In Fort Collins, Small-Box Mercantile is the Latest in One-Stop Shopping

Along with a rebound in brick-and-mortars, Fort Collins is experiencing an interesting small biz trend as local owners band together to deliver a mercantile shopping experience opposite the big-box variety.

2020 wasn’t exactly the ideal year to takeover Bloom Floral Boutique, but if there was a bright side to doing business during a pandemic, it was the sweetheart deal Brenna Free-stone-Gilbert secured on a 1,100-square-footretail space at 153 North College Ave., in Old Town’s coveted downtown shopping district.

To save money, and fill out a large floorplan, Freestone-Gilbert shared the new digs with her husband, Caleb Gilbert, who owns the comic book shop Beeda’s Thingamajigits. The concept worked in the beginning, but the two stores couldn’t make ends meet when the market readjusted and their retail landlord raised rates.

“The rent increase was too much to handle, but I didn’t want to leave the space since we’d started to build a name for ourselves,” Freestone-Gilbert explains.

Bloom had always been a “funky mish-mash,” as Freestone-Gilbert puts it. It wasn’t such a stretch, then, to bring in two additional businesses in 2023. Mystic Moon Bakery and Blendings Winery at The Hillside Vineyard added cupcakes and wine service to the mix when they moved in last August.

Fort Collins’ downtown business owners have always formed a “tightknit community,” explains Katy Schneider, vice president of marketing at Visit Fort Collins. While there hasn’t been any official facilitation for shared spaces such as Freestone-Gilbert’s, Schneider imagines many to be happenstance ideas turned into reality.

Whatever its origin, a rising tide benefits all. A customer might drop in for a flower arrangement, then buy a graphic novel and read a few pages in the boho-chic community space while enjoying a glass of wine or sweet treat. That’s the tip of the iceberg: Bloom store owners are also finding opportunities to collaborate on workshops, classes, etc.

Most of FoCo’s combined businesses are located in Historic Downtown, where Bean Cycle Roasters was the first to test a collaborative mercantile model in the early 2000s while housing a used bookstore. Gearing up for its 20th anniversary this summer, Bean Cycle currently shares its bike-themed space with a handmade retail shop, Makerfolk, as well as Half Crown Creative, an artist-in-residency program with exhibition space.

“With these big Old Town spaces, you can’t really afford to pay the rent with one space anymore,” says Ryan Foley, a co-owner of Bean Cycle. For small business owners interested in sharing a roof, Freestone-Gilbert says the first step is meeting with your local zoning board.

Attesting to Northern Colorado’s appetite (pun acknowledged) for retail activity, Longmont’s first-ever food hall opens in May. Parkway Food Hall will feature eight dining concepts along with three retail stores plus an indoor/outdoor bar, large patio and event space. While Denver has one of the highest rates of food halls in the country, Longmont has been left out of the equation — until now.