Chicago pizza chain plans expansion,  including in Loveland

This story first ran on BusinessDen.com, a BizWest news partner.

DENVER — Fans of Chicago-based Giordano’s, which has a location on the 16th Street Mall in Denver, won’t need to trek to the city for long.

The company plans three more locations in Colorado, including one in Loveland.

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Todd Winston, managing member of the group that has franchise rights for the state, said Monday that a location at 24 N. Broadway in Denver could open by the end of April. The company has leased about 3,600 square feet that was formerly home to Latin restaurant Leña, which closed last year.

The existing downtown location, for reference, is 5,300 square feet.

Another location, at 6020 Stallion Drive in Loveland, could open by early June, Winston said. It was previously home to Lola Diner, and before that Perkin’s.

The third new restaurant is planned for Arvada. The franchise group is building a project that will house both Giordano’s and other tenants. Although construction is currently underway, Winston declined to disclose the address for now. The pizza chain could open there by late summer, he said.

The inaugural Giordano’s in Colorado opened at 1600 California St. in November 2018.

“We had a wonderful first 15 months before all this happened,” Winston said of the pandemic.

Sales are about 50% below where they would normally be. While there’s currently a line to dine-in on weekends, that’s due in large part to capacity restrictions. And the fact that no one is going to shows and sporting events means that most people want to eat around the same time, meaning business is less spread out, Winston said.

Nevertheless, Winston’s franchise group always planned to expand.

“These were all locations we had identified pre-COVID,” he said.

Expansion will likely continue beyond these additional three locations, Winston said, although “we’d certainly like to catch our breath.”

“I’ve looked extensively at Fort Collins and Colorado Springs, and in the mountain towns,” he said. “It’s just a matter of bandwidth now.”