After 30 years in the city, the Boulder Map Gallery is folding as owner Patrik DeCicco looks for someone to take over the lease on his 1,849-square-foot store in south Boulder.
The reason for the closure is simple: There’s no money left in maps.
“The business hasn’t been viable in years,” DeCicco said. “We kept it going because people loved it so much, and probably out of hubris.”
The doors could close as soon as March 1, if DeCicco can work out a deal to sell the lease on his 607 S. Broadway spot.
Given the dominance of GPS and digital options such as Google Maps, perhaps the most surprising thing about the Gallery’s demise is how long it took to get here.
DeCicco said that although revenue has been declining for years, it was the loss of two major clients that hastened the end.
He lost the business of the federal government to the budget sequestration of 2013, when a Lakewood storage facility housing thousands of maps was scrapped.
Then his large-format lamination business dried up when a large private-sector company stopped needing printed maps.
These days, DeCicco said, “Everything is digital.”
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