The matriarch of a Morrison restaurant synonymous with hearty Colorado cuisine is selling her family business to developers after more than 60 years of being independently run.
Holly Arnold Kinney, whose parents opened The Fort, at 19192 Colorado 8 in Morrison, agreed to transfer ownership to Denver-based firm Revesco Properties, she said in a statement released Friday.
Arnold Kinney said she had searched for years for a new proprietor. Revesco is collaborating with City Street Investors, whose portfolio includes Union Station and numerous beer gardens across metro Denver, to acquire the restaurant.
She expects to finalize the sale for an undisclosed price at the beginning of next year.
“I’m delighted to be passing the tomahawk to this team,” she said in a statement. “They embody many of the same values I’ve been looking for in a successor, as it relates to operating The Fortap business, caring for my Fort family of employees, and taking The Fort to the next level.”
Her parents, Elizabeth and Samuel Arnold, built the Fort in 1963 as a replica of an original fur-trading fort. Buffalo steaks, bone marrow and other Front Range game drew residents and celebrities alike over the decades, and the restaurant’s recipes were preserved in a long-running cookbook series.
In 2006, the Fort was added to the National Register of Historic Places and that of the Colorado Historical Society.
In the statement announcing the purchase agreement, Arnold Kinney touted the CEO of Revesco Properties, Rhys Duggan, who she said “holds the value of responsible development as it relates to respecting the beauty of the land.”
“I’m confident he will responsibly care for the sacred primordial Red Rocks that surround us,” she said.
