to change, and walking or taking the bus becomes the easier way to get to the businesses on this stretch.

What the owners are saying

For the restaurants and bars along this stretch, the paving was the easy part. When Westword asked them about the reopening, their answers were relieved but careful.

Alex Barakos of Pete's Kitchen told Westword that "relief is the big word." He said businesses on the corridor had been through "hell and back twice," first COVID and then BRT, and he urged people to "get their butts out on Colfax and spend some money." Bo Porytko of Molotov Kitschen & Cocktails said in the same story that traffic was "actually still pretty bad" and that he expected customers to take "a decent amount of time" to come back.

Chris Donato of Champagne Tiger focused on how the street looks now: "There's more light on Colfax than there's been. There's more trees." He added that the new stations include work by local artists. Steven Waters of FiNO at the All Inn talked about who is moving into the empty spaces. Some good businesses closed, he said, but large chains and national retailers have not taken over those storefronts, and most of the newcomers are "not changing the fabric of what the neighborhood has always been."

The openings since late summer support what Waters described.

Who moved into the empty storefronts

Every opening below is a small local business, and several took a risk by signing a lease while the street was still torn up.

• Sadboy Creamery, 1201 E. Colfax Ave., Suite 101. It opened Sept. 19. Co-owner Austin Walker told Westword the shop is a production space with retail pints, not a scoop shop, which lets the business grow beyond its limited online drops.
• Neo's Latin Kitchen, 1818 E. Colfax Ave. It took over the former Fresh Mex space and appears in Westword's list of September openings.
• Sweet Time Coffee, 3107 E. Colfax Ave. It is on the same September list.
• Enzo's Brick Oven Pizza, 3424 E. Colfax Ave. It opened in August and is already one of the stops in the business district's events.
• Vegan Van, 1490 Eudora St. The longtime food truck, which Westword named Best Vegan Food Truck in 2013, opened its first brick-and-mortar location next to Viva! the week of Oct. 17. It closed its Park Hill commercial kitchen on Oct. 11 to make the move. Westword's roundup called it an addition to the Colfax corridor.

Look at the addresses. Except for Vegan Van, which is on a side street, every one of these is between the 1200 and 3400 blocks of East Colfax, the stretch where the construction just ended.

The calendar is the comeback plan

The Colfax Ave Business Improvement District is clear about what its fall series is for. The Anything Can Happen on Colfax page describes the series as small events, artist-led pop-ups and community gatherings, timed to the end of BRT construction. It calls the series an invitation to "rediscover Colfax" and to support "the independent businesses that carried the avenue through years of disruption."

The events are set up to get people into the businesses themselves. The format the district calls a Grubhop offers walk-in-only deals, one item per customer, while supplies last. In October, that meant $1 slices at SliceWorks, Atomic Cowboy/Fat Sully's and Enzo's. These are the dates still ahead as this post goes up:

Some events reach the whole district and some focus on single blocks. Boo & Brew, now in its twentieth year, is billed as Colfax's original block party for kids. It sends families from Hooked on Colfax through the businesses of the Bluebird District on Halloween afternoon. The Nov. 7 night at the Bluebird turns the theater into a Vegas-style wedding chapel. Aaron Black sings Elvis songs for three hours and legally marries couples on stage between sets, and the page invites everyone to attend whether or not they are getting married. Several later events still list their times as "coming soon," so check the district page before you go.

East of Colorado Boulevard, the cones are still up

East of Colorado Boulevard, the street still looks the way the western blocks did a year ago. The city's construction map shows active work from Colorado Boulevard to Yosemite. RTD's May progress report set fall 2027 as the target for finishing construction on that section. Under the project's ground rules, at least one lane stays open in each direction and businesses stay reachable throughout. For merchants on that section, Denver Economic Development & Opportunity's Business Impact Opportunity Fund offers grants to small businesses hurt by city-funded construction, and the city holds regular Chats on Colfax meetings for merchants, plus Cafecitos en la Colfax sessions in Spanish at least twice a year.

In practice, this fall's East Colfax is the stretch between the Cathedral Basilica at 401 E. Colfax and the Bluebird Theater at 3317 E. Colfax. That is where the new paint and center platforms are, where the new storefronts opened and where most of the district's events take place. Hooked on Colfax and Goosetown Tavern are a few doors from the Bluebird. Ma's Kitchen, Hong Kong Station, DNVR Bar and The Learned Lemur all sit in the 2200 and 2300 blocks. From Pete's Satire Lounge at 1920 E. Colfax, Neo's Latin Kitchen is a block away.

Bus-only center lanes, about a third fewer parking spaces and new storefronts all affect how a block works day to day, and buyers notice those things too. If you live near Colfax and want to talk about what the finished stretch means for your street, Vara; The Real Estate Collective is glad to look at it with you. Let's Connect.