UMS' Final Act Marks A Turning Point For Broadway Commercial Corridor

Denver’s South Broadway neighborhood is a retail success story, built on organic growth shaped by artists, entrepreneurs and misfits as the city grew at a breathtaking pace over the last 20 years. 

Now, the corridor must bid farewell to one of the artistic institutions that helped make it what it is today as the Underground Music Showcase plays its final set. For the businesses that line Broadway, losing the music festival after 25 years is an especially large jolt as a steady stream of retailers relocate or close altogether, the latest casualties of the city’s creeping gentrification.

“There’s no doubt that UMS is synonymous with South Broadway,” Jami Duffy, executive director of Youth on Record — which has a 30% stake in the festival — and co-manager of the event itself, told Bisnow in an interview. “It carried this strong independent vibe — interesting shops, DIY venues, that perfect mix of grit and culture an ecosystem needs.”

Unlike the River North Art District’s manufactured cool or 16th Street’s tourist bent, Broadway’s character wasn’t master-planned. It grew from the ground up. But as cultural tension brews and redevelopment creeps into a neighborhood where the longtime motto was “Keep South Broadway weird,” the question is whether that soul can survive. 

The three-day arts-and-music festival, which draws as many as 30,000 people to the strip each summer, will shut down after this year’s edition. Its co-managers cite rising costs, low sponsorship support and an unsustainable financial model as key reasons for the decision.

The music isn’t the only thing disappearing. Since UMS announced its end run on July 1, craft-beer staples TRVE Brewing and Banded Oak, just blocks away from each other on Broadway, announced closures. The Hornet restaurant, which has operated for 30 years at 1st and Broadway, is reportedly up for sale, and its location is up for lease.

Indie book and record destination Mutiny Information Cafe vacated its longtime storefront at 2 S. Broadway in Denver in September 2024, saying it had been “priced out” of the neighborhood. It relocated to the Englewood section of South Broadway instead. Fancy Tiger, a popular crafts shop, made a similar move from Denver to Englewood last year and has since shut down completely. 

Losing UMS means losing a crucial revenue source for businesses trying to afford those increasing rents. 

“My business almost tripled last year,” said Yohannes Hailleab, the owner of Sooper B Liquors at 100 S. Broadway, referring to UMS weekend. “It’s a good event.” 

But rising rents and shorter-term lease renewals are making it harder for him to plan ahead, he said.

“You can’t raise prices every time rent goes up. People just go to Costco or Sam’s Club,” where liquor — especially wine — is often cheaper, Hailleab said.

Despite the departures, vacancy is still tight on the corridor at around 2.7% from Sixth Avenue down to East Belleview Avenue. But increasing numbers of retailers are eyeing the section of Broadway south of East Yale Avenue, where Denver’s boundary ends and Englewood’s begins. 

Rents for Broadway space in Englewood are roughly $23 per SF, according to Pinnacle Real Estate Advisors, which keeps its headquarters on South Broadway. For Denver space, rents are $32 per SF, a marked premium over its neighbor to the south.

But even the Englewood chunk of South Broadway is getting less affordable: Rents there have increased by 76% in the last decade, while Denver’s are up 50% in the same period, according to Pinnacle.

New arrivals on the corridor point to a shifting demographic. Hip brunch chain Snooze: An A.M. Eatery opened in 2022 catty-corner from The Hornet, a singular location often seen as a brunch spot with a neighborhood flair.

Just up the street, newcomer MDE Lounge offers upscale Colombian dining and cocktails. Around the corner, MAKfam, a Chinese street-food concept that got its start as a New York City pop-up, launched in a sleek space at First and Broadway in 2023.

A pending plan could help stabilize the corridor, although it would also increase the cost of doing business.

A proposed Broadway general improvement district would replace three older maintenance districts and could raise more than $1M annually through property taxes to fund round-the-clock security, cleaning and marketing for community events. The Denver City Council is expected to hold a public hearing Aug. 4, with a potential vote on the November ballot.

Ricardo Baca, who co-founded UMS in 2000 and now leads a public relations firm, said it’s tough to see the festival go, but acknowledged that neighborhoods evolve. 

When he was organizing the festival, business owners would regularly thank him for helping them stay afloat during lean summers, he said.

“I’m so proud that John [Moore] and I created such a beautiful thing, and the people who have overseen and managed the festival in the years since, including my dear friend Kendall Smith, have only made it better—even as the business conditions for creative businesses has somehow gotten worse,” Baca told Bisnow in a text message. “That said, I don’t think this is the last we’ll hear from the UMS.” 

He nodded to the UMS tagline of “Bless this mess, it’s UMS!”

The festival has built too much cultural value in the region to disappear entirely, and he urged the current owners not to abandon it, acknowledging how difficult it is to run a festival of that scale but insisting it’s worth preserving in some form.

Peter Sengelmann of Pinnacle agreed that the environment is changing. The face of retail is always shifting, but South Broadway needs real investment in safety and cleanliness if it wants to retain its commercial appeal, he said. 

“I don’t think that necessarily people are being driven out of South Broadway,” Sengelmann said.

He also said he’s not seeing a trend of shorter leases or other potentially aggravating rental factors other than those that many areas in Denver are also facing.

“This is how retail naturally evolves,” he said.

He said he tends to think of South Broadway in segments, acknowledging that the area around Broadway and Alameda feels rough while the stretch closer to Sixth Avenue isn’t as bad. Between I-25 and Evans, he said things seem OK, though there’s been a lot of turnover. He’s still hopeful for improvements in the more troubled spots.

Luke Johnson, director of the GID-leading Broadway Merchants Association, said his group tracks vacancy and crime data, but the bigger issue is what the community is saying. 

“The real driving factor is also what the neighborhood (business owners, residents) are screaming,” Johnson told Bisnow in a text message. ”Which is that they are tired of having a street that feels unsafe and unkept. 

Residents are frustrated with the seemingly uncertain future of the Halloween parade — which almost didn’t happen in 2024 due to financial reasons — Johnson said, noting that it’s another big revenue generator for the local business community. 

“And of course we are sad to lose UMS, which is the biggest weekend of the year. If we had a GID, we would have been able to offer financial support to bolster UMS. Those are also the important pieces that often speak as loud or louder than the statistics of vacancies.”

Indeed, for longtime residents, fans and artists, the loss cuts deeper than dollars, crime or rent increases.

But this moment, Duffy said, feels pivotal. 

“I think the reason that the loss of UMS feels so personal to all of us is because it feels like something bigger. It feels like something’s being taken away. Either that or it’s the end of an era,” Duffy said.