Ricardo Baca is moving out of his building in Baker. Then he’s moving back in.
The founder of public relations firm has leased the agency’s building at 100 N. Santa Fe Drive — which he and his wife own — to a new tenant after his local staff count slimmed because of layoffs and out-of-state hires.
His 5,000-square-foot building will soon be home to Switchyards, a coworking firm that will count Baca and his four local employees among its members.
“We really love what they’ve done in LoHi and Five Points, the whole strategy of surrounding Denver with these beautiful workclubs,” said Baca, a Denver Post alum who was once the nation’s first cannabis editor. “Grasslands’ Colorado-based colleagues will be working at Switchyards Santa Fe as home base.”
Switchyards, which opened its first location in 2019, has 7,000 members across 30 coworking spots in 10 cities. It made its Denver debut in April at 3222 Tejon St. and opened at 3030 Downing St. earlier this month.
For $100 a month, members get 24/7 access to the space, internet, bookable private rooms, a quarterly Switchyard publication and coffee from local brands.
“Itap the best part of a coffee shop, college library and boutique hotel lobby,” Brandon Hinman, creative director for Switchyards, told BusinessDen in July. “Our design is more neighborhood pub than sleek office space.”
Switchyards did not respond to a request for comment about when the club will open. Baca said Grasslands, which has a focus on cannabis-related clients, will leave the space in about a month.
When Baca and his wife, Melana, bought the building along Santa Fe Drive in late 2019 for $1.2 million, they had no idea a pandemic was on the horizon. In the years that followed, workers resigning at record levels amid newly found remote work led Baca to start hiring outside Colorado.
This year has been challenging for Grasslands. The company lost three clients on what President Donald Trump referred to as Liberation Day in April because they were concerned about the effects of tariffs, Baca said. He laid off about a third of the agency’s staff in the spring.
Grassland now has a staff of nine, four of them are out-of-staters, and thus didn’t need as big an office in Denver. With Switchyards coming in, Baca can now focus on landlording and Grasslands as separate responsibilities.
“Itap always been the plan … we no longer need the 5,000 square feet to do what we do,” he added. “Along with Grasslands, we’ve had another business that is the actual building, so this simplifies our business structure significantly and gets us in a place where we want to be in.”
Grasslands’ 15 clients include Illegal Pete’s, edible-maker Flower Union and Naropa University in Boulder. Grasslands also represents law firms, accounting firms and various cannabis and psychedelics-related companies.
“This is our first big down cycle between tariffs and the federal governmentap take on drug policy and the lack of reform we’re seeing on cannabis and psychedelics and everything else in between,” Baca said. “We’re fortunate to have some good years of growth in early parts and we plateaued for the last three to four years before this one.”
Despite that, Baca believes companies shouldn’t forgo their marketing budget — the line thatap typically cut first in a down economy. He used the example of Kellogg’s and Post cereals during the Great Depression, when the latter paired back its ad spend while Kellogg’s kept pushing through, eventually overtaking its competitor.
Grasslands is taking its own advice.
For MJBizCon this December, a yearly marijuana industry event in Las Vegas, Baca said he’s already rented out a restaurant one night and a nightclub another to host two separate events. His firm has done this for years, and he doesn’t see a reason to stop just because of a down environment.
“Every challenge is an opportunity to grow yourself,” Baca said. “I see this as an opportunity to hustle and elevate brand awareness and get the word out.”
Baca said he had been thinking of leasing out the Grasslands building for the past year or so. Switchyards submitted a letter of intent for his building six days after he started marketing it a month and a half ago.
John Livaditis of Axio Commercial represented Baca and Kevin Selig of Foundry Commercial and Tanner Mason of Benchmark Commercial represented Switchyards in the deal.
