Britni Jensen stands inside Wild West Baby Co., which she opened at 3875 Tennyson St. in March. (Matt Geiger/BusinessDen)
In the midst of the Great Recession, a young Britni Jensen noticed an opportunity.
“I saw in 2008, it was the Neiman Marcus shopper who was now shopping at Nordstrom or the Nordstrom shopper maybe moved to Forever 21,” Jensen said. “The need to look good and presentable and go to parties and all of that just didn’t ever stop.
“I feel like that’s somewhat recession-proof.”
Jensen, now 40, launched Inspyre Boutique — a women’s clothing outlet — in LoHi in 2011 with “a tax return and good credit.” Since then, she’s launched two more businesses, with a combined seven stores between them. In late March, Jensen opened a new baby boutique and bought the real estate where another one of her stores is located.
“It was one thing that spoke to me. I called it Inspyre because I wanted to be inspired every day,” she said.
The Colorado native is a big believer in Tennyson Street, where she’s made three real estate purchases, each housing a different one of her boutiques. Her most recent move was a $1.05 million purchase of 4162 Tennyson in March, which houses April & West, a second business of hers started in 2020.
“April & West was started because I had been going on buying trips for nearly a decade and I would fall in love with some pieces that didn’t quite work for our Inspyre guest,” she said. “They may fall just over our $100 price cap we set for Inspyre, or simply not be the right style for our core guest.”
The March purchase also included an adjacent retail property with a pasty shop in it, along with a single-family home behind the two businesses.
Around the same time, Jensen — who recently had her third child — also opened Wild West Baby Co. at 3875 Tennyson, a 1,600-square-foot retail building she bought in January for $775,000.
“We haven’t really done any marketing. We just kind of opened the doors and we were just going to see what happened and it’s been tremendous,” Jensen said of the business, which sells children’s apparel and accessories.
Jensen’s first purchase on the street was in 2016, when the clothing entrepreneur bought the 4,000-square-foot 4170 Tennyson building for $1.41 million. It was the first commercial real estate purchase she made.
The transaction resulted from a whiskey-drinking “cowboy” that happened to be her landlord at the original LoHi location. On Christmas Eve in 2015, Jensen said he told her that he had sold the building, and she would soon have to find another place to operate.
“We were just at the whim of his mood … I didn’t want my entire future to be in someone else’s hands,” she said.
Though she had expanded to other neighborhoods by that time, LoHi was the highest-grossing location, and the heart of her business.
A decade later, Tennyson is now the “business and commercial property hub” for her in Denver, although she has locations elsewhere. Inspyre Boutique can be found at the Southwest Plaza mall in Littleton, and also has stores in Lone Tree and Cherry Creek North. About five years into running Inspyre, Jensen’s husband, Joel, quit his nine-to-five job to help assist with fledgling business.
“Right now we’re just going to develop … grow the seeds that we’ve planted. But if anything else comes available on Tennyson, I’m all ears,” Jensen said.
Since opening her first location 13 years ago, she’s seen revenue increase tenfold, reinforcing her belief in the resiliency and appetite for her businesses.
“There are certain non-negotiables in life, there are non-negotiables like everyone needs to eat — and women need to buy clothes,” she said.
Britni Jensen stands inside Wild West Baby Co., which she opened at 3875 Tennyson St. in March. (Matt Geiger/BusinessDen)
In the midst of the Great Recession, a young Britni Jensen noticed an opportunity.
“I saw in 2008, it was the Neiman Marcus shopper who was now shopping at Nordstrom or the Nordstrom shopper maybe moved to Forever 21,” Jensen said. “The need to look good and presentable and go to parties and all of that just didn’t ever stop.
“I feel like that’s somewhat recession-proof.”
Jensen, now 40, launched Inspyre Boutique — a women’s clothing outlet — in LoHi in 2011 with “a tax return and good credit.” Since then, she’s launched two more businesses, with a combined seven stores between them. In late March, Jensen opened a new baby boutique and bought the real estate where another one of her stores is located.
“It was one thing that spoke to me. I called it Inspyre because I wanted to be inspired every day,” she said.
The Colorado native is a big believer in Tennyson Street, where she’s made three real estate purchases, each housing a different one of her boutiques. Her most recent move was a $1.05 million purchase of 4162 Tennyson in March, which houses April & West, a second business of hers started in 2020.
“April & West was started because I had been going on buying trips for nearly a decade and I would fall in love with some pieces that didn’t quite work for our Inspyre guest,” she said. “They may fall just over our $100 price cap we set for Inspyre, or simply not be the right style for our core guest.”
The March purchase also included an adjacent retail property with a pasty shop in it, along with a single-family home behind the two businesses.
Around the same time, Jensen — who recently had her third child — also opened Wild West Baby Co. at 3875 Tennyson, a 1,600-square-foot retail building she bought in January for $775,000.
“We haven’t really done any marketing. We just kind of opened the doors and we were just going to see what happened and it’s been tremendous,” Jensen said of the business, which sells children’s apparel and accessories.
Jensen’s first purchase on the street was in 2016, when the clothing entrepreneur bought the 4,000-square-foot 4170 Tennyson building for $1.41 million. It was the first commercial real estate purchase she made.
The transaction resulted from a whiskey-drinking “cowboy” that happened to be her landlord at the original LoHi location. On Christmas Eve in 2015, Jensen said he told her that he had sold the building, and she would soon have to find another place to operate.
“We were just at the whim of his mood … I didn’t want my entire future to be in someone else’s hands,” she said.
Though she had expanded to other neighborhoods by that time, LoHi was the highest-grossing location, and the heart of her business.
A decade later, Tennyson is now the “business and commercial property hub” for her in Denver, although she has locations elsewhere. Inspyre Boutique can be found at the Southwest Plaza mall in Littleton, and also has stores in Lone Tree and Cherry Creek North. About five years into running Inspyre, Jensen’s husband, Joel, quit his nine-to-five job to help assist with fledgling business.
“Right now we’re just going to develop … grow the seeds that we’ve planted. But if anything else comes available on Tennyson, I’m all ears,” Jensen said.
Since opening her first location 13 years ago, she’s seen revenue increase tenfold, reinforcing her belief in the resiliency and appetite for her businesses.
“There are certain non-negotiables in life, there are non-negotiables like everyone needs to eat — and women need to buy clothes,” she said.
