Art and graffiti, boarded-up buildings and hipster galleries, crime and condominiums.
Santa Fe Drive, the seven-block stretch of revitalization in west Denver, is like trendy arts districts everywhere, from Berlin to New York: the gritty and the sublime.
“The avant-garde, kids, gallery people and artists don’t have a problem with it, but a certain group of the population is not comfortable with this area,” says Scott Soffa , owner of W-O-W Antiques Mall, which will be closing in January after 12 years because of a slump in profits.
“It’s not an affluent neighborhood.”
It’s a neighborhood in flux.
Galleries come and go with regularity. There was a shooting on Santa Fe last year, which led to a cop shop opening right in the heart of the strip. Vandalism isn’t uncommon, and Guardian Angels recently saved the life of a man whose throat was slashed just two blocks away.
But for trendsetters, edginess has its own cachet.
Nine10Arts – a new urban community of eight artist lofts and 16 studios is already sold out, and it doesn’t even open till January.
“Artists will be working in their galleries, and people can come in and observe them at work,” says Amy Norton of Spector and Associates, which is developing the property.
The 23,000-square-foot arts complex will also bring the first coffee shop to the neighborhood. This influx of artists – and higher rents – is changing the predominantly Latino neighborhood.
“It’s losing a little bit of its flavor, which breaks my heart,” says Crystal O’Brien , executive director of Chicano Humanities & Arts Council.
“I miss places like the little Mexican bakery and wish we could maintain the more traditional home-owned businesses.”
La Bota de Oro is adapting to the new. “Ropa vaquero en venta,” read signs outside the door, advertising the sale of all its Western wear.
“I’m sure somewhere in Colorado artists also like cowboy boots, but here they come with sandals and don’t want to change,” says Anita Arrieta-Alejandre who has owned the shop for 11 years with her husband, a mariachi player.
Her new inventory will feature art and artifacts from each of the states of Mexico.
“The good thing about the galleries is that they have the money and connections to do marketing, and that brings in people,” she says.
One of the newest places on the strip is the Ethiopian restaurant Arada, formerly of East Colfax Avenue.
“I’d never been to this neighborhood before, but the art galleries just attracted me,” says owner Haime Asfaw.
This is a place where the morning breeze smells of fresh tortillas, and where you can still buy a zoot suit.
This is a place where you can get your hair cut and your art framed.
You can even buy a luxury home in Riverfront Park at Arte Real Estate, which bills itself as “a real estate gallery.”
Much has changed since Roya Khajeaian grew up in the neighborhood.
“It was pretty dirty, a bit of a ghetto,” says Khajeaian.
But her father, Iranian native Abbas Khajeaian , recently opened a mosaic-art gallery called Kashi Kari, which is Iranian for tile work.
“We liked the mix of cultures,” she says. “It’s an up-and-coming area of art galleries, and we thought it would be cool to be surrounded by that.”
Staff writer Colleen O’Connor can be reached at 303-820-1083 or at coconnor@denverpost.com.
