Downtown Pueblo could be seeing more people walking through the streets, if a project spearheaded by the non-profit Neighborworks Southern Colorado comes to fruition by its goal of September 2019.
The plan is to include 7 apartment units on the upper level, plus a grocery store and retail space on the main level of the old Clark’s Western Store on 3rd and Main streets.
‘It’s near and dear to our community,’ said Andrea De La Garza, President of Neighborworks and a native of Pueblo, ‘Clark’s Western was here for a very long time and we’re going to put this building to good us.’
The project is funded through some partnerships with the non-profit, and the group is looking to get $500,000 through a fundraising effort.
The hope for the non-profit group is to revitalize downtown by providing needs of housing and a grocery store- with parts of Pueblo county in a food desert.
‘Our downtown really sort of vacated at the onset of the mall being put in in the 1980’s and we’ve slowly tried to bring it back,’ said Ashley Winans, CEO of Neighborworks.
The grocery store would be small, but Winans envisions people who work downtown utilizing it- not just the people living in the units above.
‘There hasn’t been sort of that concentrated effort centered around creating housing opportunities and we’re also sitting in a huge food desert which makes it difficult to want to live down here,’ said Winans.
The project is expected to finish by September 2019, but could be extended to January 2020.
