Superior offers incentives to bakery, first Downtown biz

SUPERIOR — Town officials in Superior sweetened the pot this week for Boulder Baked, whose owners are looking to open a second location, by approving $50,000 in economic development incentives aimed at making the Boulder bakery the first business to open in the under-construction Downtown Superior mixed-use district. 

Boulder Baked plans to lease a 1,149-square-foot space at 2345 Main St., where it would invest more than $200,000 in startup costs and employ about 10 workers.

“We anticipate this business will be a catalyst for the development and will help attract other complementary businesses,” Superior economic development staffers wrote in a memo to town officials. 

Downtown Superior is a retail and multi-family project from Carmel Partners, a real estate development and investment firm with local offices in Denver, that aims to serve as the eastern Boulder County town’s economic hub.

“We’ve been working very hard to recruit businesses to the project,” Superior economic development manager Jill Mendoz said, and Boulder Baked’s leadership group “see(s) the vision for downtown Superior.”

The bakery is owned by Seth Portner, a restaurant industry veteran with experience working for Moe’s Bagels and Foolish Craig’s.

“We have looked at several locations in Boulder County, but for us, this is where our heart is,” Portner said of Downtown Superior.

“I believe that over time, (the Superior bakery) will be busier than Boulder,” he said, but lease rates at the Carmel project are expected to exceed what Boulder Baked pays for its space in Boulder. 

“That’s daunting for a business like us,” Portner said, which is why a boost from the town is critical. 

Despite some wariness about the price tag of the incentives package, Superior’s Board of Trustees gave its blessing to the deal.

“We have been dying for something to come in and begin activating Main Street,” Trustee Jason Serbu said.

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