Greeley investors present capital idea

GREELEY — A group of investors plans to offer venture capital funding to lure new restaurant and retail business to downtown Greeley.

The Greeley Downtown Venture Capital Program will match investors with qualified businesses, said Bob Tointon, chairman of Greeley’s Downtown Development Authority.

Tointon, who identified himself as one of the would-be venture capitalists, said the venture capital program is intended to recruit needed businesses to the central business district.

Downtown Greeley has been the object of revitalization efforts for several years. The downtown district has long suffered from spotty retail activity, due in part to residential and retail migration to the west side of the city.

The DDA’s goal to spark customer traffic has included the recent decision to dismantle the 8th Street and 9th Street pedestrian plazas, allowing shoppers to park in front of stores.

The next step is to provide an attractive mix of shopping opportunities, which the venture capital program is intended to address.

One target category identified by Tointon is restaurants.

“There are two different types of restaurants we would like to see,” he said. “One is for finer dining, say, before theater. I think there’s a potential niche ? that’s not filled adequately in Greeley. And with our UCC (Union Colony Civic Center) down here, I think it would tie in well.”

Tointon also thinks a casual, American-style diner that serves breakfast and lunch is needed.

“We tend to be a little heavy on the Mexican (food) side — we’re very adequately covered there.” he said. “What we need is more variety.”

Another priority is gift and home accessory retailers, Tointon said. He referred to a pair of downtown Fort Collins stores — The Cupboard and The Perennial Gardener — as fitting the description of retailers needed in downtown Greeley.

Tointon said the venture capital program intends to advertise to attract business plans.

If a business plan is accepted, a venture capitalist would be paired with the entrepreneur to set up financing. The funding will not come from a proscribed pool of funds.

“If the business is one we think fits our grand vision for downtown, I think we could find some investors,” Tointon said.

Beverly Abell, executive director of the Greeley DDA, said the venture capital program advertising could kick off as early as November.

The venture capital program was spun out of Greeley’s adoption of the national Main Street Center redevelopment system.

The four-step Main Street approach includes: organization, promotion, economic restructuring and design.

“In the economic restructuring aspect we’re looking at all sorts of plans for developing the downtown economy,” Abell said. “One of them is the venture capital program.”

Other economic restructuring initiatives in the works include educational workshops for merchants, a business plan contest for entrepreneurs and a mentoring program for business owners.

Abell thinks the venture capital program could find success by recruiting clusters of like businesses.

“Nobody wants to be the first, but somebody might be part of the first cluster,” she said.

The DDA also plans to boost the venture capital program with a market research campaign of its own.

“We’re getting ready to do some pretty heavy demographic research,” she said.

In theory, the research will help to clarify the needs for services in the downtown area, she said.

Revitalization advocates for downtown Greeley also hope to gain momentum from a $10 million community ice rink that was approved by city voters last fall. The ice rink project is targeted for completion in 2006 near the intersection of 8th Avenue and 10th Street.

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