On Havana Street, the Size of an Empty Storefront Decides What Opens Next

On Monday evening, Oct. 12, a week after TESO Life's grand opening at The Gardens on Havana, a store employee told The Denver Post that an entire shelf of Sonny Angel and Smiski blind boxes had sold out. The grand opening ran Oct. 2 to 4, and it drew long lines at 1150 S. Ironton St. That building used to be an Ace Hardware.

That detail explains most of what has changed on Havana Street this year. When a store closes along this corridor, a replacement tends to arrive quickly, and the size of the space shapes who that replacement is. Large-format spaces have been going to national chains, several of them opening their first Colorado locations. The small bays in the older strip centers have been going to independent bakeries, cafes and markets. Both are happening at once, often in the same shopping center.

How Fast an Empty Space Fills

The Havana Business Improvement District, which goes by On Havana Street, has worked on business attraction and district identity since it formed in 2007. Its corridor follows Havana Street for 4.3 miles, from 6th Avenue to Dartmouth Avenue. In its 2025 survey, the district reported 93% occupancy and 15 available leases totaling about 112,000 square feet. The largest single block of that space, 23,609 square feet, was at The Gardens on Havana. The same report said new tenants often moved into recently closed spaces within two weeks to a month.

Here is how the largest spaces along the corridor have changed hands:

Large Asian grocers have anchored this part of Aurora for decades. H Mart has operated in Aurora since 2004. The store now called Great Wall Chinese Market began as Pacific Ocean Marketplace in 1989 and changed names after it was acquired in 2022, according to Westword. What has changed is how often a newcomer now treats this corridor as its entry point into the state.

The Big Boxes Went to Colorado Debuts

The pattern began before this fall. Daiso, the Japanese retailer, opened at 2353 S. Havana St. on March 22, 2025, one week after its Fort Collins store. Over the past two months, it has picked up speed.

On Friday, Sept. 18, 85°C Bakery Cafe, a Taiwanese chain founded in 2003, opened its first Colorado location at 2767 S. Parker Road. The Denver Post reported that it was the company's 100th store in the United States. The menu includes Milk Pudding Bread, Egg Tart and Marble Taro, plus the Sea Salt Cream Vietnamese Iced Coffee that took off on social media.

TESO Life opened two weeks later. Its parent company, New York-based TESO Group, told The Denver Post that the Aurora store covers about 25,000 square feet, close to twice the size of most of its other locations. A store that size needs a box like the one Ace left behind, and The Gardens on Havana had one.

Next is Hashi Market, a New York-based grocer with a Japanese focus, taking over the former Safeway at 12200 E. Mississippi Ave. That Safeway closed in fall 2025. The company describes itself as a fresh-food supermarket, mini department store and catering service in one, with sushi, seafood and meat counters, party platters, beauty supplies and household goods. Westword reports that it will have a kitchen for fresh bentos. The site sits directly across Mississippi from G.W. Supermarket at 12303 E. Mississippi Ave., which means two full-size Asian grocers will face each other across one intersection.

When Westword asked why chains keep choosing this corridor, Chance Horiuchi, executive director of the Havana Business Improvement District, mentioned traffic:

"Every intersection of Havana can get anywhere from 40,000 to 60,000 cars."

The Small Bays Went to Independents

The large-format spaces get the grand-opening crowds. Most of the year's openings, though, happened in the smaller storefronts. The district's 2026 business log reads like a list of local owners taking over spaces a few hundred feet apart:

• Sultan Turkish Bakery opened July 13, 2026, in the Birchtree Shopping Center space formerly occupied by K Town Imports. It also runs a wholesale operation supplying Middle Eastern bakery goods.
• Mazaya Foods, a halal global market at 2872 S. Havana St. next to Tous les Jours, is open daily from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
• L Café at 1930 S. Havana St., #12, rebranded in October 2026 as an Armenian restaurant, bakery and cafe.
• Havana Burger took over from Hamburger Stand at 938 S. Havana St. in August 2026.
• 3456 Tea held its soft opening and grand opening April 15 to 19, 2026.
• Americantiques expanded the Heirlooms Antique Mall into the former Colorado's Pro Gym space at 1961 S. Havana St. in September 2026.

More small spaces are being refit. Tí Cafe, a Vietnamese coffee and specialty tea shop from Broadway, is taking the former 7-Eleven at 1910 S. Havana St. in the Birchtree Shopping Center, next to Sultan's space. HaBeeBi Scoops, a dessert shop, is going into the former Havana Cleaners at 2222 S. Havana St. in Havana Plaza. Inside M Mart at 2000 S. Havana St., a new Korean side-dish counter is replacing Sonmat Banchan. Katsu Ramen, at 1930 S. Havana St., Unit #4, planned an expansion for fall 2026.

The address 1930 S. Havana St. keeps coming up: Katsu Ramen in Unit 4, Sultan Turkish Bakery in Unit 1 according to Visit Aurora, and L Café in #12. In one strip center, a Turkish bakery, an Armenian cafe and a ramen shop share a parking lot. That mix is only possible in spaces sized for an independent owner rather than a national chain.

Where the Two Scales Meet

The two kinds of businesses aren't sealed off from each other. The Gardens on Havana contains both. Dave's Hot Chicken opened there Feb. 5, 2026, in a 2,600-square-foot suite, the same year TESO filled a space nearly ten times larger.

The overlap also raises a real question about competition, and the district's own director has spoken about it openly. Horiuchi welcomed the new arrivals in her Westword interview while recognizing what they mean for longtime shops:

"You can't compete with a Teso Life. Small stores don't have the same buying power. So, yes, that part is concerning, because I know that cuts the competition. I am concerned about the really small mom-and-pop shops that have been around for 40-plus years."

For the people who shop here, the practical takeaway is that a large chain and a small shop on Havana usually sell different things, even when the categories look alike. TESO is a 25,000-square-foot store full of snacks, beauty products, stationery and toys. Dajoa Premium Market, a smaller gourmet Korean grocery at 12203 E. Iliff Ave., Suite X, opened with a soft launch on Dec. 1, 2025, and fills a different role than either H Mart or Hashi. Sultan bakes its own bread. A banchan counter inside M Mart offers something no national chain on the corridor does.

A December Stop on the Corridor

El Pollo Loco opened in the former Carl's Jr. at 2211 S. Havana St. in early November, its sixth restaurant in Colorado. On Dec. 15, The Stampede at 2430 S. Havana St. will host the Yelpies awards and reception, which honors businesses across the area. Through November and December, the district is also running holiday gift-card and social-media giveaways tied to shops along the street, and its 2026 events overview lists them.

For a holiday shopping trip, the two scales sit close together. A morning at TESO or Daiso fits easily with a stop at Sultan for bread, lunch at Katsu Ramen, and dessert from the cases at 85°C on South Parker Road, all within a short drive of Havana and Mississippi.

When a big box closes on Havana, its next tenant often arrives within weeks, and those changes affect daily life for every homeowner in the surrounding neighborhoods. If you live near the corridor and want to know how this year's changes show up in your home's value, Joni Jagger can walk you through it using recent local sales. Request Your Home Valuation, and you'll get Joni's 30-plus years in this market applied to your street.