“People can’t work here because they can’t afford to live here off what we can afford to pay them.””

Ben Roy

NEDERLAND - With the Town of Nederland’s recent announcement on their progress in the acquisition of Eldora, and the City of Boulder’s achievement in being named as the new destination for the Sundance film festival, there are implications left hanging in the air about how the face of Nederland commerce is about to change.

But, despite those implications, the fact is Nederland commerce is already drastically changing, and at an unprecedented rate.

“It’s weird that everything is happening at once, but I think that the economy is definitely a factor,” opined Claudia Schauffler, property manager of the Caribou Village Shopping Center and owner of clothing boutique The Shop. She spoke to The Mountain-Ear about how commerce is being affected in the center.

“We're feeling it for sure, I know I am.” 

The Caribou Village Shopping Center is, for many visitors, their first stop in the town of Nederland, whether to get a cup of coffee at the Train Cars, to pick up supplies for their Airbnb from the Market, or getting last minute supplies and information from the Mountain Man Outdoor Store for an impromptu hike. 

But the shopping center is going to look quite different going into 2026 as some businesses, including longtime Nederland institutions Backcountry Pizza and Brightwood Music, will no longer be there. 

On July 15, 2025, John Fayman, owner of Backcountry Pizza, announced to the public that the classic local restaurant and bar that he purchased in 2006 will serve its last slice on August 24, 2025.

“The lack of affordable employee housing in the mountains has stretched the labor market very thin, forcing numerous staffing issues over the last five years and significantly driving up operating costs,” Fayman wrote in a social media post about the difficulties of the Nederland restaurant scene. 

Tim Dumke of Backcountry Pizza, as well as Ben Roy, head chef and co-owner of Tres Gringos, spoke with The Mountain-Ear back in 2022 about the same difficulties Fayman attributed to causing Backcountry’s departure from the shopping center.

“That’s one of the biggest struggles, trying to find that balance between staying open the hours you need to in order to make enough money to continue being open and pay your bills without burning out what little staff that you have, because people will get burned out, especially those who have it in them to work,” Dumke said then.

Three years later those challenges appear to persist and, while in a much more tense national financial environment, it only adds to the pressure on those in an already stressful profession. 

“People can’t work here because they can’t afford to live here off what we can afford to pay them,” Roy said. “And by the way, if you know anyone looking for a line cook position, send them my way.”

Roy added that a dishwasher had walked off the line over the weekend and now, on the Monday morning of being interviewed, he was preparing for another 15-hour day with a limited crew. 

“It’s a crazy prep list for Sunday, especially being a scratch kitchen,” Roy said as he splits open peppers and removes their seeds. “But I’ve got my A-team here. We’re just hanging out, listening to tunes, cooking some good food. This is what we signed up for.”

Roy explains how customer traffic is trending differently this summer, stating that weekdays have been busier than weekends.

“We don’t always need three people on a Friday night, we can do it with two. But Tuesday night we get slaughtered,” Roy explained. “Last week, Monday lunch was an issue.”  

Just outside the large picture window of the Tres Gringos kitchen, tourists can be seen pulling into parking spaces, leashing their dogs and buckling their children into strollers, and moving all around the shopping center.

As the roaming families window-shopped while waiting for the Carousel of Happiness to open, Jeffrey Green, head brewer and co-owner of Very Nice Brewing Company (VNBC), unloaded full kegs from the bed of his truck into the Nederland taproom.

“Tariffs do affect us, at least the vendors say it affects them and then they raise their prices,” Green explained, remarking about the state of business in 2025 and detailing how his revenues are low in Nederland so far. He also noted that the additional strains of a new location, which the Greens opened in Gilpin just one year ago, present financial difficulties that required preparation. 

“We have almost an entirely new client base out there,” Green continued. “Locals have come out to support us but there’s only so many of them, so we need to get the word out to beer people who might be traveling down 119.” 

Just next door, John Thompson, owner of Mountain Man, spoke about a downward trend in sales that has persisted since after the pandemic.

“The last two years in a row have been down 10% each year,” Thompson detailed, “and I blame that on having lost the frozen dead guy because the loss is very centered around that time of year.”  

Thompson had to pause his interview with The Mountain-Ear as the store had suddenly become too busy with roaming tourists, including a family from Arkansas visiting Nederland for the first time who needed to stretch their legs.

Despite the many interactions with out-of-towners, Thompson remarked about a lack of tourism, especially from overseas, that is contributing to the rough sales numbers in 2025 so far.

“Tourism is way off, because of the present administration. Even people from Canada won’t come.” Thompson shared a story of a Canadian friend who attempted to travel into the US and was stopped at the border for 12 hours.

“I gauge things by looking at the parking lot,” Schauffler explains, “and there are days when it’s not even close to being full, which is pretty discouraging.”  

Though in 2024 national travel spending rose 4.2 percent and spending in Colorado rose 0.3 percent, equaling $28.5 billion, the state’s market share fell to 1.8 percent last year. Additionally, overnight visitors spent 0.4 percent less in 2024 compared to 2023, totalling $17.6 billion; business travelers spent 7 percent less; and there were 0.3 million fewer overnight casino trips than the record peak of 1.6 million trips in 2022.

Early numbers for 2025 from the Colorado Tourism Office (CTO) shows that hotel occupancy is down 2 percent and revenues for hotels are down 2.7 percent, while short term rental occupancy is down 10%. CTO officials attribute the low numbers for 2025 to an increase in competition and the Trump administration’s policies negatively impacting international and domestic travel. 

But not all of the shopping center’s businesses are being negatively affected by these economic trends: the Market at Nederland, formerly the B&F Mountain Market, experienced great sales numbers in June.

Derek Gregory of the Market stated that many of the new owners’ changes have proven to be successful, especially the addition of Ace Sushi, packaged Japanese meals prepared by a master sushi chef.  

Frankie Beard at Wild Bear Nature Center (WBNC) was also positive, not just about the local nature organization’s performance in 2025 in their current location in the shopping center, but also excited about their eventual move to the brand new nature center being constructed at Mud Lake, expected to open in the fall of next year.

Joining Backcountry and WBNC is Brightwood Music, which, after 17 years, will be leaving the shopping center.

The specialty music shop will be moving across the highway to the old Citywide Bank building, recently turned into a drive-thru restaurant and unique mini-mall called The Vault.   

Doug Armitage, owner of Brightwood Music, spoke to The Mountain-Ear back in February of this year about the issues befalling his business due to the Trump administration’s tariffs causing inflated prices on specialty sourced items. 

“No one wants to place an order knowing it will cost 25% more than it did, when we’re doing everything else the exact same,” Armitage said. 

The Trump administration’s tariffs have caused many small businesses to have to pivot or downsize. Roy lamented the $85 cost per case of avocados; Green complained that the cost of grain was at 72 cents per pound; and Schauffler noted that she may even have to shift focus over at The Shop.

“A lot of my vendors ship from overseas—from Turkey, China, Nepal, and France—and they’re trying hard not to pass on the cost too fast. But it’s going to happen,” Schauffler said. 

“I’ve seen a big hit in sales and I’ve kind of had to change my business model,” Schauffler continued. “I’m really going out a lot more to source and carry more used items.” 

Upstairs at the Nederland Art Studios, formerly Kaleidoscope Fine Arts Gallery, manager Danielle Crouse held a meeting of the NederDay of Art committee in the restructured studio space. 

It was announced in February of this year that the gallery would convert to available individual studio spaces, each five by eight square foot space being made available for $300 a month, allowing artists 24 hour access and the ability to utilize and equip their space as they require.

Crouse told The Mountain-Ear that spaces will only be available until November, after which the studios will be closing.

Kaleidoscope helped to serve as a hub for many of Nederland’s talented artists for five years; the current studio space is home to Crouse and other local artists, including Deborah Greenfeld and Kathy Bremers, who also holds art classes in the space. 

The hope is that after November, whether a studio or gallery space, some business related to art will move in and carry on the hard work that Kaleidoscope owner Roz Bagtaz put into the location.  

Though losing all of these iconic Nederland businesses at around the same time is unprecedented, Schauffler believes that the spaces in the shopping center will not be empty for long.

“I’m sure Stephen is talking with people. He’s always proactive,” Schauffler said, referring to Stephen Tebo, owner of the shopping center. 

Schauffler noted that, despite rumors, there are no plans she is aware of for the Backcountry Pizza space, or other soon-to-be-vacant spaces. She added that Tebo will most likely “pull something out of his hat” in regard to personally following up with those who may have a vision for the vacant spaces. 

And despite the low numbers for 2025 so far, business owners remain hopeful, stating that Nederland often “ebbs and flows” in in terms of revenue, and that the Eldora acquisition may present new opportunities for businesses if Town officials properly plan for it.

“In general, it’s not really much different from the last 12 years: stuff comes, stuff goes,” Thompson remarked about the changes around the shopping center. “We have good years and bad years, so hopefully it will swing back. 

As for the prospect of the Town owning the local ski mountain, Thompson and other shopping center business owners share the hope that there will be more synergy between Nederland and Eldora that could bolster local commerce.  

“We could tie things together way easier, maybe have a shuttle that runs in between the two, or even have some of the businesses down here operate locations up there,” Thompson mused, daydreaming of what a second Mountain Man location would look like. 

“I think Town is going to have to do a pretty progressive and hardcore job of rebranding a little bit, because people going to Eldora haven’t always stopped in Ned,” Schauffler noted, adding that, in her experience, restaurants and breweries do well with the ski traffic, but people don’t always stop to shop.

“I hope Town has a plan for that, and if they do it would be nice to hear about it and give us a little bit of hope on the horizon.” 

In the restaurant world, the Eldora acquisition, the potential for summer activities up on the mountain, and the potential of Sundance film festival traffic moving up the canyon brings questions of whether their limited capacity and workforce can handle the surge of people.

“We would get more business, but we can only handle so much,” Roy said.

“It would get to the point where we can’t fit any more people in the kitchen to keep up,” Tres Gringos Sous Chef Nate James added. 

“Or fit more food in the walk-in,” Roy interjected. “We’re limited as to how much we can buy for the weekend, and Shamrock only delivers up here on Mondays and Thursdays.” As it was, Tres Gringos closed a half hour early on Sunday after having to “86” chicken due to a sudden influx of hungry summer tourists.  

Towards the late afternoon, as the WBNC camp kids walked single file across the shopping center sidewalk, Roy continued on into the ninth hour of his shift, preparing for the dinner rush, and beers flowed steadily downstairs at VNBC, local conversation both at the bar and out in the street focused on the changes happening around the center and around town.

People remembered the many phases that Backcountry Pizza had gone through over the years, including when it expanded into a neighboring space.

A regular visitor to Nederland was saddened by the news that it would be leaving at the end of the summer, stating that we end up taking for granted being able to grab a cheap slice.   

Outside in the parking lot, a local Boulder County Sheriff’s Office deputy spoke with a resident about the Eldora acquisition. The resident exclaimed that a focus on Nederland’s current infrastructure should be required before the acquisition becomes a reality, and hypothesized that the endeavor will either result in failure or in big money interests taking over the town.

Either way, without an investment from Town officials, the implications left hanging in the air after the announcement of the Eldora acquisition spells economic uncertainty for small locally-grown businesses. 

Please continue to follow The Mountain-Ear for more updates on the state of commerce in Nederland. 

Coming up: a focus on the changes happening regarding commerce on East 1st Street and other areas, and a review of the implications of the Downtown Subarea Plan, which aims to circumvent zoning restrictions through an overlay district to help turn East 1st Street into a “festival street,” and to set design standards to form the vision of a “family friendly” downtown Nederland. 

Caribou Village Shopping Center is located at 20 Lakeview Drive in Nederland, just off Highway 119.

For more information on renting studio space at Nederland Art Studios, email your questions to: nedartstudios@gmail.com .