Pueblo's Fuel & Iron honored by Polis with Colorado historic preservation award
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The Holmes Hardware building in downtown Pueblo is over a century old, but had been vacant for decades until the Fuel & Iron Food Hall opened its doors earlier this year.
Gov. Jared Polis traveled to Pueblo Tuesday to give Fuel & Iron the governor's 2024 Stephen H. Hart Award, which recognizes historic preservation efforts around the state.
Polis emphasized how the food hall and community space that also has over two dozen affordable housing units honors the “legacy of the industrial era” while supporting Pueblo’s future cultural, culinary and housing resources.
“I can think of a no more fitting award recipient than Fuel & Iron here in Pueblo — what an amazing project,” Polis said. “In addition to empowering entrepreneurs providing a bit of food, it also helps provide housing, which is so needed in southern Colorado and across our state.”
Why Polis selected Fuel & Iron for this award
Polis commended Fuel & Iron’s work to restore a historic building to be “living and breathing” at a ceremony Tuesday afternoon attended by dozens of local officials, including some of Pueblo’s representatives in the state legislature.
Dawn DiPrince, the president and CEO of History Colorado as well as the state historic preservation officer, said historic preservation can be a part of increasing affordable housing in Colorado and that Fuel & Iron is “evidence of what that can be.”
“This is a model for what it looks like when we can use preservation in the state to maintain the unique and beautiful, wonderful character of Colorado communities — and at the same time, meet today's challenges,” said DiPrince, who is originally from Pueblo.
Fuel & Iron is located on the edge of downtown on the corner of Union Avenue and B Street. There’s a food hall with several local vendors, as well as 28 units of affordable housing.
The project cost approximately $15 million to bring to fruition. State and federal historic preservation tax credits made the redevelopment project possible, said Nathan Stern, Fuel & Iron’s director of development.
Pueblo County Commissioner Daneya Esgar, formerly a state legislator, sponsored a bill in 2018 that expanded tax credits for historic buildings. Esgar said that the Holmes Hardware building was in the back of her mind when working on that bill as the building had been vacant for most of her life.
“If you live in Pueblo, you know how much Fuel & Iron has ignited this spark in this area of downtown — I just can't wait to see how it blossoms and fuels more growth, more redevelopment in this area,” Esgar said.
What the Stephen H. Hart Award means
Stephen H. Hart was Colorado’s first preservation officer. This award has been given out most years to multiple recipients since 1986, according to History Colorado, and one governor’s award each year.
The award “celebrates and recognizes exemplary projects in archaeology and historic preservation,” the History Colorado website says.
The Steel City has received one previous governor’s Hart award in 2013 for the Pueblo neighborhood enhancement project. The award to Fuel & Iron is the 10th overall Hart award bestowed in Pueblo. The most recent award was in 2021 to the Coronado Lodge.
Zach Cytryn, the director of brokerage at Fuel & Iron, said after the ceremony that getting the award is “really humbling.”
“We really feel like it could be a gathering space for a neighborhood — to give chefs an opportunity to be business owners for the first time and really just be a gathering space for anyone that wants to come here,” Cytryn said. “That was our thinking going into it and we never expected to win a governor's award or anything like that.”
Stern said that the 28 units of affordable housing above the food hall alone won’t address a shortage of affordable housing, but it could encourage more developers to build more residences in downtown Pueblo.
Looking forward to the future
The day before the announcement of the historic preservation award, Pueblo Mayor Nick Gradisar joined Polis at the governor’s mansion in Denver to discuss Front Range Passenger Rail and a $500,000 federal grant for the project announced last week.
Fuel & Iron is less than a block away from the historic Union Depot, which could be the future site of a passenger rail station connecting Pueblo with Denver and other cities along the Front Range.
Polis told the Chieftain after his remarks that passenger rail could help “revitalize downtown areas” through increased pedestrian traffic from tourists and commuters.
“Front Range passenger rail is not only important to reduce traffic and save people time, but it also is part of the economic revitalization engine for downtown Pueblo businesses,” Polis said.
Stern told the Chieftain that Fuel & Iron could potentially be a spot for travelers to get a drink and a meal after getting off the train.
“We're not counting on passenger rail for (Fuel & Iron) to be a viable project. However, of course, we would be thrilled if passenger rail came and ended at Union Depot,” Stern said.
Anna Lynn Winfrey covers politics for the Pueblo Chieftain. She can be reached at awinfrey@gannett.com. Please support local news at subscribe.chieftain.com.
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo's Fuel & Iron gets historic preservation award from Gov. Polis
