Small business owners along Colfax Avenue are concerned for their futures as construction keeps customers away from their stores.
DENVER — The Colfax Bus Rapid Transit project (BRT) is underway along East Colfax Avenue. Once complete, the project aims to reduce travel time and provide more reliable access to shops and restaurants. However, small businesses along the route aren’t sure they’ll last until its scheduled completion in 2027.
Jimmy “Zez” Shores is the owner of Sincerely Tattoo on East Colfax. He’s also one of the founding members of the East Colfax Community Collective. He shared that he, alongside other business owners, began the group in response to concerns they saw with the BRT project.
“We went to some of the meetings five or six years ago and we saw that the plan that had been made 20 years ago didn’t include any subsidies for small businesses to stay in place,” Shores said. “We started trying to figure that …