The downtown Colorado Springs burger restaurant, Skirted Heifer, on North Tejon Street, has temporarily closed its doors after a car crashed into its storefront in early February causing serious damage to the building. It’s the latest in a string of unrelated incidents that have negatively impacted some downtown businesses.
In October, an underground explosion shut down parts of Kiowa Sreet, limiting access to some businesses there. Several months later a fire displaced several businesses on Bijou Street. Taste of Jerusalem, Yobel, The Local Honey Collective and Icons have all had their leases terminated as the building works to repair damage from the fire.
Susan Edmondson runs the Colorado Springs Downtown Partnership, which supports economic development in the downtown district. She said that other than the pandemic, she can’t remember a bout of bad luck like this one.
“I cannot recall a series of so many totally unrelated but unfortunate types of activities occurring all within a couple months of each other,” Edmondson said. “It certainly is unusual.”
But Edmondson said the incidents haven’t had a large overall economic impact on downtown business.
“We have hundreds, a couple hundred storefront businesses,” Edmondson said. “So it’s been a very serious impact, obviously, on these number of businesses that have had these just really unfortunate circumstances come up.”
Among affected businesses, several have started fundraising to help recoup costs. The Skirted Heifer has started a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for employees who are currently out of work. Icons, affected by the fire on Bijou, has started to fundraise to support its plan to reopen in a new location. And Taste of Jerusalem is also fundraising to help cover reopening costs.
It's unclear when individual businesses will reopen.
The Downtown Partnership is a financial supporter of KRCC. Financial supporters have no editorial influence.
