Since completing their purchase, Bridge 33 has been quite active in the community, attending community business forums. This latest event, however, was an attempt to reach out to the broader community. To that end, "Boo-mar" featured a costume contest, free craft beers and ciders from local taprooms, and music by local band Guerrilla Fanfare.
Jack Hechinger, Bridge 33's VP of Acquisitions, was there, along with Philip Knott, who is Belmar's new General Manager, and Alberta Davidson, Belmar's new Director of Marketing. Together, they spent the evening listening and answering questions, while residents quaffed beers from Locust Cider and 6 and 40 Brewery.
It was also a chance to imagine a future where the Belmar Plaza-- arguably the heart of the entire New Urbanist development-- is a bustling, fun place to mix, mingle and relax every night, not just on nights when there are special events. I asked Philip Knott what it would take to make this happen. "It's a chicken and egg problem," he told me. "Take the idea of more restaurants and bars here on the plaza. These kinds of places bring in more foot traffic, but restaurateurs don't want to sign leases until the foot traffic is already there. That's what I mean by a chicken and egg problem." Bridge 33's answer in other markets, he said, has been to create bustle with fun, interesting pop-up spaces that bring people in and showcase the area's potential. "Belmar happened too soon for the west side of Denver," Jack Hechinger told me, but that he feels the thinking and the demographics have caught up. "We're excited to be here.
