High rent drives 27 businesses out of downtown, what city leaders are doing to help & why they’re still optimistic
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - The Colorado Springs Downtown Partnership detailed good and bad news in their tenth annual Downtown Report.
The good news starts with U.S News and World Report naming Colorado Springs as the third best place to live in America. 824 apartment units opened up in the downtown area alone, and people are moving in. Despite a 1.5% drop in visitors, more than 16 million people visited downtown Colorado Springs.
"For downtown, as well, 2024 was a great year," Austin Wilson-Bradley the director of economic development for the downtown partnership said more and more money is being investigated in the downtown. More lower and higher-income apartments are on the way. 29 new businesses opened up their doors to customers.
However, it's not all good news for downtown. In 2024 alone, 27 businesses closed down in the downtown area, meaning only a net gain of two new businesses.
"It's not really that people don't want to be downtown. It's frankly that, the rents are getting kind of expensive. And for small businesses, you know, small food and beverage space, that's a hard number to swallow," Wilson-Bradley said.
Rent downtown increased by 50% in 2024. Wilson-Bradley says the average price per square foot for a downtown business is $13 higher than the rest of the springs coming in around $30 per square foot. When you compound that with a tumultuous national economy, Wilson-Bradley says that can lead to some difficult decisions.
The downtown partnership says it's already implementing strategies to help out small businesses.
"We rolled out, just about a year ago, a new program to actually help some of those downtown businesses that are currently renting their space, purchased the space and become, property owners themselves if they have the opportunity," Wilson-Bradley says some businesses have already taken advantage of the program and others are inquiring.
Looking towards the future, Wilson-Bradley says the interest in downtown is still there because as they saw last year, many businesses filled in the shoes of those who left.
Later this year, the downtown master plan will be revamped.
