FoCo butcher shop on the block speaks to Old Town growth

FORT COLLINS — The new for-sale sign at Choice City Butcher & Deli marks the end of a 17-year run for its owners and a continuing reflection of what’s to come in the city’s Old Town neighborhoods.

Russ Robinson and his wife, Anyssa, are selling the shop, which had become more of a restaurant in recent years with Russ’s penchant for beer pairings and a national uptick in hip pedestrian-friendly downtowns.

Asking price: $385,000.

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More details from marketing materials provided by Fort Collins business broker Chris Penner and Commercial Real Estate & Trust LLC: $55,000 in fixtures, furniture, equipment, inventory included; rent, $6,500 a month; 2,100 square feet; outdoor patio for 20; leased through 2028.

Gross annual revenue: $1.2 million.

The Fort Collins family Robinson is moving to New England, Penner said.

Away from It

The genesis of their revelation came on a Spring 2019 trip Russ and Anyssa took to Mexico, Penner said. The big reveal was they rather liked the peaceful, easy feelings while bandying about a bit on the run.

COVID delayed the decision, but they’re ready now to go east.

“It was a tough, tough decision,” Penner said.

And it means “Old Town has changed a little.”

That reflection in the window of Russ Robinson’s shop is a winnowing one.

“The personality of Old Town has always been a mom-and-pop, eclectic mix,” Penner said, but the terms are changing, and so are the leases.

He’s been active in the area since the mid-90s, co-founding two Old Town bars, then selling his interest in both to his business partner when the real estate bug bit.

Lease rates back in the day ranged a couple bucks to either side of $10 a year per square foot. They climbed for the next decade, took a major hit in the 2008 real estate recession and since then “a steady rise [to] the low- to mid-30s.”

The rise, he said, “disproportionately negatively affects the mom-and-pops.”

The family was camping and unavailable for any direct comment.

Via Penner and from somewhere on the road to Montana last week they forwarded well-wishes: “We’re going to miss the Fort Collins and downtown community but feel compelled to move back with family.”

Penner said there’s no hard departure date yet. The business and their home need to sell.

“Then they’re gonna move; they’ll be gone.”

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