Empty storefronts sit along busy downtown Pueblo street

Empty storefronts sit along Santa Fa, a busy downtown corridor.

If the city’s economy is making a rebound, KRDO NewsChannel 13 wanted to know why there are still so many empty buildings downtown.

“We have an overabundance of space,” said Dan Molello, CEO of Jones-Healy Inc. Realtors.

Molello believes at least 15 percent of the retail and office space in the city is sitting empty. He said it’s due, in large part, to the slow population growth in Pueblo. It’s only increased by about 4,000 people since 2008.

“Without growth, population growth and job growth, that retail space has a tough time filling up,” Molello said.

Close to 10 empty storefronts line Santa Fe, a well-traveled street in Pueblo. For some tourists, driving up and down the north-south road is one of the first stops they make in Pueblo.

“If this is the first thing you see, you’ve got to drill a little deeper to really get a good flavor of Pueblo,” said Rod Slyhoff, president and CEO of the Pueblo Chamber of Commerce.

But Slyhoff said the economy is getting better and believes better days are ahead.

“I’ve been here long enough to go through several recessions. We’ve always been a little slower to recover than other areas of the Front Range,” Slyhoff said.

Molello said the number of jobs in Pueblo has to go up, along with the per-capita income, before more developers will fill those empty spaces.