If you were going to start a business in Denver, what areas you recommend?
5 Answers
If you're interested in cooking Denver has awesome Gourmet Food Trucks. These are not the food coaches of yesterday.
If I was to open a new business I would try to be in a small trendy area like the Highlands. Although it all depends on the type of business.
Manufacture Carbon Monoxide detectors. Now that all homes that are sold in the state are required to have one.
Anywhere with a fair amount of foot traffic. Denver has historically been a car town, but with more walking areas like Belmar, Southglenn, Lowry etc., that's changing. There are also central walking areas in many suburbs and neighborhoods, like downtown Littleton, Arvada, the Highlands, Berkeley, etc.
If you're just starting out I would suggest one of those kiosk types of shops somewhere along 16th Street Mall downtown. You'll find the cost is much less than traditional rent for a shop and the mall gets over 50,000 people a day in traffic. It's a great way to see if your idea will take off without having to invest thousands upon thousands of dollars right away. They run about $1,000 a month to start and I've heard there is some other type of fee paid to the city of around $150 a month, so this can be a great way to test the waters, so to speak.
I know in 2011 they installed seven more kiosks between Stout Street and Welton Street because this idea is so popular with budding businesses.