aurora Five years after its creation, Aurora’s much ballyhooed arts district on East Colfax Avenue is at a crossroads.
There are few parking areas and no major restaurants to visit along the 12-block cultural heart of the city. Vacant buildings are commonplace.
The concern is great enough that the city is asking for a full-time employee who will find ways to put “butts in the seats” in the district’s showcase – the renovated Aurora Fox Arts Center.
And officials are hoping that new commercial development around the Fitzsimons Life Science District and more aggressive efforts to recruit artists will turn things around.
“The arts district has been much slower than what we would have hoped for,” said City Councilwoman Deborah Wallace.
“People have a certain perception about north Aurora. You know it and I know it,” she said. “But we’re beginning to change that perception. It’s slow, but it’s coming.”
Development plans imagined people going to a show at the Fox, then walking a block or two for a late dinner and cocktail.
That’s impossible now. There is only one restaurant along the East End Arts District, La Cueva, which has been open for 25 years. Closing time is 9 p.m.
“There’s no place to eat or drink here. You need a place to get a drink,” said developer Doug Adams of Cornerstone Equity.
Adams owns some of the buildings in the district and has struggled to get restaurants to locate there. He said eateries need between 3,000 to 6,000 square feet, but officials would rather not tear down the smaller, quaint buildings there.
Profits preclude change
Pawn shops and other businesses that don’t fit in with the overall plan of an arts district remain. Adams said owners haven’t wanted to sell because they are making money.
Still, Adams is optimistic. He has talked to several restaurants about locating there and is in the process of securing a dance studio.
“Things are just getting ready to pop,” he said.
In 2000, when the city created an urban renewal district on East Colfax Avenue, it had three goals.
The first was creating a cultural and civic core. That was accomplished by the building of a new plaza, where events are now held. The Martin Luther King Jr. Library that was built has seen its numbers increase threefold.
The second was securing private money. The new Florence Square, a $32 million multi-use commercial and residential building was the first outside investment on East Colfax in 30 years. But while the apartment complex is near capacity, retail spaces remain vacant, except for a beauty shop.
The East End Arts District, in the area from Clinton Street to Geneva Street and from East 14th Avenue to East 16th Avenue, was the final goal.
Millions of dollars invested
In all, the area has seen at least $50 million in private and public funding, including a $10 million bond package and more than $5 million in grants.
The city created an arts-district loan fund to attract artists and organizations to lease work and studio space.
But only four major galleries are housed there.
Kim Harrell, who has run the East End Applied Arts gallery at Sunrise ArtWorks for four years, said she is frustrated.
“I was just about ready to find another place if it weren’t for the Shadow Theatre,” she said.
The theater may be the district’s best chance to turn it around. The only all-black theater company in Denver currently draws up to 24,000 people a year to the location.
Kay Miller, project manager for the urban-renewal area, said the intent of the district was never to make money, but to be a cultural and gathering place.
Locals have attended some functions there, but the arts district isn’t attracting people from outside the city, she said.
Officials say more art galleries and a new emphasis on actively recruiting artists will change that.
So should the recent opening of the Fitzsimons campus. Hotels, restaurants and other commercial development are all planned for the area, with the first project slated to break ground next year.
Officials also are talking about expanding the arts district east so the area – now 10 blocks away – will be closer to Fitzsimons, and providing shuttle service between the two.
Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175 or cillescas@denverpost.com
