Tea With Tae Closes, Next Round of Mall PopUp Applications Opens February 3

Even as the Downtown Denver Partnership opens the application process for the next round of PopUp Denver, the last business left on the 16th Street Mall from the first class of six, Tea With Tae, has closed up shop.

After being chosen for the DDP program last spring, Tea With Tae, which started online in 2020, opened a brick-and-mortar location last summer at 700 16th Street. Although two of the other businesses, Gallery 16 and Travel Posers, left after their three-month stints were up (and two never opened at all), by last fall Tea With Tae was doing well enough that owners Tae and Rod O'Dorisio talked about extending their lease through February.

Instead, citing safety issues and a lack of foot traffic, they closed at the end of December. "We couldn’t justify the amount of staff we needed to have on premises for security purposes," Tae says, adding that the amount of business wouldn't come close to covering that extra staffing. And although sales were better as the holiday season approached, shoppers disappeared when there were no events downtown.

And then there's the ongoing construction project along the mall, which is set to reach the former Tea With Tae location this month. "We looked at the numbers, and the cafe was the worst-performing location out of everything," Tae says. "It didn’t seem like a place we’d want to continue to invest money; the determining factor was the construction."

Sarah Wiebenson, the partnership's senior manager for economic development, acknowledges that construction has impacted businesses, but says that the DDP doesn't want to leave storefronts vacant during construction. "We’re working every day on a number of different fronts to bring more people back downtown," Wiebenson says. To encourage some ventures to stay, the DDP is making stabilization and mitigation grants available to small businesses to counter losses stemming from construction obstacles.

Ryan Ertman, DDP director of safety and security, notes that the organization is working with the city on a program that kicked off in November called Together We Will. That campaign uses people and resources from the Denver Office of Transportation & Infrastructure, the Support Team Assisted Response Program, the Denver Fire Department and more to help with safety downtown.

"The Together We Will campaign, when it comes to the general security of the area and how we’re trying to help any business, is just some extra resources downtown," Ertman says. "When I speak of resources, I talk of groups, specialized units, and people who have specialized skills and knowledge."

Employees from the Department of Public Health & Environment, for example, are working to help businesses keep their alleyways clean in order to prevent waste buildup and rodent infestation.

The Downtown Denver Partnership is keeping all of the challenges in mind as it plans for the next round of pop-ups, and wants to work with the chosen businesses to make them more secure. "With that assessment, we’ll be able to look at the floor plans that they’re proposing and think about sightlines and crime prevention through environmental design," Wiebenson says. "That's really a great tool for the public realm, but also within a store."

Tea With Tae, for example, had no sightline from the cash register to the front door, making it difficult for  employees to see who was coming in and out, as well as what was going on outside. Or inside, for that matter: At one point, someone defecated right outside the shop's restroom.

The DDP will also put more of the PopUp program budget into lighting and cameras to make sure the businesses are as secure as possible.

The application process for the next round of pop-ups will open February 3 and remain open through March 3; the winning applicants will be announced in early April. Round two has two tracks for local retail entrepreneurs: Maker Track (designers and producers of retail goods) and Explorer Track (experienced storefront business operators).

"Selected Maker applicants will be given an opportunity to feature their products and their company in a professionally managed retail collective at Republic Plaza (303 16th Street Mall) presented by Wells Fargo," the website notes. "The Makers will be invited to participate in monthly workshops with Wells Fargo on business planning; capitalizing growth; and other topics to help develop their business model."

The selected Explorer applicants, on the other hand, "will be given an opportunity to open a storefront on the 16th Street Mall, supported by a $20,000 package of tenant improvement funding and vendor services, including: architectural/engineering; interior design and permitting; digital marketing; safety/security; and peer mentoring. The PopUp Denver storefront operators are provided with a space for a minimum of six months and will not be required to pay base rent, just operating expenses (e.g. utilities, common area maintenance fees, trash fees)."

By dividing the group and providing more specific services, the partnership hopes to make it possible for the next class of pop-ups to not only survive, but thrive.

"I think what DDP is trying to do down there is a really great thought," Tae says. "It’s hard for a small business that’s not extremely capitalized."