Outdoor retailer Rab proceeding with Platte Street move as litigation ends

Rab will move to this building along Platte Street in Denver, taking a unit formerly home to Carbon Cafe. (Thomas Gounley/BusinessDen)

Outdoor retailer Rab will move its Denver store across the street after ending a lawsuit it filed last year.

The retailer’s lawsuit against North Carolina-based Asana Partners, which owns the unit where Rab will move, was dismissed this month at the request of both parties.

Rab opened a store at 1550 Platte St. in 2015. In December 2023, it signed a lease for a larger space owned by Asana at 1551 Platte St., where Carbon Cafe formerly operated.

Some work needed to be done to the space before Rab could move in. The retailer sued Asana last November, saying Asana was taking too long to get the space ready. 

Rab said it had banked on being open at 1551 Platte during the “fall, winter and holiday seasons so vital to its financial well-being.” It asked a judge to declare the lease void.

Asana responded to the lawsuit and countersued in December. The landlord, which bought its Platte Street holdings in 2023 for $39.75 million, noted that it needed city approval to do the work in the space and said the lease it signed with Rab didn’t establish a deadline for completion.

A 2015 shot inside Rab’s Denver store. (BusinessDen file)

Asana said it received the final permit needed for its work on Nov. 13, the same day Rab filed its lawsuit.

Asana said in the countersuit that it told Rab on Dec. 11 that the unit was ready for the company, and a Rab attorney responded a week later saying the retailer was not accepting delivery of the premises.

But both parties filed to dismiss the case Feb. 7.

Debbie Read​​​​, a spokeswoman for Rab’s U.K. parent company Equip Outdoor Technologies, told BusinessDen in an email that Rab expects to open at 1551 Platte St. this spring.

“I can confirm that after an initial misunderstanding, which has now been resolved, we are delighted to be moving forward with Asana,” Read said. “We are eager to work together and build on our positive relationship with the company.”

“Rab is an outstanding partner and will continue to be an important anchor to the dynamic retailer lineup on the street,” Asana executive Morgan Sowell said in a separate statement.

Attorney Andrew Toft of Greenwood Village’s Hoffman Nies Dave & Meyer represented Rab in the litigation. David Laird of Fennemore Craig represented Asana, which also owns Larimer Square.

Platte Street is something of a local hub for outdoor retailers. REI’s Denver flagship store is there, as is Wilderness Exchange, which recently added a Black Diamond “store within a store.”