City Street getting incentives to bring beer garden to Arvada

Business Den | Maia Luem | April 1, 2024

Co-founder Joe Vostrejs said the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority (AURA) asked City Street Investors to develop the 1-acre site. 

“They have an area that’s not producing any sales tax, not producing any jobs, maybe not paying property taxes, so they facilitate the development so that jobs get created and economic activity is generated,” Vostrejs said. 

AURA will sell the property to City Street once permits are approved and construction starts. As of now, Vostrejs said the firm expects that to happen this summer, and to open the beer garden in spring 2025. 

City Street’s plans call for a 5,000-square-foot building that the beer garden will use and another 2,000-square-foot building that the firm will lease out to a retail or restaurant user. 

Between the two buildings will be 14,300 square feet of open space, something Vostrejs said its other beer gardens don’t have. He’s hoping that it will be used for events, games or to hold art installations. 

“We’re really looking forward to making the most of this opportunity and we’re assuming it’s going to be successful and that maybe this is something we’ll want to try to incorporate in future projects,” he said. 

The beer garden is part of a larger redevelopment of the 14-acre site, which will include a 185-unit multifamily project and 70 townhomes. Maureen Phair, executive director of AURA, said the property was formerly a 1960s shopping center and gas station. The property was flagged to be redeveloped by the renewal authority because of environmental contamination. 

“It was the place to be 50 years ago,” Phair said. “But time was not kind to the shopping center. It became an eyesore, and really no longer met the community’s needs. It was block after block of tattered parking lots with many empty and abandoned buildings.”

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