The business improvement district’s boundaries run along Welton between 20th and 30th streets. (Maia Luem/BusinessDen)
When Norman Harris was a boy, the rumbling around town was that the economic prosperity of downtown Denver was going to spill over into Five Points.
“Two generations ago I used to hear these folks talking about this coming revitalization and better times were coming,” Harris said.
Now 47, he said the murmurs are the same, but nothing has changed. So, he put his hat in to be the first executive director of the Five Points Business Improvement District, and was appointed to the role earlier this month.
“I didn’t want us to be kicking the can down the road again and saying next year will be the year for Five Points,” Harris said.
Prior to Harris, the BID, whose boundaries run on Welton Street from 20th to 30th Streets, was managed by the Downtown Denver Partnership. DDP spokeswoman Britt Diehl said the BID has “grown up” and has the budget and team needed to support the neighborhood. She said DDP will continue to work with Harris and the BID board as needed.
“The scope of the work is defined but there’s no playbook – that’s kind of my job, to design the playbook,” Harris said. “It’s really exciting to be the first. I’m sure my elders would be highly proud, but with that comes a ton of responsibility.”
The third-generation Denverite started his career after graduating from Colorado State University at a Colorado mutual fund. In 2008, he started a small T-shirt printing company on the side.
Norman Harris
A few years later, he asked to get involved with the Five Points Juneteenth Music Festival Corp., and became the lead organizer in 2012. He said that led him to the Five Points Business District, the community organization before the BID was established. Harris also founded The Holleran Group, a land development firm involved in the effort to redevelop the Park Hill Golf Course, in 2017.
In 2021, Harris decided to leave his job at the mutual fund to focus on being an entrepreneur. He and his family bought Five Point’s Spangalang Brewery the following year.
Harris said the BID job is a full-time position, although he’s not leaving his other roles at Spangalang and Juneteenth Music Festival.
During his first 90 days as executive director, Harris said his goal is to meet neighborhood stakeholders, like community organizations, property and business owners. Eventually he wants to rally everyone together to form a “collective vision” for the neighborhood that he can execute.
“(That’s) the pathway forward to achieve the goal of it not being an up-and-coming neighborhood, but a neighborhood that has arrived,” Harris said.
In addition, Harris said this year he wants to re-prioritize Five Points in not only Mayor Johnston’s administration, but all of Denver. To him, the neighborhood has so much history that it’s carried in the bricks and the “music vibrates different,” so it deserves to be at the forefront of Denver’s revitalization plans.
“It makes sense for us to focus on it the way we’re focusing on 16th Street Mall,” Harris said. “If you have these connected neighborhoods to downtown that are truly thriving it builds into a broader ecosystem that makes our city overall a better place.”
When he was a boy, learning to count at his grandfather’s liquor store on Welton and 25th Streets, he dreamed of a prospering Five Points. Now, he thinks he can make it happen.
“I really hold in high regard and look forward to providing the leadership to fulfill those dreams and hopes of what the neighborhood could be,” Harris said.
The business improvement district’s boundaries run along Welton between 20th and 30th streets. (Maia Luem/BusinessDen)
When Norman Harris was a boy, the rumbling around town was that the economic prosperity of downtown Denver was going to spill over into Five Points.
“Two generations ago I used to hear these folks talking about this coming revitalization and better times were coming,” Harris said.
Now 47, he said the murmurs are the same, but nothing has changed. So, he put his hat in to be the first executive director of the Five Points Business Improvement District, and was appointed to the role earlier this month.
“I didn’t want us to be kicking the can down the road again and saying next year will be the year for Five Points,” Harris said.
Prior to Harris, the BID, whose boundaries run on Welton Street from 20th to 30th Streets, was managed by the Downtown Denver Partnership. DDP spokeswoman Britt Diehl said the BID has “grown up” and has the budget and team needed to support the neighborhood. She said DDP will continue to work with Harris and the BID board as needed.
“The scope of the work is defined but there’s no playbook – that’s kind of my job, to design the playbook,” Harris said. “It’s really exciting to be the first. I’m sure my elders would be highly proud, but with that comes a ton of responsibility.”
The third-generation Denverite started his career after graduating from Colorado State University at a Colorado mutual fund. In 2008, he started a small T-shirt printing company on the side.
Norman Harris
A few years later, he asked to get involved with the Five Points Juneteenth Music Festival Corp., and became the lead organizer in 2012. He said that led him to the Five Points Business District, the community organization before the BID was established. Harris also founded The Holleran Group, a land development firm involved in the effort to redevelop the Park Hill Golf Course, in 2017.
In 2021, Harris decided to leave his job at the mutual fund to focus on being an entrepreneur. He and his family bought Five Point’s Spangalang Brewery the following year.
Harris said the BID job is a full-time position, although he’s not leaving his other roles at Spangalang and Juneteenth Music Festival.
During his first 90 days as executive director, Harris said his goal is to meet neighborhood stakeholders, like community organizations, property and business owners. Eventually he wants to rally everyone together to form a “collective vision” for the neighborhood that he can execute.
“(That’s) the pathway forward to achieve the goal of it not being an up-and-coming neighborhood, but a neighborhood that has arrived,” Harris said.
In addition, Harris said this year he wants to re-prioritize Five Points in not only Mayor Johnston’s administration, but all of Denver. To him, the neighborhood has so much history that it’s carried in the bricks and the “music vibrates different,” so it deserves to be at the forefront of Denver’s revitalization plans.
“It makes sense for us to focus on it the way we’re focusing on 16th Street Mall,” Harris said. “If you have these connected neighborhoods to downtown that are truly thriving it builds into a broader ecosystem that makes our city overall a better place.”
When he was a boy, learning to count at his grandfather’s liquor store on Welton and 25th Streets, he dreamed of a prospering Five Points. Now, he thinks he can make it happen.
“I really hold in high regard and look forward to providing the leadership to fulfill those dreams and hopes of what the neighborhood could be,” Harris said.
