Denver Trader Joe’s under way, work yet to start on Boulder store
Boulder may have been the first to land Trader Joe’s, but Denver appears to have pulled ahead in efforts to lay claim to the specialty grocer’s first store to open in Colorado.
Boulder may have been the first to land Trader Joe’s, but Denver appears to have pulled ahead in efforts to lay claim to the specialty grocer’s first store to open in Colorado.
Workers this week broke ground on the Trader Joe’s store at East Eighth Avenue and Colorado Boulevard, six months after the grocery chain confirmed its plans to open its first Denver store.
Denver native Dimitrios “Jimmy” Balafas is the co-founder and managing general partner of the Kentro Group, a Denver development company specializing in retail. Balafas had invested in retail real estate locations since 2004, but officially launched Kentro in 2009 with business partners George Balafas, his brother, and Yianni Bellis, his cousin.
Denver developer who helped land the Denver Trader Joe’s almost two years to assemble the land and get the zoning changed to allow for the popular grocer.
Denver developer Jimmy Balafas said he expects to be in a “neck-and-neck race” with Boulder to be the first to open a Trader Joe’s.
The Denver City Council has cleared the way for a Trader Joe’s to be located at the southeast corner of Colorado Boulevard and East Eighth Avenue by approving a zoning change that would allow for the wildly popular grocer.
COLFAX BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT (CBID) appointed Jimmy Balafas as a new board member.
The revitalization of Denver’s East Colfax Avenue is picking up speed — with new private and public projects under way and more to come.