Overview:
Despite several attempts and ongoing efforts to bring more grocery stores to RiNo, the neighborhood remains a food desert.
The River North Arts District, affectionately known as RiNo, seemingly has it all. The upcoming area located just northwest of downtown is chock-full of award-winning art, trendy restaurants, lively bars and some of Denver’s most unique businesses. Still, despite the district seeing unprecedented growth over the last decade, residents say there’s something important missing in the area: grocery stores.
“It’s Natural Grocers or bust here,” said RiNo resident John Ruktowitz. “We don’t really have other options in the area. We have plenty of liquor stores, but if you want food, you’re out of luck.”
As of Sept. 2025, RiNo only has one grocery store option, the Natural Grocers off 38th Street and Brighton Blvd. While Rutkowitz says Natural Grocers is a fine option, its small size, high prices and limited selection aren’t enough to properly serve the booming area.
“[Natural Grocers] is nice, but you can only get so much there,” Rutkowitz said. “It’s small, and since it’s a health store, you can only get healthy stuff. If you want to get more standard grocery items, you need to go to [King Soopers].”
Another RiNo resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, says that things have changed quite drastically since they moved to the area over 50 years ago. The plethora of local grocery shops they remember growing up are now gone.
“It’s hard to get groceries here now,” the resident said. “It used to be that there were a lot of small corner grocery stores that people went to here. They used to line Champa [Street], but those are no more.”
Before RiNo’s reimagining as a trendy arts district, the area where River North Arts District is now was an industrial hub at the intersection of four neighborhoods: Elyria-Swansea, Cole, Globeville and Five Points. Following the industrial decline in the mid-1900s, the area’s warehouses began to become empty and deteriorate.
The 2005 founding of the RiNo Arts District transformed the area into what it is now, changing it drastically, but not without consequences. Those small grocery stores and corner bodegas of RiNo’s past have been an unfortunate victim of the district’s gentrification, as many of the diverse residents were pushed out and replaced by upscale housing, corporate offices and storefronts for large national retailers.
RiNo residents are currently stuck going to the King Soopers off 20th and Wewatta, as that’s the closest large grocery chain to the arts district. While it’s only about 1.5 miles from the center of RiNo, those without a car would have to make a nearly 40-minute journey each way to get their groceries.
The Safeway in Five Points off Washington and 20th is also an option, but the same anonymous source says the establishment has gained a negative reputation within the community.
“The locals call it ‘the unsafe Safeway,’” said the source. “They always have so many people hanging out in the parking lot and stuff. I know one of the security guards there really well, and they’re always dealing with something.”
From the top, city leadership knows something must be done about RiNo’s status as a food desert. The office of City Councilman Darrell Watson of District Nine, which encompasses RiNo and Five Points, notes that they are aware of their constituents’ concerns about the lack of grocery stores in the area.
“Denver City Council Member Darrell Watson agrees with his constituents that we need more grocery stores throughout District 9 because every family needs access to safe, healthy and affordable food regardless of their zip code,” wrote Councilman Watson’s Senior Policy Advisor in a statement to Bucket List.
Watson and residents of RiNo have been facing this issue for quite some time. CEO of Denver-based property development company EXDO Group, Andrew Feinstein, has been trying to build a grocery store on a block in RiNo owned by his company since around 2019, but for various reasons, things haven’t worked out.
“The two things that come up the most are we need a grocery store and we need more affordable housing,” Feinstein said in a meeting with City Council members back in 2019. Fast forward six years, and little progress has been made.
Though Feinstein’s EXDO Group took a shot at tackling the district’s food desert issue, drawing up plans to build a grocery store topped by apartments on the corner of 36th and Downing, the project never materialized. Things looked all clear after Feinstein and EXDO were able to land a deal with Sprouts to be the tenant of that space, but he told the Denver Post that everything went downhill after a rezoning mishap with the City of Denver, causing over nine months of delays. Sprouts pulled out of the project.
“We lost Sprouts on the other side of the rezoning,” Feinstein told the Denver Post. “If we didn’t go through that process, there would be a Sprouts there that you’d be shopping at.”
After trying and falling short on their plans, Feinstein sold the 2.3-acre site to Dallas-based Trammell Crow Residential, known as TCR, which announced plans to build more housing and retail space. However, the project’s limited 4,500 square feet in retail space indicates that a large grocery tenant won’t be involved.
“We all wanted another grocery store there [on 36th and Downing],” Rutkowitz said. “It’s really a shame that didn’t come to fruition… What we need is more [grocery] options, and it’s frustrating that we can’t seem to figure out a solution.”
Despite the uphill struggle and persistent failure to bring more grocery options to the area, not all hope is lost. Development group EDENS is currently planning to build a 12,500 square-foot grocery store at the corner of 27th and Lawrence next to the Volunteers of America building across from Denver Central Market.
No tenant has been announced, but given the size, a small- to medium-sized store like Sprouts, Trader Joe’s, Lucky’s Market or Marczyk Fine Foods could fit the space. Bucket List reached out to EDENS for more information on the development but didn’t receive a response. However, the anonymous source and Rutkowitz both voiced their support for this project.
“Yes, I would [support it],” said the anonymous source when asked about his thoughts on the project. “Another [grocery] store here [in Southern RiNo] would be great.”
A separate grocery store is in the early stages of development on the corner of 39th and Franklin, bordering the Cole neighborhood. The Drill Rock Urban Redevelopment Area, located in the old Drill Rock Manufacturing Company facility, plans to turn the 8.1-acre site into a new “mixed-use live-work-play development,” which includes a market, affordable housing, retail and office space, a grocer and more, according to city documents posted by the Denver Urban Redevelopment Authority.
As plans for the new Drill Rock site are preliminary, further details about the grocer have yet to be announced, and nothing has been finalized or approved.
While it looks like RiNo’s food desert problem may be remedied at some point in the coming years, residents can’t help but feel pessimistic that there is little urgency while the need for another grocery store in the area continues growing.
“Something’s gotta be done eventually,” Rutkowitz said. “Everyone here knows we need another grocery store and fully supports the idea. It’s not a matter of if [a grocery store] comes, it’s a matter of when. And hopefully that’s soon.”
