When Chef Eric Brenner came to Colorado Springs in 2016 after starting multiple restaurants and consulting across the country, he’d intended to scale down and wanted just to focus on his Italian eatery, Red Gravy. But Brenner’s brain is an overflowing faucet of ideas, and in Susan Edmondson, he found the perfect collaborator to bring them alive.
“A lot of great ideas are lost because nobody acts on them,” Brenner said. She absolutely acts.”
Edmondson, who had led Downtown’s renaissance since she joined The Downtown Partnership of Colorado Springs in March 2013, resigned as president and CEO in October due to health concerns. Hannah Parsons, COO of Barn Owl Tech, was named interim director.
During her 11-year tenure, Edmondson spearheaded millions of dollars’ worth of investment in Downtown Colorado Springs, including thousands of new residential units, and built a network of partnerships to implement projects ranging from the certification of Downtown as a creative district to the creation of AdAmAn Alley. She worked tirelessly to make Downtown safer and more attractive and oversaw vital assistance to Downtown’s small businesses through the Downtown Development Authority, Business Improvement District and Downtown Ventures, winning the respect and admiration of merchants like Brenner and Sam Eppley, president of Sparrow Hawk Cookware.
Eppley, who chaired the board that hired Edmondson to be CEO of the Downtown Partnership, said her leadership transformed the organization from a small advocacy group to a powerhouse that has changed the landscape of Downtown.
“By understanding how to operate in the world of developers and taxing entities and that type of thing, she was able to get significant improvements to the Downtown district,” Eppley said. “At the same time, she had a true love and passion for the small businesses which make up downtown. I think she really balanced that well, and that was good for my business and every other business.”
Edmondson’s support of Downtown’s small businesses helped them handle the toughest challenge many had ever faced: the pandemic. With his restaurant’s seating limited in June 2020, Brenner proposed closing off a block of Tejon Street and putting tables outside. Within a week, Edmondson had facilitated Dine Out Downtown, and on Saturday, June 21, Red Gravy and other participating restaurants got a much-needed boost.
Several Downtown businesses got their start thanks to the holiday pop-up program, which Edmondson championed. The program helps small vendors to locate in unused spaces Downtown during the holiday season.
“I worked with the Downtown Partnership to get Eclectic CO.’s original pop-up location in 2018,” owner Peri Bolts said. “From the day I pitched having a space for local artists and vendors, she was really on board. A lot of us got our start that way, and a lot of us have been really successful.”
Those individual successes are elements of a broader picture of small business success Downtown, said Bolts, who moved to Colorado Springs in 2011.
At that time, she said, “Downtown was not vibrant. It was not a pleasant place to spend a weekend afternoon with your family. We’ve come a really long way, and I think Susan had a huge part to do with that. No matter the huge breadth of responsibilities that Susan had, she always would make time to listen to us. There was no issue too small for her to give her attention to. And she made it look really easy.”
Susan’s leadership set the tone for greater participation by business owners, said Bolts, who became a Business Improvement District board member.
“She made people want to contribute to the community,” Bolts said. “I don’t know that I would be as involved with Downtown if it wasn’t for Susan.”
Edmondson helped Richard Skorman, co-owner of the Poor Richard’s restaurant and retail complex, and other business owners get grants that enabled their businesses to keep operating during the pandemic, when restaurants lost a lot of their lunchtime trade.
“We definitely struggled during the pandemic,” Skorman said. “She always knew the importance of our business and other small businesses that are Downtown, and we were able to get one of the larger grants from the Downtown Partnership.”
More recently, Edmondson assisted Poor Richard’s with security issues.
“We were having people in our business that were doing mischievous things,” Skorman said. “She came by, gave us contacts and talked about how we could do things differently.”
The Downtown Partnership’s security team continues to play a critical role for businesses like Skorman’s.
“We call on them first before we call the Police Department,” he said.
The Partnership’s attention to details like keeping the city clean and beautiful are hallmarks of the difference Edmondson has made, Brenner said.
“Just keeping the city clean – you don’t see graffiti, and believe me, it happens every day,” he said. “There’s spills and trash that they clean up every day. Instead of seeing any of that, you see flowers blooming, you see someone power washing the sidewalk.”
The ethical fashion boutique Yobel and The Look Up Gallery, owned by Clay and Emily Ross, also were touched directly by efforts that Edmondson set in motion.
“Clay and I met Susan originally when in 2020 we were displaced due to our last location closing and we moved our shop Downtown,” Emily Ross said. “She immediately reached out, we had a Zoom meeting, and she gave us a warm welcome and overview of The Downtown Partnership.”
The Partnership supported the Rosses even before they could afford to become members, she said.
“With Susan in the role she’s had, there was always someone to call or learn from or connect with, and as business owners and Colorado Springs townies who love our Downtown, we never feel alone,” she said.
The Rosses’ businesses benefited from grants in 2020 and after a fire on Dec. 4, 2023, in the Majestic Building, where they were located, forced their closure. Now they are benefiting from the pop-up program.
Their holiday shop at 517 S. Cascade Ave., Suite E, will be open through Jan. 15 and will become a permanent location in the Spring of 2025.
“Owning a small business is a marathon all on its own, but I can say for certain that Susan’s lead with the Partnership gave us the best champions we could ask for,” Ross said.
