Brett Murphy sits outside the building he purchased last week, which was formerly the GraceFull Cafe. (Matt Geiger/BusinessDen)
Brett Murphy just bought a house in downtown Littleton, but he’s not moving in.
“I could see someone opening up shop in 90 days,” he said.
Murphy and his father purchased a 1,300-square-foot building at 5610 S. Curtice St. for $735,000. The property is just off Main Street, where he’s in the midst of a $6.5 million redevelopment of an old vacant property into 11 new retail spaces.
The house was sold by Heather and Troy Greenwood, who ran the GraceFull Cafe inside it for nine years before closing in February.
The cafe left everything behind, from its stove and prep counter to pots, pans and even oil. Murphy said he hasn’t even listed it yet but has gotten a ton of interest. Three businesses sent him a letter of intent to lease the space just from him posting about the acquisition on LinkedIn.
“It’s a great size for someone where you can do something special, but it’s not so big that the overhead’s killing you,” said Murphy, 39.
The home was built in 1912, public records show. It was later converted to a teahouse before the Greenwoods bought the space in 2015 for $445,000, opening the cafe a year later. The business used a pay-what-you-can model and was partnered with a nonprofit affiliate. Its owners decked out the interior with a wood floor from an old Colorado School of Mines basketball court.
Inside the kitchen of the building, which has a window accessible to a 10-spot parking lot. (Matt Geiger/BusinessDen)
“Heather knew that I care about the community, and I’m trying to promote small businesses and bring a really good energy and vibe to the area. And so when I sat down with her to see if I could buy it, we were just able to kind of meet on mutual goals,” Murphy said.
Murphy is a Colorado native and graduate of the University of Northern Colorado, cutting his teeth in the brokerage world before slowly transitioning into redevelopment projects. He lives in Greenwood Village and enjoys the challenge of making old buildings new again.
But rigid building regulations have made it difficult for him.
His adaptive reuse project at 2600 W. Main St. in Littleton will likely take almost five years to complete from acquisition to open storefronts. There, the real estate pro is turning a 115-year-old building into 11 new retail spaces, seven of which have already been leased.
He praised Littleton officials for their help through the process, but said they’re held captive by an arcane permitting system, prevalent in all municipalities, that favors the standardized process of ground-up development over projects like his, Murphy said.
“Because when you start taking apart a wall and you’re like – holy s*** – this is gonna fall over, you can’t wait two weeks or three weeks or two months for someone to tell you: Yes, we can put a steel beam up now.”
So, what should be the cheaper option of preserving the building winds up being more expensive in the end, hurting the small businesses that would have benefited from a discounted rent in a space with character.
“The uncertainty of an adaptive reuse makes everybody nervous, except for the creative person who’s excited about it,” Murphy said.
Brett Murphy sits outside the building he purchased last week, which was formerly the GraceFull Cafe. (Matt Geiger/BusinessDen)
Brett Murphy just bought a house in downtown Littleton, but he’s not moving in.
“I could see someone opening up shop in 90 days,” he said.
Murphy and his father purchased a 1,300-square-foot building at 5610 S. Curtice St. for $735,000. The property is just off Main Street, where he’s in the midst of a $6.5 million redevelopment of an old vacant property into 11 new retail spaces.
The house was sold by Heather and Troy Greenwood, who ran the GraceFull Cafe inside it for nine years before closing in February.
The cafe left everything behind, from its stove and prep counter to pots, pans and even oil. Murphy said he hasn’t even listed it yet but has gotten a ton of interest. Three businesses sent him a letter of intent to lease the space just from him posting about the acquisition on LinkedIn.
“It’s a great size for someone where you can do something special, but it’s not so big that the overhead’s killing you,” said Murphy, 39.
The home was built in 1912, public records show. It was later converted to a teahouse before the Greenwoods bought the space in 2015 for $445,000, opening the cafe a year later. The business used a pay-what-you-can model and was partnered with a nonprofit affiliate. Its owners decked out the interior with a wood floor from an old Colorado School of Mines basketball court.
Inside the kitchen of the building, which has a window accessible to a 10-spot parking lot. (Matt Geiger/BusinessDen)
“Heather knew that I care about the community, and I’m trying to promote small businesses and bring a really good energy and vibe to the area. And so when I sat down with her to see if I could buy it, we were just able to kind of meet on mutual goals,” Murphy said.
Murphy is a Colorado native and graduate of the University of Northern Colorado, cutting his teeth in the brokerage world before slowly transitioning into redevelopment projects. He lives in Greenwood Village and enjoys the challenge of making old buildings new again.
But rigid building regulations have made it difficult for him.
His adaptive reuse project at 2600 W. Main St. in Littleton will likely take almost five years to complete from acquisition to open storefronts. There, the real estate pro is turning a 115-year-old building into 11 new retail spaces, seven of which have already been leased.
He praised Littleton officials for their help through the process, but said they’re held captive by an arcane permitting system, prevalent in all municipalities, that favors the standardized process of ground-up development over projects like his, Murphy said.
“Because when you start taking apart a wall and you’re like – holy s*** – this is gonna fall over, you can’t wait two weeks or three weeks or two months for someone to tell you: Yes, we can put a steel beam up now.”
So, what should be the cheaper option of preserving the building winds up being more expensive in the end, hurting the small businesses that would have benefited from a discounted rent in a space with character.
“The uncertainty of an adaptive reuse makes everybody nervous, except for the creative person who’s excited about it,” Murphy said.
