Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article included incorrect information from the city regarding one of the organizations helping pay the cost of the Tejon Street revitalization project in downtown Colorado Springs. The Downtown Development Authority will split the remaining cost, after grant monies, with the city parking enterprise and city traffic.

The new year means a makeover for portions of Colorado Springs’ historic Tejon Street downtown, part of a multimillion-dollar project officials say will boost business activity, public safety and accessibility.

The city, in collaboration with the Downtown Partnership’s Downtown Development Authority, plans to revitalize the approximately half-mile stretch of Tejon Street from Colorado Avenue to Boulder Street. The first phase of the project, which the city hopes to get underway starting in January or February, is planned for the first two blocks between Colorado Avenue and East Kiowa Street.

Wider and more accessible multimodal walkways, expanded outdoor dining space for restaurants, the removal of the center lane and relocation of deliveries to new zones on side streets, as well as possible new on-street parking options, are among some of the planned changes for these two blocks in the first phase of construction, Director of Public Works Richard Mulledy said.

The Tejon Street revitalization has been planned for several years as part of the Downtown Partnership’s “Experience Downtown” master planning process, he said. After soliciting feedback from businesses and property owners located between Colorado Avenue and Kiowa Street in January of this year, the city paused the project for several months to review new elements based on their input. Now, the city is in the process of revamping its original design to incorporate changes those businesses said they want to see, Mulledy said.

The city will present the updated design to businesses and property owners within these first two blocks once it is complete.

“The city’s role is to help the Downtown Partnership and businesses balance these wants and wishes, and get the best for them,” Mulledy said.

The second design will include plans to expand walkways from 6 feet to 10 feet to incorporate more outdoor dining space for area restaurants as well as multimodal, accessible walkways so pedestrians of all abilities can safely and easily move down the corridor, he said.

Removing the center lane and moving deliveries to side streets will also enhance safety for delivery drivers and business employees who will no longer have to cross traffic to load and unload goods, he said.

The city is also developing a parking and curb management plan for downtown and Old Colorado City, informed by a parking study that officials began soliciting public feedback for in May, Mulledy said. When complete, the documents will help guide new changes to parking configurations as part of the Tejon Street revitalization. The city expects to complete the parking plan in December and unveil it in early January 2025.

“We want to make informed decisions based on data and actual conversations with businesses,” Mulledy said. “The city does not want to make decisions in a vacuum.”

Eric Brenner, who owns the Red Gravy Italian restaurant at 23 S. Tejon St., said he is excited for the planned changes along his block and believes they will be a boon for business by making it easier for people to shop, eat and play downtown.

“I’m a downtown cheerleader. We’re trying always to make downtown a better decision, or a decision that provides better return or better time for folks,” he said.

Brenner and Meredith Klube, managing partner/business partner at Jack Quinn’s Irish Pub next door, are particularly eager for more patio space that will allow them and other restaurants to expand their seating areas and boost sales.

“To have all the patios be consistent in size and look, and then having a more walkable sidewalk area, I just think that is going to be an improvement,” Brenner said.

The addition of trees to this block, where there currently are none, will also give Tejon Street a more seamless look and provide a better outdoor dining experience for their customers, Klube said.

“It’ll be a nicer area to sit outside,” she said.

Construction is a concern, Klube said, as it could disrupt usual business operations, but she’s confident the city and Downtown Partnership will “fully support businesses” during the enhancements.

Mulledy said he’s hopeful the first phase of work could be complete by next summer.

Possible new parking configurations and the elimination of the center lane have garnered probably the most concern among businesses along North and South Tejon Street.

Jane Hammoud, a pottery artist at the Gallery 113 collective on 125½ N. Tejon St., said she worried revitalization plans are calling for the elimination of up to as much as 45% of current parking spaces by converting from diagonal to parallel spaces.

“That is critical,” she said.

Parallel parking spaces will mean a net loss of parking spots downtown, which could discourage people from visiting the area, Hammoud and other business and property owners said.

“It’s also my belief that it will slow traffic down too much,” said Luke Travins, the co-owner of Jose Muldoon’s on North Tejon and MacKenzie’s Chophouse on South Tejon. He is also the landlord for the Colorado Craft Social on South Tejon.

Though MacKenzie’s Chophouse is just south of the revitalization area, Travins said he has seen firsthand how parallel parking configurations near that restaurant negatively affect traffic.

“You can spend 10 minutes on that block and see how either when the downtown shuttle bus stops or when someone is angling to get into a parallel spot it will back traffic up into the intersection,” he said.

Hammoud also worried that in losing the center lane on Tejon Street, deliveries could be moved to alleyways where business owners currently park and by which they enter their buildings, making it less accessible and safe for them.

Mulledy stressed there are no plans to eliminate so much parking.

“Our goal is to maintain all the parking that we can. If we have to remove a spot or two, it’s a spot or two, but we’re not decreasing parking in a huge amount. That’s just not true,” he said.

The plans for the first phase of revitalizations are not necessarily going to be the same plans for later phases of the project that will make changes to North Tejon, from East Kiowa to East Boulder streets.

“That is some time down the road. We haven’t even started planning for those phases. When we are ready to develop a plan we will go through the public process with businesses in those northern blocks and get input. … We value it and we’re going to get it,” Mulledy said.

He added that over the last few years the city has put in a “significant amount of work” into renovating and repairing parking garages in the area, which provide added parking options for downtown employees and visitors. Any “minimal loss” of on-street parking can be supplemented by the parking garages, he said.

Frank O’Donnell, who owns the building on North Tejon that houses Gallery 113 and other tenants, as well as the building on South Tejon including tenants like East Coast Deli and Fujiyama, doesn’t believe garages are the best parking alternative.

“Customers who access retail destinations or restaurant destinations want to park within eyesight of where they’re going. That’s one of the oldest principles of retail commercial development, in shopping centers or downtowns,” O’Donnell said.

The total project is estimated to cost between $6 million to $8 million to design and construct, city spokesman Eric Sieger said. The city received a $1.6 million grant from the Colorado Department of Transportation’s Revitalizing Main Streets grant program and used $400,000 of the city’s American Rescue Plan Act funds to match, a condition of the state grant.

The remainder of the cost will be paid by the Downtown Development Authority, the city’s parking enterprise and city traffic. Those amounts will be determined as construction plans and bids are finalized, he said.