The City of Loveland once planned to demolish the building at 225 E. Fourth St. and turn the lot into a walkway to parking, according to BizWest. The building dates to 1893, faces the Rialto Theater and has 6,720 square feet. It sat empty from 2006 until this year, when the owners of Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant picked it for their sixth location.
Rio Grande is one of several restaurants moving into downtown Loveland's oldest buildings. Echo Brewing and Pizzeria opened last month in the 1902 railroad depot. Sky Bear Brewery and Pub bought a building on Fourth Street that probably dates to 1915. Part of the reason is a small grant from the Loveland Downtown Development Authority, and the rules of that grant send restaurant money into old buildings. Working inside those buildings has also brought setbacks of its own.
A grant written for old kitchens
In March 2024 the DDA approved a Restaurant Conversion Grant as a pilot program. Its policy document sets one firm rule: a building must be at least 50 years old on the date of the application, and "it is not the intent of this Program to assist in the development of new construction projects." The money comes from the DDA's tax increment financing.
The grant covers the expensive parts of a kitchen that customers never see. Eligible work includes:
- Electrical and plumbing upgrades and utility connections
- Attached fixtures built for the kitchen
- Grease traps and interceptors
- Venting, HVAC and mechanical systems
- Kitchen sprinklers and fire suppression
- Design and contractor soft costs, limited to 15 percent of the project
Stoves, grills, dishwashers, glassware and furniture are not eligible. Exterior work is also excluded, except for grease interceptors.
The formula pays back 50 percent of the first $50,000 in eligible costs and 25 percent of anything above that, up to $50,000 in total. Under that formula, a project reaches the $50,000 maximum only when it has about $150,000 of qualifying kitchen infrastructure. You can work backward from any award to estimate how much wiring, venting and plumbing a building needed before it could serve food.
The policy limits the pilot to five grants. After the fifth award, the program pauses for a review and stays paused unless the DDA board reauthorizes it.
What the awards say about each building
The grant awards on the public record, compared side by side:
| Address | Project | Grant | Eligible kitchen work the formula implies |
|---|---|---|---|
| 214 E. Fourth St. | Pilot grant approved Nov. 11, 2024 | $50,000 | About $150,000 or more |
| Venue at 319 | Commercial kitchen | $50,000 | About $150,000 or more |
| 209 E. Fourth St. | Sky Bear Brewery and Pub, approved April 2026 | $42,717 | About $121,000 |
| 409 N. Railroad Ave. | Echo Brewing and Pizzeria, approved April 2026 | $31,646 | About $77,000 |
The figures in the last column come from running each award back through the published formula. They are estimates of eligible costs only, not total project budgets. The Venue at 319 grant was reported by the Loveland Reporter-Herald in July 2025. 214 E. Fourth St. was the address of Crow Hop Brewing's downtown taproom until Crow Hop closed it in 2023.
Echo's award is the smallest because the depot already had a kitchen. In April, Loveland Downtown District director Sean Hawkins told BizWest that the kitchen was "in pretty poor shape" and that Echo needed a gas trap for its pizza oven. Sky Bear's building had no kitchen at all, because its owners were "turning an office use into a restaurant use." The difference between the two grants matches the difference between fixing an old kitchen and building one from scratch.
The depot shows how it works
The depot at 409 N. Railroad Ave. was built in 1902 by the Colorado and Southern Railway. It served as a freight rail hub until 1980 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its Romanesque Revival brick, arched entrances and bracketed eaves. Its last tenant, Sports Station American Grill, closed in fall 2024.
Echo is owned by four siblings and named for the twin brothers among them. Before Loveland, they spent a year turning an Erie fire station into a taproom. The Loveland Reporter-Herald reported that the depot's kitchen needed substantial work before it could handle a pizza oven. Hawkins told the paper the DDA was "active partners in funding a restaurant conversion."
Echo held its grand opening the weekend of Oct. 17 and 18. The space holds about 200 people. It opens at 4 p.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m. on weekends, and the owners said they may add weekday lunch next summer. The beer is still brewed in Erie, so the Loveland taps pour a rotating list of Echo beers, including Fire Fly IPA and Campfire Kölsch, plus guest taps, cider, wine and some mixed drinks. The pizzas are Neapolitan-style, from a Margherita to the meat-heavy Norcia and the Capra with artichoke hearts and Kalamata olives. Hours and menu are at echobrewing.com.
Katy Dukes, one of the owners, told the Reporter-Herald the location was chosen for "all of the outdoor space and all of the events they host on Fourth Street." Downtown's event calendar is part of the reason these businesses are locating here.
Sky Bear's bet on Fourth Street
Sky Bear opened in summer 2022 at 272 E. Fifth St., in the renovated Cleveland Station project. Its owners are moving it to 209 E. Fourth St., in a building they believe dates to around 1915. It most recently held the offices of C3 Real Estate Solutions. The move takes Sky Bear from close to 3,000 square feet to about 6,000. The plans include a back patio, two front patios, more kitchen space and a second-floor event room for up to 100 people. Longmont-based LEC Builders is the general contractor.
Co-owner Mark Kissel explained the purchase to BizWest: "We're leasing where we are, and since this building had much bigger space, we decided to buy it. Besides, Fourth Street is basically the main street downtown."
One piece of the plan sits outside the building. The owners want a New Orleans-style balcony that reaches eight feet over the sidewalk, and in April Kissel said the building permit depended on an encroachment easement they had applied for in December. The grant can pay for a kitchen, but it can't speed up a permit for a structure that extends over a public sidewalk.
A setback at 225 E. Fourth
Rio Grande has the longest history in the region. Its first restaurant opened in 1986 at 143 W. Mountain Ave. in Fort Collins, and it later added Boulder, Greeley, Lower Downtown Denver and Lone Tree. Founder Pat McGaughran told BizWest that a 2024 five-year plan already included a new location in 2027. He expected the Loveland restaurant to employ about 40 people, and Fort Collins-based VFLA Architecture + Interiors is designing it. "That entire area has been awaiting revival," McGaughran said.
On Sept. 30, a construction worker hit a support beam with machinery and part of the 1893 building's roof collapsed. City officials closed the two neighboring businesses because they were concerned the walls could fall outward. In its Oct. 23 follow-up, the Reporter-Herald quoted building owner Elijah Scott: once plans were final, demolition would take about four weeks, and the walls would need new supports while the damaged roof came down. Scott estimated the damage would push the restaurant's planned early-2027 opening back by about six months. "We feel really bad about the businesses, and we're trying to move as quick as we can," he told the paper.
The two neighbors that closed during stabilization are Lighthouse Dance and Independence Gallery. The Reporter-Herald reported on Oct. 23 that Lighthouse Dance was holding classes at Redemption Church and Faith Church while its studio was closed. Independence Gallery takes art inquiries through its Facebook page.
Who else is coming, and when
BizWest reported that Georgia Boys BBQ plans a smaller restaurant in downtown Loveland for late spring 2027, announced as its Greeley location closed at the end of August. In Centerra, according to BizWest, Los Dos Potrillos plans to open at 6015 Sky Pond Drive in the Promenade Shops next spring. That is a newer shopping center, and it is outside the downtown district the grant covers.
Under the pilot's five-grant limit, the DDA board has to reauthorize the program before it can award grants beyond the fifth.
Fourth Street on Nov. 20
The easiest way to see the new storefronts is Downtown Loveland's Festival of Lights on Friday, Nov. 20, from 5 to 8 p.m., on Fourth Street between Garfield and Washington. Floats on Fourth returns for a third year as a stationary parade, and the Sugarplum Artisan Market will have more than 30 booths. The festival block is a short walk from the depot. It also passes 209 and 214 E. Fourth and the construction fencing at 225 E. Fourth, across from the Rialto.
When a 1902 freight depot or a vacant 1893 storefront becomes a restaurant, the value of the buildings around it can change. If you own a building downtown, or a home within walking distance of Fourth Street, and want to know what this activity means for your property, Michael Jensen can walk you through it. Ask for a free home valuation and we'll go over your block in detail.
