If you live a few blocks from the Highland Bridge and need frozen dinners, a houseplant or a last-minute gift on a weeknight, where do you go? For years the answer in lower LoHi was a gas station. When BusinessDen reported on the building at 1575 Boulder St. in August, it noted that the nearest convenience stores were at the gas stations at Zuni Street and Speer Boulevard.
That gap has now closed, in the same building the LoHi name grew out of, where The General Store lists its address and regular hours. The same year, almost every nearby storefront on Central, Platte and Boulder Streets also got a new tenant. Taken together, the turnover hands the neighborhood's oldest blocks to a new set of operators, and it mostly adds dinner. The one newcomer that opens in the morning is a shop selling gifts, plants and frozen meals.
1575 Boulder, the building that named the neighborhood
Paul Tamburello, who owns Little Man Ice Cream, bought the 0.3-acre property from the Olinger Mortuary in late 2002 for $800,000, according to public records cited by BusinessDen. The site includes the spot where Little Man operates today. He also owns the parking lot across the street and the retail and office building on the other side of the ice cream shop.
"That's where LoHi started. We named that the LoHi marketplace, which started the whole buzz of LoHi," Tamburello told BusinessDen.
This year, two units in that building got new tenants. The first, right next to the 26-foot-tall ice cream churn, is The General Store, the second location of a Littleton shop owned by Nicole Haas. It takes over from Scarlet Salon, which opened in 2007, a year before Little Man, and closed at the end of March.
Haas told BusinessDen the 3,000-square-foot space would sell everything from gifts to plants to frozen meals, and that she was considering occasional produce and a liquor license once she had a feel for the neighborhood. Her Littleton store is half that size, and the two locations will share an inventory of 20,000 items, with seasonal and specialty goods rotating through.
The hours are what make it an errand stop. The General Store's website lists the Lower Highlands location at 1575 Boulder St., Unit D, open Monday through Thursday 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. On a corner where, per BusinessDen, Little Man stays open until midnight in summer and often has a line around the block, that gives the late crowd somewhere to shop besides the dessert counter.
The Acadian takes the Dimestore space around the corner
The second unit faces the other side of the building. It was Dimestore Delibar until October 2025 and is becoming the Acadian, a Cajun and Creole restaurant.
WhatNow Denver reported that co-owner David Simpson and executive chef Felipe Giraldo previously opened Tremé, a Cajun and Creole restaurant in Bogotá, Colombia, where Giraldo ran the kitchen. Permitting documents cited by BusinessDen list jambalaya, truffle tenderloin steak and Louisiana-style braised short ribs. The 4,900-square-foot space is planned with a patio along Boulder Street, a second-story bar and rooftop dining.
"It's going to be absolutely next level for LoHi," Tamburello told BusinessDen.
A server job listing for the Acadian gives a planned opening date of December 1, 2026, with dinner service starting at 2 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday and Mondays closed to start.
Central and Platte turned over first
The Boulder Street changes are the end of a run that started in July, when Westword's monthly roundup listed three openings within a few blocks of each other near the bridges. Each one moved into a space that had already been something else.
| Address | 2026 tenant | What was there before | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1691 Central St. | Blossom by SYC | El Chingon, Central Bistro, Candela Latin Kitchen and others | Upscale modern Chinese, small plates |
| 1535 Central St. | ASA Sushi | Most recently Maine Shack | Second location of a family-run Greenwood Village sushi restaurant |
| 1644 Platte St. | La Vietta Trattoria | Brider Rotisserie & Kitchen | Traditional Italian trattoria |
| 1575 Boulder St. | The General Store | Scarlet Salon, 2007 to March 2026 | Gifts, plants, frozen meals |
| 1575 Boulder St. | The Acadian | Dimestore Delibar, closed October 2025 | Cajun and Creole, rooftop dining |
The Blossom corner has had the most tenants. Westword noted that 1691 Central St. has housed El Chingon, Central Bistro, Candela Latin Kitchen and others. The current tenant is restaurateur Shuang "Sherry" Crossland's project under SYC Concepts, the group she created for higher-end restaurants, separate from her One Concept Restaurant Group, which runs the Bronze Empire, Miya Moon and Chubby Fish Sushi. 5280 put Blossom on its fall 2026 list of the best new places to eat and drink. The magazine described a dusty-rose-and-jade dining room with granite and bronze finishes, small plates like steamed dumplings, Sichuan-seasoned wagyu tartare and lychee shrimp pearls, and a "staple food" section with blistered green beans and wagyu chow fun. In July, Westword reported that tableside Peking duck service was planned once the right ovens arrived. Blossom's site lists dinner hours of 4 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 4 to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
A few doors down at 1535 Central St., ASA Sushi is the second location of a family-owned restaurant from Greenwood Village. Westword covered it in July. Its menu features the Asa, Diablo and Summer rolls along with nigiri, sashimi, ramen and udon.
On Platte Street, La Vietta Trattoria opened July 9 in the former Brider Rotisserie & Kitchen space, according to Westword. The Denver Post reported that owner Marco Albertin, who previously opened Voghera Ristorante & Apericena, planned a traditional trattoria with pastas and gnocchi, lasagna bolognese, veal Milanese, and a monthly prix-fixe menu from a different Italian region.
What the new mix adds to the lower blocks
Of the five new tenants in the table, four are restaurants, and the two with posted or planned hours are dinner-first. Blossom opens at 4 p.m., and the Acadian's job listing describes dinner service only, with doors at 2 p.m. The Acadian's planned second-story bar and rooftop will also add outdoor seating above Boulder Street, on a corner that already draws evening crowds for ice cream.
The General Store is the exception. Its posted hours start at 9 a.m. every weekday, and it sells the kind of everyday items that until now meant a trip to Zuni and Speer. Haas described the idea in her interview with BusinessDen: "We're trying to brainstorm to piggyback off the stuff that Little Man does and trying – not just for the sake of the business – to give back to the neighborhood."
Westword's restaurant roundups for August, September and October list no further openings or closures on these blocks. The tenant list in the table above is the current lineup going into the holidays.
December, from Boulder Street up to 32nd Avenue
Holiday shopping in the neighborhood moves uphill to 32nd Avenue, while the Boulder Street corner gets its second new tenant of the year.
- Tuesday, December 1: the Acadian's planned opening date at 1575 Boulder St., per its hiring listing.
- Saturday, December 5: the Highland Square Holiday Market, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with Santa and carriage rides from noon to 3 p.m. at 3737 W. 32nd Ave.
- Saturday, December 12: the free LoHi Holiday BAZAAR, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 2138 W. 32nd Ave. The organizer's schedule listed 66 makers confirmed in early November.
If the Acadian opens on schedule, the building Tamburello calls the place where LoHi started will have both new tenants in place, a store and a Cajun rooftop, before the December 12 bazaar.
If you own or lease a storefront near the bridges and want to know how this year's turnover affects your space, I'd be glad to walk through it with you. Reach out to Lara Property Group and we can start with your block.
