The River North Art District will host Denver’s inaugural common consumption area, enabling patrons to carry alcoholic drinks between local businesses.
DENVER — The River North Art District will be home to Denver’s first common consumption area.
Denver City Council approved the creation of the common consumption area on Monday night, which will allow visitors to carry alcoholic beverages between businesses in the plaza near Mission Ballroom.
Westfield Company Inc., which owns much of the land occupied by Mission Ballroom and Left Hand Brewing, is behind the initiative to create the 8,200-square-foot designated area.
“What common consumption does is it allows for folks to go ahead and purchase alcoholic beverages from businesses and take them out into shared common spaces,” said Ally Fredeen, special projects manager for Westfield Company.
The permit will enable customers to purchase a drink at one licensed establishment, such as Left Hand Brewing, and carry it to another business like the Chubby Unicorn Cantina. The group has spent more than two years preparing the application.
“Forming an association, a non-profit association, and you register a non-profit with the state, you create a board of directors and lay out all of the framework for the association,” Fredeen said about the extensive preparation process.
Westfield Company is no stranger to managing common consumption areas. The developer also owns Stanley Marketplace in Aurora, where a similar program has been operating successfully.
“We have successfully run and continue to run common consumption out there, going on 8th, soon to be 9th year at Stanley,” Fredeen said. “And so we really thought that is something that is a formula for success for Mission Ballroom, shared plaza with our other businesses, which are now open.”
Fredeen emphasized that the initiative aims to foster community connections.
“It’s about bringing people together and creating and building community,” Fredeen said.
Previous reporting by Colton Chavez contributed to this story.
