The location where El Rancho Colorado, a legendary roadside restaurant in Evergreen, now sits could become more focused on filling empty gas tanks than the bellies of hungry travelers along Interstate 70.
Denver developer Travis McAfoos, part of a team that purchased the restaurant and 5.4 acres of surrounding land out of bankruptcy in 2022, filed a pre-application with Jefferson County Planning and Zoning on Aug. 7 to convert the site to a QuikTrip location.
“The current property owners are evaluating the feasibility of relocating the existing restaurant to a nearby property, thereby creating the opportunity to redevelop the property by utilizing the existing property’s footprint,” wrote Coy Williams, a project manager with Kimley-Horn and Associates, a national design, engineering and consulting firm tasked with the redevelopment effort.
Williams wrote that a second access point would be added on the west side of the existing parcel and that QuikTrip’s proposed design would maintain the mountainous characteristic of Evergreen’s area plan, keeping the one structure planned to a single-story, even though zoning allows for up to three stories.
Founded in 1948, El Rancho has seen multiple owners and tried different formats over the years, including hosting a gift shop and more recently a brewpub. Despite its longevity and popularity as a stop, the restaurant building doesn’t have a historic designation, leaving its fate in the hands of Jefferson County planners.
A day before McAfoos filed the request to convert the El Rancho parcel to QuikTrip Store #4288, his co-investors, Evergreen commercial real estate developers Jack and Sherry Buchanan, through their company Observatory Holdings LLC, submitted a pre-application to develop a hotel, bar and restaurant on land between the El Rancho and the highway.
They are proposing three buildings on the site: a restaurant at 6,500 square feet, a bar at 1,600 square feet and a hotel with 18,500 square feet, as well as a 181-space parking lot.
On the northwest corner of U.S. 40 and Rainbow Hill Road, the site once hosted the now-demolished Observatory Bar. It has two existing access points, and the Buchanans are negotiating additional right of way from the Colorado Department of Transportation, according to a letter filed with the county, also by Kimley-Horn.
McAfoos, reached by phone, declined to comment on the redevelopment of the El Rancho parcel or the fate of the restaurant. Sherry Buchanan did not respond to an interview request.
When McAfoos and the Buchanans acquired the struggling restaurant from Paul Vincent and his family, they seemed committed to its future, bringing in Bonanno Concepts, run by chef Frank Bonnano, to revamp the food service at the start of 2023.
That arrangement, however, only lasted until this April, with Bonanno’s departure partially blamed on the controversy surrounding a mandatory service fee included with every bill.
“Bonanno Concepts will no longer operate El Rancho Colorado, as our vision and values differ from the rest of the current investor group,” the company said in a statement at the time. “We wish them the best in their new approach and look forward to refocusing our attention on our Denver-based restaurants.”
QuikTrip, based in Tulsa, announced its first Colorado location in June 2022 on the site of Pasternack’s Art Hub in Lakewood, previously a pawn shop, and now has 13 locations, with up to 60 proposed for Colorado at one point.
“QuikTrip prides itself on its relations with its customers and the surrounding community,” Williams wrote in his pre-application letter, adding that the company “will soon launch a public website to provide information on the project.”
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