For the first time in decades, a little purple church in Denver\u2019s Cole neighborhood will be open on Sundays. Not for mass or services, but for coffee and wine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a need for interesting neighborhood retail around here. It\u2019s an interesting neighborhood, and it\u2019s an interesting property,\u201d said Nathan Beal, a local developer.<\/p>\n
Beal runs a one-person shop, St. Bernard Properties, which he started about 20 years ago. The 47-year-old hails from the South, but you wouldn\u2019t know that unless you get some whiskey in him, he said.<\/p>\n
He likes to bike around town and left Atlanta for Denver\u2019s more \u201cconsistent urban fabric,\u201d which his developments reflect: small-scale infill projects, townhomes and duplexes, which pair well with neighborhood retail. He\u2019s currently\u00a0renovating a motel on East Colfax\u00a0and has\u00a0repurposed\u00a0a number of other older buildings around town.<\/p>\n
His next project, at the corner of Franklin Street and 38th Avenue, will be in that same vein. Beal wants to turn the nearly 140-year-old church into a cafe \u2014 a $500,000 to $750,000 cost \u2014 and spend $2 million building six townhomes on the vacant lot next door. It will add to the roughly 50 residential units he\u2019s built across the east side of town.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one I\u2019ve been keeping an eye on, because it\u2019s a funky little building. It\u2019s like this little purple church with an empty lot next door to it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Beal purchased the property, which sits on a 6,100-square-foot lot, for $675,000 in October 2021. He petitioned to have it named as a city landmark, a designation\u00a0it received in 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a sucker for saving old stuff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The 1,650-square-foot onetime Lutheran church was erected by a Swedish community that came to Cole to build Denver\u2019s railroads. It\u2019s currently occupied by an artist. There hasn\u2019t been a church service in 45 years.<\/p>\n
Nathan Beal stands outside his 140-year-old church in Cole.\u00a0(Hayden Kim\/BusinessDen)
\nBeal wants to redo the stucco, \u201ca defining feature\u201d of the property, and build a mezzanine inside that will \u201cbring you up by the roof rafters.\u201d Some of the church\u2019s layers will also be peeled back to expose its wood frame.\u00a0Local firm Sopher Sparn Architects drew up the plans.<\/p>\n
Two blocks from the church, on a sunny Thursday morning, Brandon Painter was busy dishing out coffee from his 1973 Airstream trailer. The storefront for his mobile business, Nowhere Coffee, sat parked outside the\u00a0old Rock Drill building\u00a0that day.<\/p>\n
Soon, Painter will have somewhere to call home. It will be in Beal\u2019s old church.<\/p>\n
\u201cCurrently, [if it\u2019s] super cold, probably not here. If it\u2019s super hot, probably not here. So I would say overall, that\u2019s an opportunity. But I think my customers will expect me to be open all the time now,\u201d he quipped.<\/p>\n
The 37-year-old hails from Amarillo, Texas, where he said the only thing that happens is \u201ca lot of wind.\u201d He moved to Colorado with five of his friends in a 26-foot U-Haul trailer a week after graduating from high school. Besides a brief stint in Philadelphia working a corporate job, the Mile High City has been home since.<\/p>\n
\u201cCole for me is this little corner of Denver that not a lot of people have explored, and it\u2019s finally developing a little bit and changing. But I have people that lived in Denver their entire lives and had never been to this part of town,\u201d Painter said.<\/p>\n
Beal hopes that Painter, whom he met through a mutual friend, will be moved in and serving up brews to the neighborhood by the fall of 2026. The six houses next door, which will range from 800 to 1,400 square feet, should be done by then too. They\u2019ll be designed with a sawtooth-like roof, reflecting the Rock Drill building two blocks away.<\/p>\n