Santa Fe Arts and Dragon Lowrider have a new home.
For more than a decade, Santiago Mondragon sold lowrider bikes and custom-framed artwork from two businesses near Santa Fe Drive and West 10th Avenue.
But a sudden, sharp rent increase left Mondragon with the unpleasant prospect of moving his businesses in a scramble, storing merchandise and materials in a garage at his south Denver home.
“I thought about going out of business, at least for a little while,” Mondragon said Wednesday.
But he’s found a new space five blocks south, at 555 Santa Fe Drive, that will keep him in the neighborhood he has come to love.
“I’m really happy about it. I was really stressed out,” Mondragon said this week. “Once we found this place, I was relieved of a lot of the pressure, even though we have a lot of work to do.”
Mondragon will have only about half the space – about 2,000 square feet – but he’ll enjoy some improvements, including air conditioning and a security system.
The Santa Fe Drive corridor south of downtown is experiencing a renaissance – fueled by new condominiums, restaurants and art galleries – after decades of decline.
And while most people welcome the resurgence, it can chase out residents and businesses as property values rise.
Denver City Councilwoman Rosemary Rodriguez is a longtime customer of Mondragon’s framing gallery. She represents Denver’s District 3, an area just to the west of Mondragon’s businesses.
Small mom-and-pop businesses are important to the character of any neighborhood, Rodriguez said, and establishing roots is key to survival.
“It doesn’t jolt their business, when they do have to move, if they can stay in the same area,” Rodriguez said. “They don’t lose a lot of business or traffic, and that’s important.”
Staff writer Kieran Nicholson can be reached at 303-820-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
