Kwon Atlas (center) opened the Montbello Business Accelerator, assisted by graduates Shalon Bowens (far left) and Ariel Elliot-Dawson (far right).

After years of grassroots organizing and significant investment from major foundations, long-held dreams are beginning to take shape in northeast Denver’s Montbello neighborhood, including affordable housing, a business development hub, a grocery store stocked with fresh produce, and eventually a vibrant community arts center.

The effort traces back to 2014, when a group of neighbors formed the Montbello Organizing Committee (MOC) with a shared goal of revitalizing their community. “We were a bunch of residents who said, ‘We’re tired of waiting for somebody to come rescue us,’” said MOC’s chief executive officer Donna Garnett. She said in those early days, volunteers fanned out asking residents what they wanted to see in Montbello.

Top of the list was a grocery store, followed by housing and jobs. They also wanted something less tangible. “So many people told us, ‘We need to address this negative narrative about this community,’” she said. “Because the other thing we heard from almost everybody was how much they love Montbello. That it’s a great place to raise your family.”

Donna Garnett, CEO of the Montbello Organizing Committee, stands inside the future FreshLo Market, expected to open this summer.

Shalon Bowens, owner of LaLa’s Boutique, helped a customer at her new kiosk inside the Montbello Business Accelerator.

In 2017, the all-volunteer organization secured a grant from the Kresge Foundation’s Fresh, Local & Equitable (FreshLo) initiative, which promotes community-driven economic development through food access, entrepreneurship, and the arts. Additional support from the Colorado Health Foundation and the Denver Foundation accelerated the effort. Within three years, the group purchased a long-neglected parcel of RTD land—once plagued by crime—and transformed it into the site of a 97-unit affordable housing development. The project reached a major milestone in September 2024, when residents began moving in.

The latest achievement was the opening of the Montbello Business Accelerator on the ground floor of the apartment building, located on Albrook Drive just east of Peoria Street. At an April ribbon-cutting ceremony, Kwon Atlas, the director of the business hub, said the center provides co-working space, a community meeting room, and kiosks for vendors. “This is a space of experimentation. This is a space to grow your business model and potentially hire from the community,” he said.

Even before the opening of the business center, Atlas has served as the director of an intensive training initiative for Montbello entrepreneurs. More than 100 individuals have graduated from the 12-week program, after taking classes in business research, marketing, branding, and business development. The program also provides some start-up money for the businesses to get off the ground.

Ariel Elliot-Dawson is a graduate who just opened Ariel’s Cafe in the business hub. The shop serves a variety of coffee drinks and pastries sourced from local bakeries. “I’ve always loved meeting people at local coffee shops, so I wanted to bring that to this neighborhood. It’s a way to continue my passion of giving back to the community,” Elliot-Dawson said. She hopes to open several additional cafes in the area.

Shalon Bowens, another graduate of the program, is the owner of LaLa’s Boutique, featuring women’s clothing and accessories. Bowens has a kiosk at the business hub and is also a resident of the apartment building. She said she is excited to be a part of all of the changes in Montbello. “I have always dreamed of having a store of my own. I want to help women feel good about how they look and do it in an affordable way,” she said. “This program helped me get started.”

Speaking at the ceremony, Atlas said that it’s people like Elliot-Dawson and Bowens who embody the new Montbello. “We hope this project will be transformative so that when people think of Montbello, they don’t think of negative things,” Atlas said. “They start putting us on the chic maps about Denver. They think about a neighborhood that is transformed from poverty to prosperity.”

Later this summer, Montbello will finally have the grocery store so many have dreamed of. It will be located in a strip mall owned by MOC adjacent to the apartment building.

FreshLo Market will be a non-profit store that offers fresh produce and made-from-scratch prepared foods, along with other grocery staples. An emphasis will be placed on hiring employees from the community. It is modeled after a successful nonprofit grocery that has been operating in Boston for 10 years. In the next year, three additional FreshLo Markets will open in Denver in the Sun Valley and La Alma neighborhoods and on the Clayton Early Learning Campus.

Garnett said after the grocery stores open, the final phase of the initiative will launch: construction of a cultural arts education center. The planned 16,000-square-foot complex will include a theater, recital rooms, an art gallery, and classrooms. The goal is to provide a venue for performing arts, education for youth, and classes for the community. MOC is still working to raise the final $30 million needed for construction. Altogether, the FreshLo hub—including the apartment building, business accelerator, grocery store, and arts center—carries a total price tag of about $100 million.

At the launch of the business hub, Garnett said she hopes the center will open in 2027. “And that will conclude the FreshLo initiative, the dream come true of the people of Montbello. And then I’m retiring,” she said with a smile.

For more information, visit montbelloorganizing/freshlo-hub.

Front Porch photos by Christie Gosch