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WEEK OF APRIL 10, 2025
VOLUME 98 | ISSUE 19
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Ex-Tattered Cover CEO buys building for return to bookselling BY MATT GEIGER BUSINESSDEN
Two scooter riders wait to cross Sheridan Boulevard at West 20th Ave as they leave Sloans Lake Park.
PHOTO BY ALLEN COWGILL
Sheridan Boulevard study seeks to improve safety Governments to look at ‘high-injury street,’ how to make improvements BY ALLEN COWGILL SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
The Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG), an organization that represents and works on behalf of governments throughout the Denver metro area on regional issues, is funding and leading a Sheridan Boulevard safety study between Hampden Boulevard and Interstate 76. Sheridan Boulevard has been identified by DRCOG as a high-injury network street, one of the streets in the Denver metro area that has a disproportionate number of fatal and serious-injury crashes. The study focused on making the road safer for people that drive, walk, roll, and use transit. As previously reported by Colorado Community Media, residents along both sides
of Sheridan have expressed frustration in the dangers of the road including speeding and dangerous drivers. The program manager for this study, Nora Kern, said “The most overwhelming theme we’ve heard so far (both from the general public and Civic Advisory Committee) has been that Sheridan feels scary and unsafe for everyone — whether they are on foot or bike trying to cross the street, standing along Sheridan waiting for the bus, or driving along Sheridan. It’s really not currently working well for anyone.” Kern said she has also heard lots of concerns from people that walk. They have told her the sidewalks are in poor condition, often too narrow, and there are sections with no sidewalks. There are also long distances between safe pedestrian crossings, where residents
CALENDAR: 9 | VOICES: 10 | LIFE: 12
have to walk quite a ways to find a safe place to cross. Even where there are signalized crossings, pedestrians and people on scooters and bicycles “are often in conflict with turning vehicles.” In the last five years in north Denver, there have been five fatal crashes along Sheridan Boulevard. Two of them involved drivers running red lights in separate incidents that killed a pedestrian who was walking at West 48th Avenue, and another incident in 2023 involving Logan Rocklin, who was biking to dinner across Sheridan at West 38th Avenue. Another involved a speeding driver at West 35th Avenue, and a person on a motorcycle was killed in the 1700 block of Sheridan Boulevard by a driver. SEE SAFETY, P7
Former Tattered Cover co-owner and CEO Kwame Spearman is turning the page in his bookselling career. “Hopefully, second time will be a little bit more of a charm,” Spearman said. The 41-year-old plans to open a bookstore with “soul and substance” at 1700 Humboldt St. in City Park West. He and a partner bought the 9,000-square-foot building for $2.9 million this week, records show. Spearman and fellow Denver native David Back led an investor group that bought Tattered Coverin December 2020, describing it as a business devastated by the pandemic. Spearman served as CEO until April 2023, when he stepped down amid an unsuccessful run for the Denver school board. Prior to that, he briefly ran for mayor. The bookstore chain opened locations in Colorado Springs and Westminster under Spearman’s tenure, but neither lasted more than two years. The business lost over $650,000 in the first nine months of 2023, ultimately filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy that October. It sold last summer to Barnes & Noble for $1.8 million. “Tattered Cover losing its independent status was disappointing to a lot of people, including me,” he said. Spearman wants to open his new bookstore, dubbed Denver Book Society, by spring 2026. He said it will take about 3,500 square feet of the former Humboldt Kitchen + Bar restaurant, which closed two years ago after a decade on the corner. He is considering turning the restaurant’s former kitchen into a smaller, approximately 2,000-square-foot eatery. SEE BOOKSELLING, P7
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