More than a decade ago, a group of investors opened the Lowry Beer Garden in east Denver, billing it as the first business of its kind in Colorado.
Since then, the concept has spread across the state: outdoor, public-oriented spaces that serve beer and food. The same company, City Street Investors, has opened gardens in Edgewater and Green Valley Ranch.
“They’re wonderful activators and neighborhood gathering spots, and you can see why a lot of cities and towns would find it pretty appealing,” said Joe Vostrejs, a principal with CSI, in an interview with Denverite
This year, they’ll open the Arvada Beer Garden, with several million dollars in support from local taxpayers.
The new location will be a centerpiece of a major redevelopment near Olde Town Arvada, sitting at the west end of Ralston Central Park.
The European-inspired beer garden is part of a larger revitalization project
In recent years, the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority (or AURA) has supported and funded the ongoing development of hundreds of apartments, dozens of townhomes, road projects and parks in the area, known as Ralston Fields.
“We brought in all these new housing units and all the fast-casual restaurants, but what we didn’t have is a place that had a sense of community — we were looking for a place that was family friendly — people could come and linger,” said Maureen Phair, executive director of AURA.
Arvada Beer Garden will be at the northwest corner of Garrison Street and West 58th Avenue, also known as Ralston Road. The beer garden will include a central building and an adjoining patio and outdoor plaza, as well as another commercial building that will be leased out to a third party.
The design is inspired by beer gardens that Vostrejs visited in Europe years ago.
“Every tiny little village that we came to had a beer garden,” he said. “The entire village would be there, all ages, just having a grand old time.”
Food and drink selection should resemble the menus at the company’s other beer gardens, including an extensive nonalcoholic menu, the partners said. An opening could happen by June.
Millions of dollars in local tax support
The beer garden — and a lot of the surrounding development — is happening with a lot of help from local tax dollars.
The beer garden site was previously a gas station. AURA bought the gas station property for $3 million in 2020, part of a larger series of land purchases in the area. The authority also spent $40,000 for demolition, while the state cleaned up the site.
Finally, AURA sold the corner lot in 2024 to City Street Investors for only $270,000. Other developers in the area have gotten similar subsidies like discounted land or tax benefits.
AURA also contributed $1.6 million to help build the beer garden’s outdoor area, including a plaza that will sit on private land but will be open to the public. A heating system will help keep the building’s patio and the plaza comfortable in winter.
CSI previously said it would send $4 million of its own money on the project, and they said it's now "a fair amount higher." Beer gardens are hard to build without substantial help from a local government, or as part of a larger development, because they require a lot of land. The two buildings and the plaza will take up an acre.
“The beer gardens, they’re very expensive to develop — and part of what makes them expensive is that you need a lot of land. To get the right vibe and make it work, you need to have thousands of square feet,” Vostrejs said.
The goal of the public incentives, Phair said, are to attract new development — and tax dollars — to replace aging strip malls. The new projects are replacing aging strip malls that once held businesses like Kmart and Chuck E. Cheese.
“The private sector is not interested in coming into these older sections of town,” Phair said. “We are the public in a public-private partnership, and we have to lure the private there to say hey, ‘Do you see the vision, do you see how good the bones are?’”
The funding for AURA’s investment in the area comes from taxes generated by a Super Target and Super Walmart and others in the area. AURA is temporarily receiving a portion of property and sales taxes generated from those new developments. In 2028, that money will revert to the taxing entities instead.
A similar strategy helped to revitalize Olde Town Arvada, with tax funding coming from stores like Costco, Home Depot and Lowes to the south.
There was no competitive bid process to choose a developer for the beer garden lot, Phair said. She originally reached out to CSI about the project, she said. CSI is also known for its involvement in local restaurants like Cholon and larger projects like Denver Union Station.
AURA did conduct a competitive bid process to choose the master developer for the broader area.
What else is happening in Ralston Valley?
Construction of the beer garden and surrounding projects are well underway.
The beer garden will border Ralston Commons, with 195 planned apartments and 27 townhomes. Further west, the Caroline at Ralston has replaced a former Kmart site with 328 apartments, an acre park and another 10,000 feet of commercial space. (About 16 of the Caroline apartments will be designated affordable.)
To the south, Ralston Gardens includes 102 designated affordable units. It’s next to the Garrison Paseo, with a pathway and planting beds winding up a sloped parcel.
