Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
That the Fort Restaurant out there in Morrison, the real
Colorado institution, is being sold. It was founded in nineteen
sixty three and has been in the hands of one
family this whole time, and it's being sold to a group,
a local group, a Denver group called City Street Investors,
and joining us to talk about their purchase of the
(00:21):
Fort and their vision for it going forward and why
this was an interesting deal for them. Is Joe Vostries,
who is co founder and principal of City Street Investors.
That is their website as well, by the way, if
you want to learn more about them, Citystreet investors dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Hey Joe, thanks for doing this. Appreciate it absolutely. Good morning.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Hey, one very quick thing before we get to the
specifics of the Fort.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I'm interested in what you.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Guys do at City Street Investors, especially on the restaurant
side of things, because it seems like you've got an
interesting thing going there. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Our company really is all about place making, and we
are in the restaurant business and we really see our
restaurants as being instrumental in our placemaking efforts, and we're
particularly interested in historic preservation. So people will know us
from the as the co developers of Denver Union Station.
(01:20):
My partners and I own and operated Larimer Square for
twenty two years. We're involved in projects like the Evans School,
the historic Evans School that we just opened.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
South of the Denver Art Museum. And then people know.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Us for a lot of our mostly probably for our
beer gardens. So we've got Lowry beer garden, Edgewater beer garden,
or at a beer garden. There's the school Yard beer garden,
Valley Ranch beer garden. And we've got some other cool
historic projects like people may remember Billy's in which is
we still operate. It's been in business since nineteen twenty three.
So we love historic properties. We love these uh legacy
(02:03):
properties around around Denver, our home, and so we're always
looking to be involved in something where we think our
skill set can help preserve a historic asset and legacy projects,
including something as unbelievably cool as the Fort.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
And I'll just say in passing schoolyard beer garden, that's
a great concept. And I wish my school yard it
had a beer garden when I was a kid. Okay,
so you're you're buying the fort. The obvious question is
why is why?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Why well as you as you could probably imagine from
what I just the list of things were involved in,
this just fits perfectly. It's a great fit. It's a
fantastic historic structure. We have the hospitality capability to take
it on, and we just really like the idea of
preserving it. It's such an amazing backstory of this guy,
(03:00):
Sam Arnold. I have no idea how he got this
crazy idea to duplicate Ben's Fort, you know, out in Morrison,
but he did in the early sixties and you know,
reproduced it brick by brick, you know, just perfectly moved
his family in there. And then somewhere along the line,
I think he figured out, if I'm going to be
(03:21):
able to sustain this thing, I'm gonna have to make
some money out of it, and he turned it into
a restaurant.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
And so for sixty.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Three years it has been serving up you know, bison
steaks and rattlesnake, and it has really become I think,
a really important part of the cultural fabric of the
Denver area. I think it's a it's a really it's
kind of almost like a museum in a restaurant all
in one, but an important cultural asset.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
This is the first place I ever had Rocky Mountain oysters.
All yeah, you a lot of me and a lot
of other people.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
All right, So and I get it obviously.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
I know why you want to buy it, Like who
who wouldn't want to buy if they were in your
business and had the chance to buy it. Everybody would
probably want to buy it. But my professional background is
really finance, And so I want to ask you, and
you know, you don't have to get too specific about
the forts, and I'm sure you wouldn't anyway, but how
(04:17):
do you think about something like this from an investment
perspective versus how much of it is a labor of love?
You know, are you targeting an x percent ROI do
you not think of it so much that way? As
long as you're confident that you won't lose money?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
How do you approach a deal like this?
Speaker 3 (04:40):
You know, that's a good question, and we do get
asked that sometimes, And I'll be honest with you.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
We have to make money. Ross.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
We can't do what we do if we don't make money.
You know, this is an expensive property and we're going
to invest quite a bit of money in it as well.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
And the only way we.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Can continue to do that is to you know, operate profitably.
So yes, when we invest equity, we've got to get
a good return on it, and you know, as long
as we're confident that we can do that, we're willing
to take the risk. And we've been lucky that we've
had so much success doing it. And that's what's enabled
us to continue to be able to, you know, invest
(05:17):
in things like Denver Union Station, Hangar two in Lowry,
or the Evans School. Is because we've been successful not
just with our real estate operations but running successful and
profitable restaurants. So you know, we do need to get
a reasonable rate of return or otherwise we're just not
going to be able.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
To keep doing this.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
We're talking with Joe Vostries, who is co founder of
City Street Investors, the group that's buying the Fort restaurant
out there in Morrison. I just have about two minutes
left to give me fairly short answers. What are one
or two things that you are quite confident you will
be investing in in terms of improvements at the Fort.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I think the biggest thing is just some of the systems.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
It's a sixty three year old building, and we're going
to be taking a really hard look at everything from
plumbing and air conditioning and heat to diss the grounds
and investing in some of the furnishings and finishes in
the building. But our goal is to we're not going
to fix what ain't broken, So we're going to be
taking a very gentle hand to.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
All this, all right, And then my last question for
you is a little bit more macro and generic rather
than Fort specific. So the costs, the input costs mean
the food costs and labor costs of running a restaurant
are much higher than they used to be. And of course,
in order for a restaurant to be able to stay
(06:37):
in business, the menu prices have had to go up
quite a lot. And again I haven't been to the
Fort in a while, but I assume that their prices
are up a lot too. Everywhere is as somebody who
is who owns quite a few restaurants, bars and grills
and so on. How do you manage those costs? How
(06:58):
do you manage restaurant.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
In such a way that you don't.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
End up having people say I just can't afford to
eat out anymore.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
It's a huge challenge for us and the industry I
think is in a bit of a crisis over this
right now. You know, I will just tell you candidly
that we don't make as much money as we used to.
The margins have gone way way down, and everybody in
the business you know, will tell you that you just
simply cannot pass on the cost of food and the
(07:30):
increasing labor costs that we've had over the past five
or six years. Other Hamberg would have to be thirty dollars,
So we've had to really tighten our belts.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
The other thing for the staff is that.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Next time you walk into a restaurant in your local restaurant,
you'll probably notice that there's no longer any bussers or hosts,
or you'll notice the staff is a lot smaller than
it used to be. And so restaurants are really having
to get ultra efficient with labor to try and to
try and maintain a margin and keep the doors open.
But it's an ongoing challenge that the one thing that
(08:07):
does help is that you can really have a high
volume restaurant, you know, do a lot of sales that,
more than anything else, will help ensure your survival and success.
And so we've got to work really hard to make
sure that we could do the sales and just run
a tight tight ship.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
But it's a big challenge for everyone.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Does does the Fort fall into that category of high
volume of sales restaurant?
Speaker 2 (08:32):
It does.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Holly Ken, who's been running the restaurant since she took
over her from her dad, Sam Arnold in the nineties.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Holly has done an amazing.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Job with the restaurant and it does very high sales.
It does a huge event business.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
And it's a big restaurant.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, they have seats like four hundred people and they
can do events all the time, and it's just it's
such a it's so popular with out of town guests.
And you know, if your friends come to town and
you want to take them somewhere and give them a
taste to the.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Old life, it's it's an amazing place to take them.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
And so she's done a fabulous job with us, but
she's ready to move on to her next chapter, and
so we're taking over the stewardship of this from her,
but we hope we can be as successful as she can,
and we're just.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Going to keep it going.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Joe Vostries is co founder and principal of City Street Investors.
Their website is Citystreet Investors dot com. They're the group
buying the Fort restaurant out there in Morrison. Joe, thanks
so much for your time. And I'm very glad that
a local group that's passionate about the things that you
are passionate about is you know, are going to be
the folks owning the Fort next. That makes me much
(09:42):
happier than some you know, soul lists Philadelphia based restaurant
group that doesn't really care about too much. So I'm
I'm glad to know you you're on this well.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
And I want to take this opportunity to say that
we have partners in the project, Reeson Dougt with Ravesco,
who's a local developer investor as our partner on the project.
He's the guy that ran elitch Is for the last
decade or so. So we've got a great local partner
there too. So between the two of us, we're going
to make sure the steward this thing into the future.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Joe Vostries, thanks for your time, appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Thank you.
That the Fort Restaurant out there in Morrison, the real
Colorado institution, is being sold. It was founded in nineteen
sixty three and has been in the hands of one
family this whole time, and it's being sold to a group,
a local group, a Denver group called City Street Investors,
and joining us to talk about their purchase of the
(00:21):
Fort and their vision for it going forward and why
this was an interesting deal for them. Is Joe Vostries,
who is co founder and principal of City Street Investors.
That is their website as well, by the way, if
you want to learn more about them, Citystreet investors dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Hey Joe, thanks for doing this. Appreciate it absolutely. Good morning.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Hey, one very quick thing before we get to the
specifics of the Fort.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I'm interested in what you.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Guys do at City Street Investors, especially on the restaurant
side of things, because it seems like you've got an
interesting thing going there. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Our company really is all about place making, and we
are in the restaurant business and we really see our
restaurants as being instrumental in our placemaking efforts, and we're
particularly interested in historic preservation. So people will know us
from the as the co developers of Denver Union Station.
(01:20):
My partners and I own and operated Larimer Square for
twenty two years. We're involved in projects like the Evans School,
the historic Evans School that we just opened.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
South of the Denver Art Museum. And then people know.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Us for a lot of our mostly probably for our
beer gardens. So we've got Lowry beer garden, Edgewater beer garden,
or at a beer garden. There's the school Yard beer garden,
Valley Ranch beer garden. And we've got some other cool
historic projects like people may remember Billy's in which is
we still operate. It's been in business since nineteen twenty three.
So we love historic properties. We love these uh legacy
(02:03):
properties around around Denver, our home, and so we're always
looking to be involved in something where we think our
skill set can help preserve a historic asset and legacy projects,
including something as unbelievably cool as the Fort.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
And I'll just say in passing schoolyard beer garden, that's
a great concept. And I wish my school yard it
had a beer garden when I was a kid. Okay,
so you're you're buying the fort. The obvious question is
why is why?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Why well as you as you could probably imagine from
what I just the list of things were involved in,
this just fits perfectly. It's a great fit. It's a
fantastic historic structure. We have the hospitality capability to take
it on, and we just really like the idea of
preserving it. It's such an amazing backstory of this guy,
(03:00):
Sam Arnold. I have no idea how he got this
crazy idea to duplicate Ben's Fort, you know, out in Morrison,
but he did in the early sixties and you know,
reproduced it brick by brick, you know, just perfectly moved
his family in there. And then somewhere along the line,
I think he figured out, if I'm going to be
(03:21):
able to sustain this thing, I'm gonna have to make
some money out of it, and he turned it into
a restaurant.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
And so for sixty.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Three years it has been serving up you know, bison
steaks and rattlesnake, and it has really become I think,
a really important part of the cultural fabric of the
Denver area. I think it's a it's a really it's
kind of almost like a museum in a restaurant all
in one, but an important cultural asset.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
This is the first place I ever had Rocky Mountain oysters.
All yeah, you a lot of me and a lot
of other people.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
All right, So and I get it obviously.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
I know why you want to buy it, Like who
who wouldn't want to buy if they were in your
business and had the chance to buy it. Everybody would
probably want to buy it. But my professional background is
really finance, And so I want to ask you, and
you know, you don't have to get too specific about
the forts, and I'm sure you wouldn't anyway, but how
(04:17):
do you think about something like this from an investment
perspective versus how much of it is a labor of love?
You know, are you targeting an x percent ROI do
you not think of it so much that way? As
long as you're confident that you won't lose money?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
How do you approach a deal like this?
Speaker 3 (04:40):
You know, that's a good question, and we do get
asked that sometimes, And I'll be honest with you.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
We have to make money. Ross.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
We can't do what we do if we don't make money.
You know, this is an expensive property and we're going
to invest quite a bit of money in it as well.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
And the only way we.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Can continue to do that is to you know, operate profitably.
So yes, when we invest equity, we've got to get
a good return on it, and you know, as long
as we're confident that we can do that, we're willing
to take the risk. And we've been lucky that we've
had so much success doing it. And that's what's enabled
us to continue to be able to, you know, invest
(05:17):
in things like Denver Union Station, Hangar two in Lowry,
or the Evans School. Is because we've been successful not
just with our real estate operations but running successful and
profitable restaurants. So you know, we do need to get
a reasonable rate of return or otherwise we're just not
going to be able.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
To keep doing this.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
We're talking with Joe Vostries, who is co founder of
City Street Investors, the group that's buying the Fort restaurant
out there in Morrison. I just have about two minutes
left to give me fairly short answers. What are one
or two things that you are quite confident you will
be investing in in terms of improvements at the Fort.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I think the biggest thing is just some of the systems.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
It's a sixty three year old building, and we're going
to be taking a really hard look at everything from
plumbing and air conditioning and heat to diss the grounds
and investing in some of the furnishings and finishes in
the building. But our goal is to we're not going
to fix what ain't broken, So we're going to be
taking a very gentle hand to.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
All this, all right, And then my last question for
you is a little bit more macro and generic rather
than Fort specific. So the costs, the input costs mean
the food costs and labor costs of running a restaurant
are much higher than they used to be. And of course,
in order for a restaurant to be able to stay
(06:37):
in business, the menu prices have had to go up
quite a lot. And again I haven't been to the
Fort in a while, but I assume that their prices
are up a lot too. Everywhere is as somebody who
is who owns quite a few restaurants, bars and grills
and so on. How do you manage those costs? How
(06:58):
do you manage restaurant.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
In such a way that you don't.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
End up having people say I just can't afford to
eat out anymore.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
It's a huge challenge for us and the industry I
think is in a bit of a crisis over this
right now. You know, I will just tell you candidly
that we don't make as much money as we used to.
The margins have gone way way down, and everybody in
the business you know, will tell you that you just
simply cannot pass on the cost of food and the
(07:30):
increasing labor costs that we've had over the past five
or six years. Other Hamberg would have to be thirty dollars,
So we've had to really tighten our belts.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
The other thing for the staff is that.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Next time you walk into a restaurant in your local restaurant,
you'll probably notice that there's no longer any bussers or hosts,
or you'll notice the staff is a lot smaller than
it used to be. And so restaurants are really having
to get ultra efficient with labor to try and to
try and maintain a margin and keep the doors open.
But it's an ongoing challenge that the one thing that
(08:07):
does help is that you can really have a high
volume restaurant, you know, do a lot of sales that,
more than anything else, will help ensure your survival and success.
And so we've got to work really hard to make
sure that we could do the sales and just run
a tight tight ship.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
But it's a big challenge for everyone.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Does does the Fort fall into that category of high
volume of sales restaurant?
Speaker 2 (08:32):
It does.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Holly Ken, who's been running the restaurant since she took
over her from her dad, Sam Arnold in the nineties.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Holly has done an amazing.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Job with the restaurant and it does very high sales.
It does a huge event business.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
And it's a big restaurant.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, they have seats like four hundred people and they
can do events all the time, and it's just it's
such a it's so popular with out of town guests.
And you know, if your friends come to town and
you want to take them somewhere and give them a
taste to the.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Old life, it's it's an amazing place to take them.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
And so she's done a fabulous job with us, but
she's ready to move on to her next chapter, and
so we're taking over the stewardship of this from her,
but we hope we can be as successful as she can,
and we're just.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Going to keep it going.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Joe Vostries is co founder and principal of City Street Investors.
Their website is Citystreet Investors dot com. They're the group
buying the Fort restaurant out there in Morrison. Joe, thanks
so much for your time. And I'm very glad that
a local group that's passionate about the things that you
are passionate about is you know, are going to be
the folks owning the Fort next. That makes me much
(09:42):
happier than some you know, soul lists Philadelphia based restaurant
group that doesn't really care about too much. So I'm
I'm glad to know you you're on this well.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
And I want to take this opportunity to say that
we have partners in the project, Reeson Dougt with Ravesco,
who's a local developer investor as our partner on the project.
He's the guy that ran elitch Is for the last
decade or so. So we've got a great local partner
there too. So between the two of us, we're going
to make sure the steward this thing into the future.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Joe Vostries, thanks for your time, appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Thank you.
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