Hunter Bay Coffee Roasters is closing the doors of its Olde Town Arvada cafe at 5600 Olde Wadsworth Boulevard on Nov. 6, ending a decade-long run in the historic district. Owner Rob Young says the closure comes down to a familiar list of grievances for small businesses in the area: rising costs, access problems and a string of break-ins.
The cafe first opened in 2016, according to Arvada Press, making it a decade-old fixture of Olde Town before this closure. Hunter Bay itself traces back much further — the company was founded in Missoula, Montana, in 1991, and it still operates a cafe there today. The Arvada location was its outpost in Colorado's coffee scene, but it won't be the brand's last stop in the Denver area: Young said Hunter Bay will “definitely be reopening another cafe” in the Denver metro area once it finds a suitable space, per the same report.
Hunter Bay had already begun pulling back its footprint from Olde Town once before. In January 2024, the company moved its roasting operation out of the neighborhood entirely, relocating to a 20,000-square-foot facility in Englewood. That shift left the Arvada storefront as mainly a retail cafe rather than a production hub, even as the wholesale side of the business — which stocks products in Costco, Natural Grocers, Sprouts, King Soopers and Safeway, and sells online through hunterbay.com — has reportedly been doing strongly and will continue uninterrupted.
Break-Ins Added to the Pressure
Cassie Young, Hunter Bay's human resources director, said the Arvada cafe had experienced multiple break-ins and robberies over time. “Thankfully, none occurred while our staff was present,” she said, according to the same account. Still, the repeated security incidents piled onto a list of operating headaches that made the location harder to justify financially.
Rob Young pointed to street closures, rent and overall expenses as the forces squeezing foot traffic and revenue at the cafe. “There's been a decrease in traffic with that, and then the rental rates and the expenses are so out of line,” he said, per the outlet's reporting. He said the economics of the Arvada location ultimately could not sustain its costs, and that difficulty accessing the cafe and finding parking nearby had chipped away at customer visits.
A Pattern of Olde Town Closures
Young isn't alone in pointing to those pressures. He named The Bluegrass and Silver Vines Winery as other recent or upcoming Olde Town closures, suggesting they could be symptoms of a larger problem facing the district's small businesses. The Bluegrass Coffee and Bourbon Lounge confirmed it would permanently close both of its Arvada locations after 11 years, with the Olde Town spot on Grandview Avenue shutting Oct. 31 and its Candelas location following in November, according to Whatnow. Silver Vines Winery is also winding down its 15-year presence in the neighborhood, with its Arvada tasting room expected to close at the end of 2026 after its Boulder location shut down in late summer or early fall, according to Arvada Press.
The street closures Young referenced date back to 2020, and parking has remained a flashpoint in Olde Town ever since. Arvada City Council dropped plans for paid on-street parking in the district in September after businesses pushed back, worried that charges would drive customers away, according to The Denver Post. Street parking in Olde Town often exceeds 85% occupancy, climbing into the high 80s at lunchtime and regularly topping 90% in the evenings, the newspaper reported, citing city data.
What Comes Next for the Space
Deborah Andrews, who owns the historic A.L. Davis Block where the cafe sits, said she expects to find an appropriate new tenant for the building. She added that she'll work with the Olde Town Business Improvement District to activate the space in some capacity during the holiday season, though details of that plan will be shared when ready.
In the meantime, Hunter Bay has asked customers to follow its Instagram account, @hunterbaycoffeeroasters, for updates on a future Denver metro location. No timeline or address has been set, and the company says that reopening depends on finding a space that fits its needs.
