The Natural Grocers at 1433 Washington St. will close at the end of this month. (Google Maps)
In the first nine months of this year, Denver police received 113 calls for service to the Cap Hill property where a grocery chain plans to close.
Forty-one of the calls to 1433 Washington St. — where Lakewood-based Natural Grocers will shutter at the end of this month — were tagged theft, burglary or shoplifter, according to a call log the department provided to BusinessDen.
On the theft-related call front, the year started quietly, with just two total calls in the above categories over the first four months. But the number spiked to 11 calls in May.
The police department data shows no theft-related calls in June, but 11 in July, 10 in August and seven in September. The last was on Sept. 27, five days before Natural Grocers’ Oct. 2 announcement that the store would cease operations. Those figures don’t include three additional calls tagged auto theft over the course of the year. The property has a large parking lot.
Jeff Robinson of Hampton Partners, the firm that owns the property, said he believes Natural Grocers staff made calls about in-store issues, but not necessarily about other problems nearby.
“The stuff going on outside — my impression is they didn’t call much about that … the loitering, the drug transactions out front,” he said.
The most common categorizations for the other calls were trespassing/unwanted person (32 and disturbance (nine). There were four calls about overdoses, three calls about indecent exposure and one about a fight.
9News and Denverite, which previously reported on crime at the Natural Grocers property, published stories referencing 78 police responses or calls in 2024. That figure includes only “citizen-initiated” calls made to 911 or the Denver police non-emergency line, a department spokesperson said. The additional 35 calls in the data provided to BusinessDen, which bring the total to 113, include scenarios such as an officer being flagged down or observing something themselves.
Robinson has spoken directly about the property’s challenges with Natural Grocers Co-President Kemper Isely, whose parents founded the business as a door-to-door sales operation in the 1950s.
Robinson said he believes that the atmosphere around the store made potential customers feel unsafe, scaring off business. Robinson said he believes that was the greater problem, and that the store could have kept operating if shoplifting was the only concern.
“The theft is a real issue,” Robinson said. “But if that was the only thing going on, I don’t believe they would have left.”
Isely referred an email seeking an interview to company spokeswoman Katie Macarelli, who said the company isn’t interested in discussing the specifics behind its decision.
Told of Robinson’s downplaying of shoplifting’s role in causing the closure, Macarelli did push back somewhat.
“I’d hate to lean that way, to be honest,” he said. “We’ll say theft and safety — and safety can mean lots of things.”
Macarelli did describe the decision to close as something of a proactive move.
“We wanted to take action before something was dramatically unsafe,” she said.
Robinson, the landlord, told BusinessDen that he spoke to Jeff Dolan, Denver’s chief strategy officer and counsel to Mayor Mike Johnston, about issues at the Natural Grocers site before the closure was announced.
Robinson said Dolan brought up the chain’s response to shoplifting.
“He first told me, they weren’t really pressing charges,” Robinson said.
Robinson said that was the case for a time, but had changed. Natural Grocers spokeswoman Macarelli declined to address the matter. Jordan Fuja, a spokeswoman for Johnston, confirmed a meeting between Robinson and leadership in the Mayor’s Office but did not address specific questions about the comment regarding pressing charges.
Fuja said in an email that Denver police “engaged with this business extensively.”
“DPD District 6 team conducted a safety assessment of the property and worked closely with store management to improve safety and crime prevention, including encouraging them to sign a no-trespass agreement, improve lighting around the store, and address environmental design concerns to improve visibility and reduce opportunity for trespassing and criminal activity,” Fuja said. “DPD also increased patrols around the store to help prevent crime.”
One block from Natural Grocers, at 760 E. Colfax Ave., is Argonaut Wine & Liquor. President Josh Robinson, who is Jeff Robinson’s nephew, noted that the business has operated at the site since the 1960s, so “we know what Colfax is like.”
“We have grown up dealing with it,” he said.
Shoplifting has increased in recent years at Argonaut, Josh Robinson said, but help from Denver police has declined.
“We used to be able to get more of a response,” he said.
Argonaut is a busy store, Josh Robinson said, which is something of a deterrent to thieves. Management staff confront individuals as needed, he said. Argonaut has previously hired private security and off-duty police officers, but that has become “prohibitively expensive” given that sales have fallen in the wake of changes allowing first full-strength beer, and more recently wine, in grocery stores.
Argonaut’s wine sales are about 40 percent lower than their peak, Josh Robinson said. The company has stocked other items that seem complementary — such as grill charcoal and lighter fluid — but even if the items are a hit the store is subject to regulation that caps the sale of non-alcoholic items at 20 percent.
“It’s caused us to have to adjust in every way,” he said.
Natural Grocers, which opened at 1433 Washington St. in 2014, has more than four years left on its lease. Macarelli said the company will seek to sublet the space.
Josh Robinson said he hopes the building going dark doesn’t worsen the area’s challenges.
“That seems to be more of a magnet for some of the activity,” he said of vacancy.
Josh Robinson said the pending closure of Natural Grocers is “such a bummer,” but that the area still has plenty of retailers that are committed to the street.
“They were a great neighbor, but Colfax is still a great place to shop. There’s a ton of amazing businesses here.”
