How I think we can get Trader Joe's to Colorado Springs

Yes, Colorado Springs.

If Colorado Springs wishes to shed it's image as the poor stepchild of Denver, it needs to do gutsy, collaborative things that Denver can not do. Colorado Springs needs to utilize the base of one-of-a-kind assets that exist only here and convert them into long-term benefits.

Highway 24 and 21st is the perfect place to re-define the Colorado Springs business meets arts meets recreational landscape.

At this single intersection, the former Van Briggle Building (more accurately titled "The Wheelhouse Building") has just opened with Carmichael Fitness. The world-class personal trainer of Lance Armstrong will have my favorite bike shop in town as a tenant come the end of the month as Pro Cycling joins the building. Across the street is Angler's Covey, the largest retail space devoted to fly fishing in the Rocky Mountains.

Demographically, Skyway and the Broadmoor are a heartbeat to the south.

Energetically, Old Colorado City and it's 120 year history of slightly eccentric shopping, dining and imbibing.

Two miles to the east is downtown.

And through this intersection pass hundreds of thousands of tourists and Coloradoans headed for Purple Mountain Majesty and other recreation in Pike National Forest and beyond. Garden of the Gods? A bike ride. Red Rock Canyon and superb rock climbing? Three intersections west.

Flowing through all of this is Fountain Creek. Dave Leinweber at Angler's Covey wants to organize Trout Unlimited Volunteers to do streamside habitat restoration to bring trout back to the waters of Fountain Creek... within the city limits of Colorado Springs. Wow, Denver has a thriving carp fishery below the sewage treatment plant on the South Platte. Imagine if Colorado Springs had catchable rainbows and brookies behind Amanda's Fonda?

Have I mentioned that the Manitou Arts Theatre already occupies a venue on Pecan Street?

Have I mentioned that we also need an outdoor ampitheatre for live music and play productions during the spring and summer?

That the best Farmer's Market is at Bancroft Park, six blocks away from this intersection?

Trader Joe's wants a hook before they move into new areas. Colorado Blue Laws do not prevent them from opening a grocery store with alcohol. Grocery stores can apply for a single store exception, and I know of a Safeway in Denver with a liquor license for wine and spirits. There is no question that the California (and Virginia and Minnesota) transplants would go ga-ga over Trader Joe's anywhere in Colorado. But what would really give Trader Joe's the necessary angle for development in Colorado would be to anchor great SUSTAINABLE development.  This is not the grocery store in the new strip mall. This is not a cash cow (they are a cash cow anywhere and they do not need to be reminded of this). This is the local picnic basket to fuel the after-work concert goers, the sandstone scalers, the mountain bike gear heads, the fly fishing citizenry... and becomes the tourist destination of choice for foodies and culturites across the Front Range.

I have made my recreational piligrimmages to Trader Joe's in Santa Fe and to Cabela's in Sydney, NE. Highway 24 and 21st is begging to be the intersection of choice for the type of intelligent development that only Colorado Springs can produce.

I'm a REALTOR by profession and I specialize in residential real estate. There is no doubt that the impact of this style of development would greatly benefit property values and the city's pathetic commercial tax base. But the real beauty of this is that it would force "rivals" to place nice together and pull off a one of a kind project. This will synthesize developers (commercial and residential) with recreational activists (some Sierra Club folks for sure but I'm also sure plenty of NRA members) with the arts (I sit on the board of COPPeR, the Cultural Office of the Pikes Peak Region). Would I financially gain from this? Probably. But the bigger gain would be for the city. The gain would be that the arts could be anchored by local resources in one spot with imaginative venues. That children would have access to outdoor music... and clean water with living trout. The city would have a one-of-a-kind locale that is worth talking about.

It can happen. I'm just hear to asking for fellow members in the movement. Let's help the arts. Let's help the trout. Let's help the city's tax collection. Let's get Trader Joe's to Colorado Springs.

Comments

[Benjamin Day]

Bettina:

I don't know if a distribution venue in Texas would accomplish what they need demographically. I think if the 500 mile radius rule is accurate than all of Colorado is the only Trader Joe's option. West Texas has about as many people as New Mexico and it would seem to be too inefficient to start a distribution network with that size demographic.

I think what Trader Joe's needs is an exception that rewards their "exception" with their participation in something a whole lot bigger than what their brand has already accomplished.

Trader Joe's can be a catalyst of economic revitalization along principals that they believe in corporately, but are easily embraced by individuals of almost any economic stripe.

Which brings me 360 back to why Colorado Springs is such a logical place for Trader Joe's to land - if not exclusively, at least initially - in Colorado.

Colorado suffers from shrinking tax revenue and the inability to start much in the way of development anywhere.
It also suffers from the fact that in a new more ecologically-focused population, development won't look the same in the future as it did in the past.
That means if a city, county or state is to bless development, they have to walk a tightrope that they have never seen before: balance between expansion of their sales tax base for their growning population, but also a consumer-centric development that gets the people what they want (a critical point, a "want" is now more important than what they "need"), and do it in a way that enhances rather than erodes the identity or the local area of impact.

This requires bi-partisan collaboration from unlikely bedfellows.
This requires political leaders to look thoughtfully at 1.) our archaic state-wide blue laws and 2.) the dwindling sales tax revenue and make a decision about how future development can occur in Colorado.

Retail outlets don't have to have the best possible location. But they have to have the best possible draw. The location of 21st and Highway 24 is perfect strategically but has the added benefit of tactical companions that can bring together the aforementioned unlikely bedfellows. The existing landscape would be enhanced by this style of development, not eroded.

The Arts build economies (Austin, Seattle, Santa Fe, need I say more?) and sustain economies (Austin and Seattle again, but even Boise). Recreation drives migration patterns and is an easy sell to quality of life mindsets when luring businesses and attracting intellectual capital for start-ups. The west side of Colorado Springs is a blended political stew, but an under-tapped wealth of resources, including climate, geographic vicinity, existing retail and instant access to recreation.

An Old Colorado City Renaissance requires an anchor, but a city cannot resort to a silver bullet to be that anchor... Trader Joe's alone can not do it. It needs the compliment of recreational and artistic enhancements.

Correspondingly, Colorado as a state cannot attract Trader Joe's because they need a hook to get them in the market. The purely capitalist idea of expansion into Colorado with Denver as a distribution center (there is ample commercial warehouse space at present bargain basement prices) has only so much merit... Trader Joe's would want in for the right reasons. From a political perspective, how much sense does it make for any elected local official to appeal to their statehouse colleagues in Denver along these lines:
1.) Help us get Trader Joe's in Colorado Springs
2.) We can help you get commercial warehouse space sold/leased in Denver
3.) We should be able to expand your sales tax base inside 30 months by their likely expansion into your jurisdiction.
4.) We can help shape positive infill style development that makes Colorado a destination marketplace for the best quality of employees and employers.
5.) We can use our existing arts and recreational attributes as cheap Venture Capital to expand prominence on the national map.
6.) We can move ahead of states like Texas, Arizona and California into a roll of national leadership on the future of smart development and smart growth that is not only sensitive to ecological concerns, but just as importantly is financially benefical to the community and sales tax revenue collected by cities and states.

Getting Trader Joe's is a lot bigger than local access to $2 Chuck. It is the sort of brand that can organize and catalyze a sustainable economic future.

[Bettina]

I was in Albuquerque last weekend and I stopped at Trader Joe's on my way home, spending around $300.

I talked to a manager at the store here and he said the simple reason they have not opened any stores in Colorado is because it is too far from a distribution warehouse. All stores need to be within 500 miles of a distribution warehouse (the nearest one is Phoenix) for their transportation math to add up. You should totally send your blog post to the Trader Joe's email address, and add that they should open a distro venue in Texas for greater market saturation.

I am deeply committed to this cause, FYI!

Bettina

[Heather Mesite]

Ben...I would LOVE a Trader Joe's here in the Springs and would drive from Falcon to where ever it is!