Holmes Hardware building restoration may start July 19 on Pueblo's Historic Union Avenue

May 25—The next step of the Holmes Hardware building's $15.3 million revitalization is just around the corner after Denver-based commercial real estate developers closed on the purchase of the historic structure at 400 S. Union Ave. Friday.

Fuel and Iron Project developers Nathan Stern and Zach Cytryn, who work with about 40 different restaurants in Denver as professional real estate brokers, hope to close on their financing package July 9 which will allow for construction work to begin July 19 on the landmark building.

If construction work all goes as planned, the ground-floor food court — the first ever for Pueblo — will open around May 1, 2022.

The 33,000-square-foot Union Avenue gem was rebuilt in 1915 after the 1911 wood-framed version was destroyed by fire. It withstood the 1921 flood and housed Holmes Hardware until 1948.

The grande dame has been vacant for the past 45 years.

"I am very excited. There are a lot of benchmarks and milestones, but this feels like a very significant one acquiring the building," Stern said.

The first tenants to sign on are Mike and Dave Hartkop, owners of Solar Roast Coffee and Nick's Dairy Crème, who will offer the unbeatable combination of coffee and ice cream.

"I like to start all things with coffee," Stern said with a laugh. "I used to run a coffee truck in Denver for four years — we were called Solar Roast on the Road.

"I was a steward of the brand and got to know Mike (Hartkop) very well and so that was the first call I made. It would have kind of broken my heart if they had turned me down."

As the name implies, Solar Roast Coffee is 100% organic coffee roasted in solar-powered coffee roasters which reduces the business' environmental footprint. Stern and Cytryn's Fuel and Iron company will operate the food court's central bar while the five other restaurants will feature independent culinary experts offering an eclectic mix of food.

Those restaurants will operate out of the building on a two-to-three-year basis because the business model calls for the food court to serve as a restaurant incubator for food purveyors wanting to test the waters.

"Once those (restaurant) leases come up, we want the restauranteurs to be in a position to open up their own brick-and-mortar in Pueblo. We are looking at about half existing restaurants that want to launch a new concept and half startup restauranteurs where this will be the first restaurant they own," Stern said.

The second and third floors of the building will be outfitted with 28 apartment units designated as affordable housing. According to Catherine Stroh, executive director of the Colorado Historical Foundation, "a historic building, such as Pueblo's Holmes Hardware, can anchor a community, giving residents and visitors a sense of connection to the community's roots."

The foundation's focus on restoring historic structures led it to fund the residential aspect of the project through its revolving loan fund. For Stern and Cytryn, the reason for incorporating housing with the food hall was to encourage young professionals to live, work and play in Downtown Pueblo.

"Both before COVID and even after COVID, restaurant owners' biggest challenge is finding employees. If people can't afford to live in communities, it is a lot harder for them to work in those communities," Stern said.

"So our goal with the affordable housing, or workforce housing, is to allow people who are working at the food hall, regardless of their job title, to be able to afford to rent the apartments above. It also will help the restauranteurs to be able to fill their positions."

The Housing Authority for the city of Pueblo will be the housing operator and will handle the leasing of the apartments.

"Philosophically, our goal is that the apartments would be accessible to people who are working at the food hall or working downtown," Stern explained.

For many Puebloans, this will be their first introduction to a building that has been a fixture of downtown.

Local investors can take part in the project, starting at $100 per share, by investing through a Wefunder campaign, wefunder.com/fuelandiron which is an online-based equity funding service. To date the campaign has generated $20,100 of the $70,000 goal.

"We do hope that we will be able to provide investors a 9% preferred return on their money, however that is predicated on the financial performance of the food hall to generate returns for investors. It's fair to say that a lot of people who have invested in the campaign could have done a lot better in terms of a return than 9%, but there also are riskier investments people could make," Stern said.

For many investors it's about the benefit to the community.

"They believe in this project and they believe in what it will do for the revitalization of downtown Pueblo as a whole and that stretch of the Union Avenue Historic District," Stern said.

Potential investors will have a chance to speak directly with Stern when the development team hosts a coffee break with the Pueblo Latino Chamber of Commerce on June 3. The event will include guided tours of the building before construction starts.

Local historian Kathie White, author of "Landmarks and Legacies: A History of Pueblo's Union Avenue Historic District," is set to share details about the building and the 1921 flood. Coffee and pastries will be provided by Solar Roast.

The event is free and open to the public. To reserve a spot, go to to bit.ly/pueblocoffeebreak. To stay up to date on the project's progress, go to.fuelandironpueblo.com or the Holmes Hardware page on Facebook.

Chieftain reporter Tracy Harmon covers business news. She can be reached by email at tharmon@chieftain.com or via Twitter at twitter.com/tracywumps.