Two Months After a Car Crash Damaged Its Building, Chula on Broadway Remains Closed

On January 12, Myrna Soltero Diaz introduced her updated Mexican eatery at 3866 South Broadway in Englewood. The location was formerly an outpost of 4G's, but following a 2020 divorce from her husband, who still owns the 4G's outposts in Littleton and on South Federal Boulevard, she decided to rebrand.

But just a week after debuting Chula, named for her beloved late dog, something unexpected happened.

Soltero Diaz thought the initial shock from learning a driver had crashed his car through her restaurant on January 18 would be the worst of it. But the last two months have brought a different type of turmoil — the bureaucratic kind.

Because the accident happened during freezing weather, the property owners jumped into action immediately. “We went and got heaters, and then tried to close it up enough so that you wouldn’t get people breaking in," explains Travis Plakke, the property manager representing the property owners — his sister and brother-in-law, who live out of state. “We engaged that first contractor within probably four or five days.”

The car plowed into the front of the building, twisting and dislodging one of the I-beams that run across the front of the space, so it was obvious from the start that there was structural damage. The first step toward reopening was to apply for a shoring permit to be able to brace the damaged wall for an exploratory demo and reconstruction analysis. An experienced restaurateur, Plakke estimated that the entire process from car crash to grand reopening would be two months.

In preparation for submitting the shoring permit, Plakke worked with his general contractor and the Englewood Building Department to generate all the necessary documentation, including engineering and architectural plans. The first misstep was finding out that their chosen contractor had the wrong type of license, which the building department "took two weeks to tell us,” says Plakke.
After a quick contractor pivot, Plakke anticipated smooth sailing. But he says that the building department has been agonizingly slow on communication — and at times hostile. “The building department kept coming back and saying, ‘Well, now you need this. Now you need an engineering plan stamped,’” recalls Plakke. “It just kept being more and more. ... And then, of course, there’s the fear, right? That if I’m a pain in the ass, they’re going to push me to the back of the line.”

For Soltero Diaz, the clock was ticking. Her insurance has paid out $68,000 to date (she is uncertain of the final amount) to repair the interior damage, replace the two broken refrigerators and any other damaged equipment, and compensate for food spoilage.

However, instead of saving that money for the renovations, Soltero Diaz has been using it to pay her employees. “I don’t want them to go anywhere else, and I don’t want to lose them, because they are so helpful, especially the people in the kitchen,” she explains. “It’s so hard to replace good workers.” She estimates that she’s providing her nine employees, in addition to herself and her son, about 40 percent of their previous paychecks. However, she’s already lost two of her staff members during this time, and she’s afraid of losing more if this drags on any longer.

Pushed to her limits, Soltero Diaz posted her frustrations on Facebook and Instagram on March 12. As she hoped, the City of Englewood leapt to action in response. “The city with us has been great. The city, the chamber of commerce, they are great with us. They help us,” she says. “Before this happened [during COVID], they gave us grants and we were able to stay open because of the help that they gave us. ... It’s just the building department [I’m frustrated with].”
She praises Darren Hollingsworth, economic development manager for the City of Englewood, for immediately reaching out. City council members Steve Ward and Rita Russell (who is also a regular at the restaurant) jumped in right away to help, too, and Chula officially received its shoring permit on March 15, nearly two months to the day after the accident.

The Englewood Building Department says that after rejecting the initial contractor for not holding a license with Englewood for structural repairs on commercial properties, it did not hear anything until the current contractor reached out on February 23 to inquire about permit requirements. At that time, Chula was promised an expedited review, and the department followed through when it approved the permit the same day it was submitted, on March 15.

But the delay has heightened frustrations and anxiety. “We missed our biggest days. Valentine’s Day is a very good day for us. Also Margarita Day [February 22],” Soltero Diza notes. “We really don’t want to miss Cinco de Mayo, because it's the best-selling day for everyone who owns a Mexican restaurant.”

“Our office will continue to work with the property owner and Ms. Diaz to ensure that the building can be restored as quickly and safely as possible,” says Karen Montanez, chief building official for the City of Englewood. “We understand that this unfortunate event has had a significant impact on Ms. Diaz’s business, but we are also obligated to require and review appropriate building plans that are submitted by property owners.”

But Plakke feels that this statement belies the fact that numerous phone calls and email threads were bouncing between the two parties while the permit application was being prepared. "Yes, it was technically submitted and approved the same day," he says. "But that's ignoring the buildup of getting there."

The plan now is to remove and replace the whole wall section, which will be more expedient than a piecemeal repair of the structural damage. Plakke is hopeful that the construction can be completed in about a month, and he’s doing everything reasonable to speed up the timeline for Soltero Diaz. “We’re going to be made whole. The insurance is going to make [the owners] whole,” Plakke says. “But if Myrna goes out of business, that’s everything, you know?”

Soltero Diaz clings to the hope that she’ll soon be back in the kitchen, and sends a final plea to her patrons to stick with her. “The money’s important, of course. But for me, more important is not to lose our customers, because we have our regulars that will go three, four, five times [a week],” she concludes. “When you have your regulars, they are the ones that make your business. ... I hope we haven’t lost our customers. I just don’t want to lose my business.”