That’s what Bianca Fisher remembers about downtown Greeley when she enrolled at the University of Northern Colorado in 2005.

“At first I didn’t  even know there was a downtown,” she said. “It was tough. A lot of vacant storefronts. No new construction or development. Sleepy. Quiet. Eighth Avenue didn’t have much other than mechanics and tire shops. There wasn’t a lot of vibrancy whatsoever.”

What downtown economy there was, Fisher said, was “kind of a revolving door. Businesses would come, and they’d go just as fast.”

Old, timeworn and once bathed in the pungent aroma of nearby feedlots, Greeley’s reputation for oilfields and agriculture steered dynamic growth along the Front Range urban corridor largely west of Interstate 25 instead of toward the Weld County seat — a town that a century ago was the sweet spot of the nation’s sugar-beet industry and manufactured one-fourth of all sugar sold and consumed in the United States.

Few expected much out of downtown.

But much as our corn-husking neighbor state to the northeast is capitalizing on the perception of low expectations with its “Nebraska: It’s Not for Everyone” tourism campaign, Greeley boosters in 2012 decided that the slogan “Greeley Unexpected” might just be the key to fanning some hopeful embers of hope into flames of excitement and variety.

It worked. Greeley residents started bragging about things their city could offer, and nowhere were the signs of rousing from slumber more evident than downtown.

Fisher may have burst into tears when she first crossed the city limits, she told BizWest in a 2018 interview, “but soon after that, I was in. The community here is just so rich. There’s no air of pretension. There’s just something about this place.”

Art and live music blossomed. Craft breweries sprang up. Major investment in hotels and upper-scale residential buildings followed, spurred by an influx of people who wanted to live close to the building excitement.

Expectation turned into celebration — and anticipation.

And Fisher took on the job of helping expectations become reality.

She joined the Downtown Development Authority as an administrative assistant in April 2009, two months after Patrick’s Irish Pub opened at 909 Eighth Ave. “I think Patrick’s was really the start of it,” she said.

Suddenly, unexpected things began happening.

“There were ‘I am Downtown Greeley’ posters that started popping up in vacant windows,” she said. An Art Master Plan was developed that year, guided by an Art Master Plan that guided and supported the integration of art that contributed to Greeley’s identity.

Fisher said the biggest jolt of electricity to revive downtown happened in 2011, when a “Friday Fest” that had been held just four times a summer on a closed-to-traffic Ninth Street Plaza became a regular event, and the next season, the city created the state’s first New Orleans-style “common consumption area” where consumers can order an alcoholic drink in a “go cup” on Friday nights and then walk around with it. As a result, participating bars were no longer limited by seating capacity, and what developed was a free music festival.

“Currently we average around 22,000 people for the Friday Fest season, every Friday from the start of May through mid-September,” Fisher said.

The Greeley Creative District, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, was founded in 2012 to enhance the city’s creative identity and spark economic vitality. 

Besides the live music pouring out of taverns and eateries, downtown’s growing reputation as an entertainment mecca led to the opening of the Moxi Theater in 2013 and The Kress Cinema & Lounge five years later.

But Fisher likes to point out something special about the Moxi:

Remember how she said businesses used to come and go in the sleepy downtown of two decades ago? The Moxi is one of five businesses — along with 60+ Ride, the Bear Country Saloon, The Nerd Store and Art Werx Studio and Gallery — that opened in 2013 that are still open today. In fact, 110 businesses that opened downtown since 2013 remain alive and well.

The sudden renaissance of downtown Greeley left some business owners and residents alike in disbelief at first, Fisher said, but “now, people come from long distances” because the area is defying expectations.

To get it all off to a dynamic start, Fisher and the DDA had to battle “a lot of stigmas about downtown being unsafe, crime-ridden, full of gangs.

“We had to start correcting those misconceptions,” she said, “and show that downtown is just as safe as anywhere else in the city. It was a lot to combat — but people started taking the risk.”

By 2015, Bob Tointon, a Greeley business icon and downtown booster, was noting in BizWest that some projects downtown  remained a struggle, but there was a growing confidence evident in officials and civic leaders.

That rising tide also lifted Fisher’s career at the DDA — from project coordinator to associate director and finally to executive director in January 2019.

By then, she and her husband, Neil, had bought three downtown buildings to keep their WeldWerks brewery in downtown Greeley with much-needed room to grow. That helped Eighth Avenue come alive as well, with streetscape improvements such as new medians and landscaping, plus investments in redevelopment by the Richardson family.

The Richardsons, the family behind developer Richmark Cos., at one point a few years ago pumped more than $5 million into the Eighth Avenue corridor in the span of eight months.

Further spurred by a boom in the energy sector, downtown began to draw investment by the municipal government in a new $10.6 million city hall and by the private sector in hotels and event spaces.

New arrivals this year include The Learning Source, Vale Snacks, Pinocchio’s Greeley, Early Birds, Pure Happiness CBD and the Crosswinds Paranormal Research and Development Society, ICON Barbershop, Peak Kitchen in the State Armory Building, Goal High School, and — on June 9 — Makers Mercantile and Studio.

“We’re fortunate to have so many experience-oriented businesses,” Fisher said, “We’ve built public facilities and the library and we’re finally getting new residential projects” such as the $50.6 million Maddie Apartments, 55+ Resort Apartments and a proposed $71 million, 194-unit residential building at 1024 Eighth Ave. that for decades was the site of Gallery Furniture — the single largest capital investment project to date in downtown Greeley.

“But we’re also fortunate to have so many experience-oriented businesses. It’s kind of a neat story of so many private-sector partners, and we’re fortunate that they’re largely local ownership. Greeley did it the right way.”

Major capital investments during the past 10 years have included the $44.3 million DoubleTree Hotel, the $21.4 million City Center South complex, and a major point of pride, the $28 million LINC, the High Plains Library District’s Library Innovation Center, which opened this year at a site once occupied by offices of the Greeley Tribune.

Some of the 55-block downtown area’s biggest projects got a boost from the DDA through tax-increment financing, and in April it asked the city council to reauthorize it for 20 more years beyond its otherwise sunset date, as well as funding mechanisms so it can complete the work envisioned in the 2032 Downtown Strategic Plan.

A new report from Denver-based consulting firm Progressive Urban Management Associates, or PUMA, told the city council early this year that downtown represents just 1% of the city and 3% of the city’s assessed value but that each downtown acre generates “three times more value than citywide land.”

Among the report’s findings were that the housing market and demand in the downtown “remains robust,” downtown’s industrial sector offers “a differential advantage” from other downtowns and that the low cost of office space makes it easier for entrepreneurs to locate there. Among other initiatives, it called for stimulating in-fill development, encouraging vibrant storefronts, diversifying housing, attracting more primary employers and luring a major grocer.

Perhaps the pivotal coming-of-age moment for downtown revitalization came in 2021 when artists painted a new mural on the Ninth Street Plaza to replace one that trumpeted the “Greeley Unexpected” theme.

It just goes to show that excitement and vitality in downtown Greeley is no longer “unexpected.” Now, downtown simply can’t wait to see what comes next.

But it is the restaurant, which many of us Anglos may not know about, that drives Samual Diaz here earlier in the day than most of us ever see, a schedule he has been keeping the last 20 years.

“My dad gets here at 4 a.m. to cook the menudo (a tripe-based soup that takes four to five hours to cook) the carnitas (slow-cooked pulled pork), rice and everything else we cook fresh daily,” said Ariany Diaz, revealing that her father  been doing this for two more years than she has been alive.

There’s not a lot of English spoken here, but the restaurant portions and delectable aromas speak for themselves.

And this piece of Mexico situated in downtown Greeley seems likely to continue as such for quite a while. Ariany will attend the University of Northern Colorado in the fall. She is majoring in business administration, with a goal of helping run the restaurant well into the future.

“My older brother (an engineer) and sister (a dental hygienist) want to work in business too,” she confides. Most of the customers here must hope that this is the case.

“Lots of them say it feels like they are back at home (in Mexico),” she said. “I love that part of it; it feels good to be able to help people in this way.”

Judging by the fact the restaurant appears busy with customers from early in the morning to late in the afternoon, a lot of Spanish-speaking clients are feeling good about being there. The happy banter seems to need no translation.

Meanwhile at the Fiesta Mansion, formerly the Masonic Lodge, lunch is being prepared for hundreds of Guatemalan immigrants attending a Sala Evangelica church service and conference that has drawn attendees from all over the nation. The service is being broadcast out on the streets and parking lots, where a group of women in their native country’s dress busy themselves cooking a feast for the hundreds inside, including roasting tomatoes for the freshly made sauce.

Most are quite shy, and won’t let pictures be taken, but Ashley Rosales tells a reporter that they have been out here for hours getting the meal going. When the service lets out later in the afternoon, every one of the attendees seems to head straight for the food.

Mexican and Latino culture long have influenced downtown, with Mexican restaurants such as Herradura Mexican Restaurant at 1330 Eighth Ave., La Fiesta Express at 901 16th St. and others. Mexican cuisine also has influenced favorites such as Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant at 825 Ninth St. and Luna’s Tacos and Tequila at 806 Ninth St.

But how many local downtowns feature a Salvadorian restaurant? Pupuseria Y Restaurante Salvadoreño fills the bill in downtown Greeley, and even after the lunch rush, it still appears to be filling seats. The restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, with rather unusual hours of 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Torasa Carpio will have owned the restaurant for four years in August, having stopped by then and finding out the owner was looking to sell. Luckily for Carpio, who was previously in the bail-bonds business and knew little about restauranting, she was able to keep two of the cooks from the original crew.

“At first it was really hard,” she said. “Luckily, the girls here knew how to make everything from scratch,” as well as how to find natural ingredients nearby.

Ten or 15 years ago, “coming downtown wasn’t really part of a young person’s vernacular,” said Brian Seifried, whose Centennial Hospitality Group, the parent company behind culinary concepts such as Wing Shack, Sexy Sammies and Luna’s Tacos, is active in the Greeley restaurant and entertainment scene. “There were a lot of shuttered businesses and just not as much going on. It’s really been neat over the last few years to watch things grow and change, and now there are a lot more options” for those looking for a night out.

“There’s just so much momentum” in terms of new activities for downtown residents and visitors to check out, from indoor rock climbing to line-dancing to yoga, Christine Kutil said. Kutil is the director of operations for Richmark Cos., whose residential project, The Maddie, has helped spur Greeley’s downtown renaissance. 

“We needed something nice and new that can attract a different population to our downtown,” Greeley Downtown Development Authority executive director Bianca Fisher said.

If The Maddie served that function for downtown’s residential market, the Moxi Theater has played a similar role in the arts-and-entertainment space.

“As a college town, live music is an important thing for the community to have,” Moxi founder and president of concert promotion company BandWagon Presents Ely Corliss said. “And what better neighborhood to have (a premier concert venue) than downtown?”

The Moxi Theater is celebrating a decade in business this year, “and over those 10 years, we’ve seen change a lot,” Corliss said. Most of that change has been positive, despite a challenging period during the COVID-19 pandemic “when we lost some of our neighbors” to business closure or relocation. “There’s been an ongoing renaissance in downtown over the past decade. The area’s starting to experience another rebirth after the pandemic.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Corliss opened Stella’s Pinball Arcade & Lounge in a space below the Moxi Theater

“That’s been a hot addition to the block,” he said, especially because Stella’s added a standup comedy showcase on Thursdays

“There’s the potential for that scene to take off” in downtown Greeley, Corlyss said, “Stand-up comedy is a true American art form that’s really having a rebirth. It’s a really cool form of live entertainment and a great alternative to live music. We’re trying to be the kind of quality stuff you see at Comedy Works in downtown Denver, that big city quality, to Greeley”

While The Moxi and Stella’s might be where downtown Greeley residents go to see national touring acts, Friday Fest is the neighborhood’s opportunity to showcase local and regional talent. 

“Friday Fest is awesome,” Corlyss said. “During the summer, it feels like a celebration of the beautiful weather we have here in Colorado.”

While many of downtown Greeley’s visitors are locals, the city is beginning to see itself a regional draw. 

“Greeley is proving to be a great destination for people all over the Front Range,” Corliss said. “Certainly, that’s what we’re seeing with the theater. We’re attracting folks from all over the region to buy tickets here.”

Part of the appeal of the downtown entertainment scene, Seifried said, is that it feels unique because so many of the players are local, small businesses.

“A lot of our surrounding areas seem to have become collections of national tenants and nations brands,” he said. “There’s nothing really wrong with that, but they don’t represent the culture or energy or creativity that downtown Greeley does.”

Greeley’s downtown cultural scene benefits from its proximity to the University of Northern Colorado, with its young, energetic and creative student body, but for too long, experts say, the school and neighborhood were often viewed as existing in separate silos. That’s begun to change.

“I think there’s a stronger connection than ever between UNC, the students and faculty, and downtown,” Seifried said. 

In addition to a strong commitment to community unity from UNC president Andy Feinstein, the deeper town-gown connection is driven in part by new residential offerings that appeal to students, staff and recent graduates, Seifried said. Richmark Cos.’ The Maddie apartment project, which helped convince businesses such as Natural Grocers to open downtown, “has really connected the campus and the downtown core,” and the distance between the heart of campus and the center of downtown now “feels shorter and shorter.”

The arts and cultural scene in Greeley benefits from the presence of young creative people associated with the university, and a “fun and energetic and progressive” downtown helps UNC reach “its goals of attracting and retaining students,” Seifried said. 

It’s not all young professionals and recent University of Northern Colorado graduates who are driving the entertainment and cultural renaissance in the center of town. Greeley has long been home to a sizable and active Latino community, which continues to provide flavor and energy to the downtown area. 

“There are so many fun Mexican and Latin American businesses and restaurants that are part of the downtown community,” Seifried said. “If you go up Ninth Street, there are some fantastic authentic spots … There’s just a lot more diversity in terms of the offerings than there ever has been downtown.”

Part of downtown’s momentum is due to the relative cost of business and groups like the DDA that can help businesses navigate through bureaucratic red tape. 

“Greeley is a lot more approachable than some of our neighboring communities in Northern Colorado and Dever” in terms of the cost of opening an entertainment business, Seifried said.

Corliss agreed and said, “I’m certainly a proponent of any removal of barriers to entry. To Greeley’s credit, (the city government and groups such as the DDA) have been very supportive.”

Greeley’s downtown entertainment evolution shows no sign of slowing down.

“I think in the next decade, we’re going to see two times” the growth and energizing activity downtown, Corliss said. “We’re finally catching on.”

If you’re launching a brewery, why pick the Weld County town over some of the more-established brewing meccas along the Front Range such as Fort Collins, Boulder or Denver?

“… No one considered Greeley to really be part of the Colorado beer scene,” Popcheff said. “But it’s been so long since we got that question because people are starting to recognize it as a destination, which is really awesome.”

WeldWerks, which is consistently ranked by respected beer publications as one of the nation’s best breweries and has spent nearly a decade growing its distribution well beyond its Northern Colorado hometown, is the face of the Greeley brewing scene, but by no means it is the only player. In downtown, the city’s burgeoning brewing and distilling ecosystem includes businesses such as TightKnit Brewing Co., Wiley Roots Brewing Co., 477 Distilling and Syntax Distillery and Cocktail Bar. 

And Yetters Brewing Co. soon will reopen at 1013 Ninth Ave., after rebranding under new ownership from its original name of Green Earth Brewing Co. late last year.

“Being downtown has been part and parcel of who we are since the beginning,” Popcheff said, and the energy of the district — which in recent years has “been revamped and grown” — helps keep brewers’ creative juices flowing and drinkers filling seats at taprooms.

In fact, downtown brewers don’t merely cohabitate, they collaborate. 

“We have a really great relationship with (the operators of TightKnit). We actually have a collab beer coming out with them soon,” Popcheff said. “They’re just making phenomenal beer.” 

In recent years, the Greeley brewing scene has evolved to the point that individual breweries are staking claim to certain niches within the industry. 

WeldWerks made a name for itself in the realm of hazy IPAs, while at Wiley Roots, “they specialize in sours and slushies,” Greeley city social media specialist Becca Vaclavik said. 

Beers made by Wiley Root and Greeley’s other producers frequently make short journeys from brewery to behind the bars of downtown’s many watering holes.

“One of my favorite things is that we have a really awesome adult-beverage scene,” Vaclavik said. “… There are a dozen places to go and drink and try out recipes you can’t get anywhere else.”

“The styles go anywhere from semi-realistic to totally abstract,” said Kim Snyder, public art coordinator of Culture, Parks and Recreation and Public Art for the city of Greeley. “There are different colors, some rusted metal, some pink, white and blue bunnies. Some of them are very witty with the titles, and it reflects what the tree is.”

The Uptown Trees are part of the Greeley Public Art Program started in 1993, an effort by the city and its partners to bring art to the city’s parks, streets and downtown through One Percent for Art. That program sets aside 1% of the cost of new public capital improvement projects to acquire, maintain and commission art. 

Public Art initially served as a way for the city to judge and accept donated art and now consists of 350 works of rotating indoor and more than 160 pieces of outdoor art.

“The art grows with the city. People don’t pay for art when times are hard,” Snyder said.

Snyder came up with the idea for the Uptown Trees program when she visited San Diego and saw that the public art commission there placed Urban Trees in planters along the bay. With the commission’s permission, the city named its program Uptown Trees, launching it in 2014.

The city commissioned 10 regional artists to design and create sculptural trees, which were installed in 2014, but now places five to eight trees a year most years, with three trees being added this year.

One of the sculptural trees is “Bird Watching” by Colette Pitcher of Greeley, owner of the Showcase Art Center and a sculptor, painter and author. The tree is a pyramid shape with steel birds on it that represent Northern Colorado bird species and, at the planter base, a bronze cat gazing up at the birds. 

“People drive that area to see the trees. It’s an attraction,” Pitcher said. “It beautifies the city. It gives people something to think about. It challenges our minds and it educates. Besides that, it looks really nice.”

So far, the city installed 31 sculptural trees from 10th to 17th streets along Eighth Avenue with the support of the Greeley Downtown Development Authority; the DDA also purchased the planters for the trees, plus plants flowers every spring. The three trees that will be added this fall include two on Eighth Avenue and the third at the new LINC, Library Innovation Center, at 501 Eighth Ave. 

The sculpted trees are required to be 10 to 20 feet high, be able to withstand Colorado’s weather conditions and consist primarily of metal, but also of stone, ceramics and heavy-duty plastic. The majority of the trees were put in place when Eighth Avenue was under construction, and now placements are coordinated with new construction projects or if an existing tree sculpture needs to be replaced due to wear and tear. 

Initially, the city paid $10,000 per sculptured tree to cover artist and material costs but has since raised that amount to $15,000 due to inflation. At first, the artists were regional, but now the call is nationwide through CaFÉ, a call for artist entries.

“It’s rather low-budget to allow new artists to get their foot in the door,” Snyder said. “With the lower budget, we don’t intend for them to last for 10 years.”

The city also has a Sculpture on Loan Program that as of this year will conclude with permanent art downtown. The art loan program was launched in 1998 to place art on pedestals in the city’s parks on a rotating basis, created by regional and now national artists. The program was relocated to downtown in collaboration with the DDA 10 to 12 years ago when the parks began obtaining more pieces of permanent art as part of the city’s outdoor collection.

“The Sculpture on Loan Program is the most affordable way to start … it gives you a lot of different pieces for a small amount of money,” Snyder said.

The downtown art is displayed on 10 pedestals and initially was rotated every year, but over the past five years, one to two pieces started becoming part of a permanent collection. The last piece was purchased in January.

“The DDA may approve the work to see if it meets the image it wants downtown,” Snyder said.

The city has a 12-member Greeley Art Commission board, consisting of DDA members and other stakeholders, that oversees the Public Art Program and approves the art that the city borrows or purchases.

The DDA provides additional art for the city through the Downtown Greeley Art Alley program that turned the alley between the Eighth and Ninth street historic plazas into an inviting, pleasant space. Previously, the alley was unappealing and unsafe, with dumpsters and poor lighting, but with murals and festoon lights has been reclaimed into a destination.

The Art Alley program, which was launched in 2014, consists of 13 murals along the backs of businesses in different mediums and styles from abstract to realism. The art follows the theme of music, since live music is provided downtown, and is created primarily by local artists.

“Art and lighting changed the nature of the space,” said Bianca Fisher, executive director of the DDA. “What it creates is an intentional art gallery. … It’s still a functional alley with dumpsters and smells. This element of art and beauty created a destination.”

The bulk of the Alley Art was created in 2014 to 2016 with a couple of pieces added in 2017 and again in 2020. Now, the pieces are repaired and replaced as needed.

“It created an invitation to want to walk through it as opposed to wanting to avoid it,” Fisher said. “It gave people cause to enjoy the alley as opposed to enduring it.”

The murals and art in downtown Greeley also reflect downtown being a state-certified creative district, Fisher said.

“It’s celebrating the rich culture of art and creativity in our region, and it’s becoming a destination,” Fisher said. “It’s something really unique, something our community really values. It definitely has economic benefits as well.”