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Natural-Foods Grocery to Open Downtown

Posted on: Saturday, 8 October 2005, 00:00 CDT

By Kristi Arellano, The Denver Post

Oct. 7--The Central Platte Valley will get a 10,000-square-foot Vitamin Cottage Natural Grocer next summer, filling what residents and city officials have long decried as a gap in downtown Denver's retail offerings.

"We know from surveys and feedback that downtown residents have eagerly awaited a grocery store," said Tamara Door, president and chief executive of the Downtown Denver Partnership.

Vitamin Cottage, which despite its name does 60 percent of its business selling health food and natural groceries, will take over the Shakespeare's space at 15th and Platte Streets when the pool hall's lease expires in May. Shakespeare's owner Jerry Karsh told The Denver Post earlier this year that he wants to reopen Shakespeare's in a suburban location.

The store will go into the main level of the building. Owner Joe Benetka is still trying to lease the basement level, which is roughly the same size.

Currently, the closest grocery store for many of downtown's 9,000 residents is the King Soopers at West 13th Avenue and Speer Boulevard. That store is more than a mile from condos and apartments concentrated in Lower Downtown and the Central Platte Valley, Door said.

The new Vitamin Cottage also will serve the Highland neighborhood just west of downtown.

"There's been a lot of demand from the Highland neighborhood for a natural-foods store," Vitamin Cottage president Kemper Isely said. "It seems like there's a pretty good population base in the downtown area that would be customers similar to ours." Lakewood-based Vitamin Cottage, founded in 1955, has grown to 21 locations in Colorado and New Mexico. In addition to the downtown store, the company is opening stores in Parker and Glenwood Springs.

Isely expects the Denver store to open in August.

"I'm confident that they'll be successful because we know there's been pent-up demand for this amenity," Door said. She expects the store to help attract other grocers to the area.

"To fill the need around downtown, we will need a few more different pockets where you can get groceries," she said.

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Source: The Denver Post

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