Goodly Cookies owner Mark Suleiman planned to open a shop on the ground floor of The Coloradan in 2022. (Courtesy Goodly Cookies)
A cookie shop that leased space for three years next to Union Station but never opened has been evicted by a judge as its landlord sues it for $380,000 in back rent.
Goodly Cookies, which was founded in Utah in 2017 and is now based in Nebraska, was removed from The Coloradan condo building at 1750 Wewatta St. by Judge Mark Bailey on April 5. Court documents from that eviction case were unsealed on April 23.
“It’ll be nice to take a breath, try again and make sure we understand our landlord before we get into bed with somebody,” Goodly Cookies owner Mark Suleiman said by phone last week. “I think that’s probably a good lesson learned on my end, to be candid with you.”
Goodly and Suleiman signed a ground-floor lease for 1,400 square feet at The Coloradan in May 2021. Suleiman told BusinessDen then that Goodly “wanted to be at The Coloradan and this part of downtown,” citing its “great rooftops, high rises and new developments.”
The plan was for Goodly to build out its space that year and open by early 2022. Ascentris, a local private equity firm that co-developed The Coloradan alongside East West Partners, said that Goodly never even applied for a building permit. Suleiman disputes that.
“We had plans, we had a permit, we had interviews with a general contractor,” he said.
“We paid rent for several years and had no issues and then we ended up just agreeing to disagree,” Suleiman said. “We couldn’t get what we needed approved and we couldn’t modify our plan to make this space work, so we just surrendered the space.”
The 19-story Coloradan was completed near Union Station in 2019. (Courtesy of The Coloradan)
Ascentris alleges that Goodly repeatedly fell behind on rent so, in February, it demanded that Goodly leave immediately or be evicted. Ascentris then moved to evict Feb. 16.
No one from Goodly appeared at a March 13 eviction hearing — “It wasn’t worth the court fees to go show up and adjudicate a surrendered space,” Suleiman said — so Bailey ordered it to leave 1750 Wewatta. Because Suleiman and Goodly have not answered Ascentris’ February lawsuit, the landlord is now asking Bailey to award it $378,290 in back rent and fees.
Suleiman said he is the one who hasn’t been paid. More than $200,000 in finish-out allowances were never given to Goodly as promised, its owner alleges: “We never saw a penny.”
Through its lawyers, Ascentris declined to discuss Goodly Cookies and its plans for Goodly’s former unit at 1750 Wewatta. That company is represented by attorneys David Brewster and Nate Arrington with Otten Johnson Robinson Neff & Ragonetti in Denver.
Suleiman bought Goodly from its founders in 2020 after visiting Salt Lake City and being impressed. It has three locations now, all in Nebraska. Suleiman’s holding company also owns Tasty Burger, which was once the official burger of the Boston Red Sox.
Suleiman said that he remains “fantastically excited about Denver,” specifically the area around Union Station, and is considering Boulder as well. “But the concept of opening a new market for just desserts is a little bit intimidating. … I think people are a lot more careful with their discretionary dollar today and desserts have always been an optional menu item.”
“Our story is not done in Colorado,” he said. “I’d like to find a better way to start it though.”
Goodly Cookies owner Mark Suleiman planned to open a shop on the ground floor of The Coloradan in 2022. (Courtesy Goodly Cookies)
A cookie shop that leased space for three years next to Union Station but never opened has been evicted by a judge as its landlord sues it for $380,000 in back rent.
Goodly Cookies, which was founded in Utah in 2017 and is now based in Nebraska, was removed from The Coloradan condo building at 1750 Wewatta St. by Judge Mark Bailey on April 5. Court documents from that eviction case were unsealed on April 23.
“It’ll be nice to take a breath, try again and make sure we understand our landlord before we get into bed with somebody,” Goodly Cookies owner Mark Suleiman said by phone last week. “I think that’s probably a good lesson learned on my end, to be candid with you.”
Goodly and Suleiman signed a ground-floor lease for 1,400 square feet at The Coloradan in May 2021. Suleiman told BusinessDen then that Goodly “wanted to be at The Coloradan and this part of downtown,” citing its “great rooftops, high rises and new developments.”
The plan was for Goodly to build out its space that year and open by early 2022. Ascentris, a local private equity firm that co-developed The Coloradan alongside East West Partners, said that Goodly never even applied for a building permit. Suleiman disputes that.
“We had plans, we had a permit, we had interviews with a general contractor,” he said.
“We paid rent for several years and had no issues and then we ended up just agreeing to disagree,” Suleiman said. “We couldn’t get what we needed approved and we couldn’t modify our plan to make this space work, so we just surrendered the space.”
The 19-story Coloradan was completed near Union Station in 2019. (Courtesy of The Coloradan)
Ascentris alleges that Goodly repeatedly fell behind on rent so, in February, it demanded that Goodly leave immediately or be evicted. Ascentris then moved to evict Feb. 16.
No one from Goodly appeared at a March 13 eviction hearing — “It wasn’t worth the court fees to go show up and adjudicate a surrendered space,” Suleiman said — so Bailey ordered it to leave 1750 Wewatta. Because Suleiman and Goodly have not answered Ascentris’ February lawsuit, the landlord is now asking Bailey to award it $378,290 in back rent and fees.
Suleiman said he is the one who hasn’t been paid. More than $200,000 in finish-out allowances were never given to Goodly as promised, its owner alleges: “We never saw a penny.”
Through its lawyers, Ascentris declined to discuss Goodly Cookies and its plans for Goodly’s former unit at 1750 Wewatta. That company is represented by attorneys David Brewster and Nate Arrington with Otten Johnson Robinson Neff & Ragonetti in Denver.
Suleiman bought Goodly from its founders in 2020 after visiting Salt Lake City and being impressed. It has three locations now, all in Nebraska. Suleiman’s holding company also owns Tasty Burger, which was once the official burger of the Boston Red Sox.
Suleiman said that he remains “fantastically excited about Denver,” specifically the area around Union Station, and is considering Boulder as well. “But the concept of opening a new market for just desserts is a little bit intimidating. … I think people are a lot more careful with their discretionary dollar today and desserts have always been an optional menu item.”
“Our story is not done in Colorado,” he said. “I’d like to find a better way to start it though.”
