Downtown Colorado Springs businesses displaced by fire ponder next steps after manager terminates leases
The property manager of a building in downtown Colorado Springs said he is terminating leases with business owners after an electrical fire inside the building Dec. 4.
Slawek Pietraszek, managing director at New Vision Hotels, said Tuesday that he is releasing tenants from their leases in the Majestic Building, 3-15 E. Bijou St., which houses nearly a half-dozen businesses and an enclave of offices, because there are too many unknown factors, including rebuilding costs and a construction timeline.
“I don’t know the answer right now,” Pietraszek said when asked about whether he intends to redevelop the building, which neighbors the Hilton Garden Inn. Pietraszek, who lives in Colorado Springs, opened the newly built hotel in 2019.
“I don’t know the total cost and what the insurance will cover … it all depends,” he added.
Alex Dumas, a commercial broker at Olive Real Estate Group, confirmed that legal paperwork was still being approved, but that all the building’s tenants would get their security deposits back and rent would be abated from the date of the fire.
No one was injured in the fire.
Most of the building’s tenants were set on returning, but perhaps no one more than Abdul Nasser, owner of Taste of Jerusalem Cafe, where the fire began.
“I wish I could move to another spot,” Nasser said. “To do that would cost a lot more, because the restaurant requires a grease hood and that will cost a lot of money. It will not be as easy to move anywhere.”
The Colorado Springs Fire Department deemed the fire in the cafe’s kitchen was accidental and caused by an electrical problem with a refrigeration appliance, The Gazette reported late last month.
Nasser, who started the business 15 years ago, has been driving Uber and Lyft to make money during the closure.
The restaurant’s windows appeared darkened with soot. Behind the glass, open rafters laid bare the ceiling’s contents, including drooping electrical wires.
By terminating tenants’ leases, Pietraszek said he hoped to help the building’s small-business owners find new space elsewhere while he determines what to do next.
Emily Ross, owner of Yobel boutique, had moved her entire stock of smoke-damaged inventory and decor out by the end of last week and began looking at a new location down the block.
She and her husband, Clay Ross, emptied the contents of the store, which also housed The Lookup Gallery, a display for various local artists’ work, and Clay’s personal art studio in the building’s basement.
“I heard the sirens,” Emily said of that day in December.
She was getting ready to go to the store from her downtown home but discovered where the sirens led before she arrived.
Another storefront, formerly local boutique The Local Honey Co., sat empty earlier this week, as did The UPS Store.
The phone number listed on Google search for Icons, a gay bar and nightclub in the building, appeared to be disconnected, and its listing read “temporarily closed.”
To The Grave, a tattoo shop in the building accessible from the alleyway, continued to operate last Thursday, but manager Jacob Silva said it had received an email from property management that said the business needed to leave by last Friday.
Shame & Regret, a bar also along the alleyway, continued to operate and planned to keep going, thanks to a brick wall separating his bar from the street-facing storefronts, bar owner Matt Baumgartner said Monday.
Pietraszek noted that a hygiene report testing the building’s materials indicated floor cavities under the bar were affected by the smoke and would require restoration.
ABOVE: The fire-damaged Taste of Jerusalem Cafe remained closed Monday after a fire damaged much of the Majestic Building on Bijou Street in downtown Colorado Springs.
RIGHT: A sign Monday explains the closure of Yobel and The Look Up Gallery after a Dec. 4 fire closed the Majestic Building on Bijou Street.
The Majestic Building remains closed after a Dec. 4 fire in the Taste of Jerusalem Cafe damaged the structure on Bijou Street.