Nathan Stern and Zach Cytryn left Broad Street Realty last month to launch Fuel & Iron, a combinational brokerage, development firm and restaurant operator.
“I had the same negative connotations of Pueblo that everyone else does growing up in Colorado,” Stern said. “People think it’s a dying industrial city with tons of crime, which is a common misconception we need to correct.”The food hall is what really launched the new company. The brokers had seen the success of the model after representing some clients that had graduated into a brick-and-mortar space, but they “didn’t want to open the 10th or 15th food hall in Denver,” according to Cytryn.
Prior to that, “I was one of those people that would drive through and not stop,” he added. “I didn’t even know Pueblo had a downtown, let alone such a cool downtown. So, the first time I stepped foot on Union Avenue, I was blown away by the history, architecture, culture, and more than anything the people are so kind and communal, which makes it a magnetic place to do business in.”Fuel & Iron said one of its food vendors will be Diavolo Hot Chicken.
In phase II of the project, the brokers plan to purchase roughly a half-acre devoted to an urban farm and land for multi-family housing. The pair see the food hall as an incubator, in which vendors will eventually be able to graduate to a traditional brick-and-mortar space.