Downtown’s bocce ball-meets-golf concept has bounced out of Denver.
Lob closed its 12,500-square-foot restaurant, bar and entertainment business at 1755 Blake St. at the end of March. It opened two years ago.
“Traditionally, Lob has been a go-to corporate hub for team building during the week and a lively social hot spot on weekends. However, balancing those two worlds proved trickier than we anticipated in Denver,” co-owner Andrew Hodd said in a written statement to BusinessDen.
“The reality of high office vacancies deeply impacted our weekday corporate crowd, while quiet event-free evenings made it hard to generate momentum.”
Lob combines the classic lawn game of bocce with a nine-hole mini-golflike course. Each participant gets two balls for each “hole” and has to throw them, one by one, as close as they can to a stake at the end of the track. The closer to the stake, the more points.
Lob, which stands for “Love of Bocce,” opened in Toronto, Canada, in 2018. The Denver spot, which launched on the Rockies home opener in 2024, was the company’s second location. Hodd said at the time that the build-out cost $3.8 million.
“This one is way more polished,” Hodd said then. “The location is prime.”
The spot also had a full bar and restaurant, serving burgers and chicken sandwiches. There was even a small pro shop inside.
Despite the disappointing stint, Hodd reiterated this week that he believes in the future of LoDo.
“While we wish we had approached this market differently, it hasn’t shaken our belief in this neighborhood. We absolutely admire and believe in the long-term potential of LoDo, and we respect the incredible investments the city continues to make in the area.”
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