There is still a supermarket building at 1653 S. Colorado Blvd. It has the wide front, the big parking field and the long aisles. What it no longer has is groceries. That building was the Safeway on Cory-Merrill's eastern edge. Safeway's notice to the Colorado Department of Labor gave November 7, 2025 as the expected date it would close to the public. When Denverite reported the regional closures, it named Cory-Merrill as the neighborhood most affected by this one, and quoted Safeway saying the closures would let it invest in its stores and "better align with evolving customer needs."
The aisles and coolers are now being swapped for hardwood and laminate displays. BusinessDen reported on June 23, 2026 that Floor & Decor has leased the building for a showroom. It will be the company's second store in Denver and its seventh in the metro area. That report covered the lease and didn't give an opening date.
On its own, that reads like a neighborhood losing its grocery store. Follow the boulevard a little further, though, and a different pattern shows up. Groceries in this part of Denver have pulled together into one big store across the street. The Cory-Merrill side of Colorado Boulevard is turning into a strip of stores you visit for one specific purchase.
Two Old Grocery Stores Became One New One
Seven months after the Safeway's expected closing date, King Soopers made its own move. The Belcaro store at 825 S. Colorado Blvd., north of Mississippi Avenue, closed at the end of the day on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, after more than 50 years in business. The next morning a new $37 million store opened at 4201 E. Arkansas Ave., at Colorado Boulevard and Arkansas Avenue in Virginia Village.
The new site used to be the Colorado Department of Transportation's headquarters. A developer tried and failed to build affordable housing there in 2021. Kentro Group took over the redevelopment and broke ground on the grocery store in early 2025. Denverite's coverage of the opening drew the connection straight to Cory-Merrill. It said the new store could fill the gap left when the nearby Safeway closed.
That means a single 103,000-square-foot King Soopers Marketplace has taken over the work two smaller stores used to split. One sat on the neighborhood's edge and the other a mile north in Belcaro. The store's own page lists a lot more than the old Safeway carried:
- Grocery hours: daily, 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.
- Fuel center: daily, 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
- Pharmacy: drive-through service. Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed daily from 1 to 1:30 p.m.
- In-store counters: a Starbucks, a Murray's Cheese shop, and grocery pickup
The rest of the former CDOT site is only partly built. The 151-unit Krisana Apartments, which sit right next to the store at Arkansas Avenue and Birch Street, are finished and leasing. Kentro's plans also call for a public park with a restaurant or beer-garden concept, plus a multimodal transit center. Those plans date to 2023, and no tenants or dates have been announced, so for now they remain proposals.
The Near Side of the Boulevard, Address by Address
With the groceries now east of Colorado, look at what is happening along the Cory-Merrill frontage between Mississippi Avenue and I-25. Every change in the past year has gone the same way. Each one points to a store built around a single errand.
| Address | What was there | What's happening | Status as of October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1470 S. Colorado Blvd. | Former Arby's and Black-Eyed Pea buildings | In-N-Out drive-thru, 3,886 sq ft, 74 indoor and 58 outdoor seats | Concept plan filed; company says it isn't far enough along to comment |
| 1550 S. Colorado Blvd. | Dardano's shoe store | Dardano's has filed plans for a larger store farther north at 865 S. Colorado | Reported as Dardano's Denver store in June 2026; no move date reported |
| 1653 S. Colorado Blvd. | Safeway | Floor & Decor showroom | Lease confirmed in June 2026; no opening date reported |
The Denver Post's report on the In-N-Out filing said the concept plan went to the city on a Friday in late August. It covers a 1.54-acre site where both existing buildings would be torn down. Matt Loevenguth, In-N-Out's director of real estate, told the Post the company "continues to evaluate opportunities for future restaurant locations throughout the greater Denver area, but we don't have any new projects that are far enough along to offer comment at this time." Nothing more recent has been reported, so this is still a filing and not a construction schedule.
Dardano's is the shoe retailer, not a grocer. Its plan would take it north to the parcel by the old Belcaro King Soopers. Documents filed in May by G3 Architecture describe an 18,034-square-foot building there. That breaks down to a 14,910-square-foot single-story store plus a 3,124-square-foot mezzanine, with 57 parking spaces on site. As of early August, the city had finished concept review and was waiting on a formal site development plan. Dardano's did not respond to the Post's requests for comment.
Where the Old King Soopers Is Headed
The north end of this stretch is still in progress. The Belcaro Shopping Center covers 7 acres at the southwest corner of East Exposition Avenue and Colorado Boulevard. Kentro Group and San Antonio-based Embrey have proposed a four-story, wrap-style apartment building there with 347 units on about 5 acres. Thirty-five of those units would be leased at 60 percent of area median income. This version is much smaller than the developers' first proposal, which had several residential towers and about 700 units. Bisnow reported the plan was cut back after nearby residents raised concerns.
At the end of July, a King Soopers spokesperson said the company had found a buyer for the vacant store and was working through the details of the sale. As of the Post's August 4 report, the city's permitting portal showed the apartment site plan as "resubmittal required." Embrey's Casey Klein told the paper, "We remain fully committed to the project." A Post photo taken July 29 shows the old store building still standing.
The Other Full-Service Grocers in Reach
The new King Soopers is the closest full-service grocery store, but it isn't the only one along this corridor. Each of these lists current hours on its official store page:
- Whole Foods Market, 870 S. Colorado Blvd., north of Mississippi near the Belcaro site
- Natural Grocers, 2053 S. Colorado Blvd., at Colorado and Evans
- Safeway, 2150 S. Downing St., to the west
- Sprouts Farmers Market, 2880 S. Colorado Blvd.
Two of these, Natural Grocers and Sprouts, are south of I-25. This fall, getting to them means passing through a construction zone.
The Trip South of I-25 Runs Through Construction Until Late 2027
In July 2026, Denver started the Buchtel Boulevard & Evans Intersection Improvements. The project adds protected bike lanes, sidewalks and crossings along two miles of Buchtel Boulevard. It also rebuilds five intersections, including Evans at Colorado and Evans at University, and adds new crosswalks next to RTD's Colorado Station. CDOT's project page lists a $24.2 million construction cost, Ames Construction as the contractor, and a timeline running from July 2026 to December 2027. That puts the rebuild of the Colorado and Evans intersection, where Natural Grocers sits, on roughly the same calendar as the changes along the boulevard to the north.
For the week of Sunday, October 11 through Saturday, October 17, the city has posted these closures:
- Buchtel Boulevard is closed 24/7 between University Boulevard and St. Paul Street, with detours to Evans Avenue. The left turn from southbound University onto eastbound Buchtel is closed too.
- Northbound University Boulevard is down to one lane from East Jewell Avenue to the southbound I-25 on-ramp. The ramp stays open.
- The south Buchtel sidewalk is closed to people on foot and on bikes, with detours to the north side and the trail.
Around October 20, work moves from the east side of the University and Buchtel intersection to the west side. The city says it will post updates once dates are confirmed. A new pedestrian detour at the southeast corner of University and Buchtel can be reached from DU's Lot 108. It is fully ADA-compliant, and the city suggests allowing an extra one to two minutes to get around it. Driveways and businesses along the route stay open throughout.
The Cory-Merrill Neighborhood Association lists its next general assembly for Wednesday, October 21, 2026, at 6 p.m. at the Kirk of the Bonnie Brae. As of this month, the In-N-Out filing, the Floor & Decor opening and the Belcaro resubmittal all lack public dates.
When the store at the end of your block changes, people tend to wonder what it means for their own house. At Aaron Linkow, we follow these Colorado Boulevard addresses closely, and we're happy to show you how they fit into what homes on your street are worth today. Start with a Free Home Valuation.
