Following our annual tradition of pounding pavement and counting the number of commercial spaces in Carbondale, noting which are vacant, The Sopris Sun found 93% of the inventory is currently occupied in 2024. This is the third highest percentage since we began the count in 2017, trailing just behind last year. The slightly higher record came in 2019 before COVID disrupted business as usual.
The Dinkel Building is looking better than ever with a new remodel and four apparently unoccupied suites upstairs. Strange Imports, after 12 years on Main Street, is moving fully online (www.strangeimports.com) in the next few months. Although Steven Colby hoped to take over the lease from Dave Dixon to continue the business, he was unable to secure a long term lease. Time will tell if other staple Dinkel tenants pull up their stakes.
Nearby, Azalea’s Flowers & Gifts has opened in the High Q building, formerly Miser’s Mercantile, and is accessed via 3rd Street. Sol del Valle featured the new business last week and Raquel Rivera, who owns it with her husband, Rodrigo Lopez, said that the beauty of flowers for her is that, although they wilt, the feeling of receiving an unexpected detail will remain forever present in a person’s mind and heart. The shop is open from 11am to 7pm every day and will deliver bouquets from Aspen to Parachute.
The Pour House remains closed with a sign in the window citing “circumstances beyond my control.” The iconic restaurant and pub did renew its liquor license back in April and The Sopris Sun was told its owner intends to reopen eventually with the right management team in place. It appears from the window that someone has at least been watering the plants.
Along Highway 133, the dilapidated strip mall was purchased on June 13 and its few remaining tenants removed, including the Mi Lindo Nayarit food truck. An early rendering of the project, currently under review, lives on the Town’s “Story Map” (www.tinyurl.com/CdalePlanningStoryMap) along with this description: “Proposing to demolish existing structure and construct a 4,150-square-foot restaurant space.”
Heading South on 133, 10,000 square feet of commercial space connected to Hayden Place remains available. Interested parties are directed to contact Gabe Molnar at 970-366-0379. In conversation with The Sopris Sun, Molnar observed that it’s hard for retail to survive, but “there’s more demand for higher quality office space.” This has been seen over at the Third Street Center, a nonprofit hub, where office spaces are immediately filled, often with tenants playing musical chairs.
Asked to elaborate, Molnar wrote, “The increase in remote work/working from home had and continues to have a notable impact on the overall national/regional office market. … Carbondale has limited commercial inventory, of which most is owner-occupied and not for-lease, and even less high-quality/newer office space. This lack of inventory, along with the increased number of professionals that have relocated here over the past several years, has meant that most office spaces have stayed full even with many folks maybe also having their own small home office setup.”
Other available spaces we noticed were on the third story of the building on Weant Boulevard that houses La Raza (580 Main Street), a few spaces in La Fontana Plaza and land for sale surrounding Carbondale Marketplace, aka the new City Market. The old City Market, meanwhile, remains empty with the lights on for four years now. Efforts by Lift-Up to convert the 45,000-square-foot space into a regional food hub and distribution center did not bear fruit. That building is owned by The Kroenke Group as well as the one directly south which is fully occupied with thriving businesses.
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UPDATE, July 30, 2024
Following last week’s article, “Commercial inventory remains scarce in Carbondale,” Amoré Realty’s Lynn Kirchner and Kathie Jaycox invited The Sopris Sun to view a database tool that hadn’t existed when our counting efforts began in 2017. A quick search revealed five properties available to lease in Carbondale, including a 1,968-square-foot space on West Main Street that’s also for sale, in addition to 12 other properties for sale (two of which are associated with existing businesses). “That’s a lot of listings for a small town,” Kirchner pointed out. “Maybe not so scarce.”