For 12 years Santiago Mondragon persevered through the lean times on Santa Fe Drive.
But, it seems, neither his custom bicycle shop nor his picture-framing gallery can survive the corridor’s brewing success.
Mondragon owns Dragon Lowrider, at 10th Avenue and Santa Fe Drive, where he has sold thousands of bicycles and bicycle parts since 1994. He also operates the frame shop, Santa Fe Arts, next door.
But the hardscrabble neighborhood where Mondragon grew his business is now giving way to new condominiums, lofts and tony art galleries. The upscale transition is hitting home for Mondragon.
On July 18, Mondragon received a certified letter from the building’s owner telling him he had until Monday to agree to a new lease that would nearly triple his rent – or move out.
“I’m trying to work and move at the same time,” Mondragon said. “No way. I can’t do it.”
Mondragon rents about 4,000 square feet of storefront space in a brick building with apartments above the street-level businesses.
He had been paying $1,400 a month for rent, but the property was sold in March, and the new owner, based in California, wants $4,000 a month, Mondragon said.
Over the years, Mondragon has given bikes to needy children in the neighborhood, and he’s let kids use tools and work on bikes in his shop, said Melody Gallagher, a friend of Mondragon’s.
“It’s not fair. He has helped better people’s lives. For them to treat him like this – it’s wrong,” she said.
Gallagher has organized a rally at noon today at the shop to show support for Mondragon and his plight.
The building owner, William Umana of San Jose, Calif., and a local manager, Gloria Guzman, could not be reached for comment Monday.
Santa Fe Drive has long been a traffic corridor to downtown Denver. Over the years, businesses, restaurants, theaters and homes in the area changed hands, and with suburban flight in the 1960s and 1970s, the area fell on hard times.
But in recent years it has been experiencing a renaissance, led by new residential development and a burgeoning art scene.
Ed Lopez Jr., 36, who co-owns Jigg’s Barber Shop, has seen the changes along Santa Fe firsthand. His family owns the building at 836 Santa Fe Drive that houses the long-running barbershop, and they recently converted upstairs apartments into office space.
“It’s sad that does happen,” Lopez said of businesses and residents who are forced out by rising real estate prices.
Mondragon’s son, Nando, 23, joined the ranks of entrepreneurs along Santa Fe and started a small business next to his father’s framing gallery in March, selling customized, hand-painted basketball shoes, and hip-hop clothing.
Nando will have to move his business as well.
“We’ll just try to find somewhere else to do it,” Nando said. “They just didn’t give us enough time.”
Staff writer Kieran Nicholson can be reached at 303-820-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
