DENVER — Small Business Saturday is the start of a hopefully busy season for locally owned shops and restaurants along East Colfax Avenue.
It's a welcomed time of year as construction continues on the East Colfax Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project.
“It’s still early, but crowds have been really great today, definitely people coming and going,” said Chris Donato, owner of Champagne Tiger.
Navigating growth in a sea of orange cones is a challenge the 3-month-old restaurant welcomes with open arms.
The $280 million project broke ground in October after more than a decade of planning. The BRT will run from Denver's Union Station to I-225 on Colfax Avenue. It will be center-running between Broadway and Yosemite, with a dedicated transit lane in each direction.
Developers say this will make Colfax easier to travel in the long run. Currently, the corridor is at capacity with cars, and its bus routes serve more than 20,000 daily riders.
“Even before we signed the lease, I'd gone to all the town hall meetings and read all the information that was available. So we had prepared for [it], and we believe in the project long term. I'm really excited,” said Donato.
But in recent weeks, construction has started to ramp up.
“During that settling in, the businesses are definitely beginning to feel a financial impact,” said Frank Locantore, executive director of the Colfax Avenue Business Improvement District (BID).
The holiday season is a beacon of hope for those small businesses along Phase 1 of construction.
The Colfax Avenue BID launched the "We Back The Fax" awareness campaign to highlight shops and restaurants when the project first broke ground. Officials hope it’ll continue to take off as people shop for the holidays or enjoy a drink with loved ones.
The Colfax Ave BID also has monthly events on the docket, starting with the first-ever Colfax Avenue tree lighting on Saturday.
“The idea of all the events that we do is to bring people down to Colfax, show them how they can navigate around, encourage them to support the businesses that are right in the at the center of the construction zone,” said Locantore.
Champagne Tiger is getting in the holiday spirit soon, too. Donato said the restaurant is going all out with the holiday decorations starting on Dec. 2.
“I think being on Colfax, with all the traffic we do have, even with construction, it's going to look really cozy and really celebratory. So I hope that people will stop and see us,” he said. “We try to look at the positive.”
Locantore told Denver7 that the Colfax BID and the City of Denver are doing all they can to help businesses needing financial assistance during the project's construction period, including a Business Impact Opportunity Fund grant of up to $15,000 starting in February 2025.
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