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Nostalgic baby boomer families and their predecessors have sought out its hand-thrown pizza, flowing salad bar and trademark Ruebens; they've watched the daily D&RGW trains pass by and admired the hundreds of historic prints on Giuseppe's Depot Restaurant's walls for almost 40 years.
But a new era appears to be dawning for the downtown eatery that has endured its share of economic hurdles during the past decade.
Last week Joann and Ed Colt, who co-founded and have operated the restaurant since 1971, met with Old Depot Square owner and landlord Harlan Ochs to discuss the restaurant's future.
The result: ownership in the 10,000-square-foot facility will be transferred back to the Ochs family this month, and former Colorado Springs mayor Larry Ochs' grandson, Craig Ochs, will assume the operation's financial management.
Colt, who will stay on as the restaurant's director of special events, admitted that economic survival, following repeated economic hurdles, had forced the move.
Derailed by politics, economy
While Giuseppe's had built a loyal clientele during its first 30 years, the couple's operation was hit hard by the surrounding district's 2002 urban renewal "blight" designation and the subsequent exodus of key employers like Crissey Fowler Lumber Co. and Berwick Electric.
"Suddenly employees that walked over for lunch just weren't there," Colt said, adding that if the proposed Palmer Village urban renewal development had moved forward as planned, those customers might have been replaced by a new mix of office, residential and commercial users. That dream evaporated, however, when a key component of the plan -- a downtown convention center -- was voted down in November 2002.
And the challenges continued.
During 2006 restaurant regulars were thrown when the city announced that it might purchase the site for a future transit hub -- an initiative that was eventually abandoned. That was followed during 2007 and 2008 by the 18-month closure of two...