In one of the Aspen Arts Club studios at 315 E. Hyman Ave., silversmith Carol Breen is getting a jewelry collection ready. Until this summer she worked out of her house. She told the Aspen Daily News she hopes to launch the collection by December. In the same building, Eddy's opens at 7 a.m. for coffee. In the basement, The Grove sits where Eric's Bar used to be.
ThreeFifteen had its grand opening on Thursday, Sept. 17, from 4 to 8 p.m. Many people in town have walked past the building for years without thinking much about it. What happens inside it now matters beyond one address. Two businesses have already failed here in four years. The current setup is trying to show that a downtown building filled with local operators can pay its own way. The first stretch where that will really be tested is the one starting now.
One address, three eras
Few downtown sites have turned over as often in recent years:
- Before 2022: Su Casa, Eric's Bar, Aspen Billiards and the Cigar Bar. All of them closed in 2022 after the property changed hands.
- 2022 to 2025: Gravity Haus, along with Unravel Coffee and Boat Tow. All three closed Aug. 31, 2025. The company pointed to Aspen's high cost of doing business and to falling short of its investors' profit expectations.
- 2026: ThreeFifteen, a collection of locally run food, retail, arts, office and community tenants under a single roof.
The second era matters most for understanding the third. Gravity Haus was a well-funded concept, and it still closed on a site where the cost of operating was the main problem. ThreeFifteen moves into the same building and faces the same costs. It is betting that a different set of tenants will produce a different result.
How a newspaper ended up running a building
The project started with a lease that wasn't renewed. Hoffmann Media Group bought the Aspen Daily News in February, and the new owners decided not to renew the paper's longtime offices at 625 E. Hyman. Publisher David Cook went looking for what he called a "soft landing." He contacted developer Mark Hunt about leasing a couple of unused offices at 315 E. Hyman. Hunt encouraged him to take on much of the building and build something new there.
Cook went in the opposite direction from most of downtown. The Daily News reported that most downtown landlords are pursuing leases with national and international companies. Cook pictured a building made up of locally operated businesses and community spaces.
"We wanted to set out to prove that locals could do something that was as reliable and meaningful, both from an output perspective as well as a well-curated perspective. We're really hoping to shift the trend back towards favoring locals for these important buildings in downtown Aspen."
Cook credits the Hunt family for making it possible. The paper reported that the Hunts could have pursued considerably larger commercial tenants and chose to back the local concept instead. Hunt said that "Aspen benefits when we can find creative ways to put good spaces to work, support local entrepreneurs and add something positive to the community."
What is in the building now
| Tenant | What it is | Run by |
|---|---|---|
| Eddy's Marketplace | Coffee, grab-and-go, groceries and gifts. Open daily, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. | Liz and Sondra Savickas |
| Eddy's Kitchen, Sit & Stay | Sit-down restaurant and bar. Open Thursday through Monday, 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., with happy hour 4 to 6 p.m. | Liz and Sondra Savickas |
| Aspen Arts Club | Eight rent-free artist studios | Buckhorn Public Arts |
| The Grove | Downstairs community and event room | Buckhorn Public Arts |
| Mischief Vintage | Curated vintage and artisan clothing, with consignment | New retail tenant |
| Tattoo Aspen | Tattoo studio | Continuing tenant |
| Aspen Daily News | Newsroom | Moved from 625 E. Hyman |
Eddy's
Eddy's will probably bring most people through the door. The Savickas sisters were already working on the idea of a neighborhood market when they heard in May that Cook was putting together a local concept. Liz Savickas calls the food "all-American," with an all-day menu built around salads, sandwiches, wraps, chicken Parmesan, meatball subs, family recipes and rotating specials. The Sit & Stay menu on Eddy's own site lists avocado toast, house-made quiche, a Chicken Caesar Parm Crunch Wrap and the signature Eddy salad. The market side sells locally roasted coffee and a chicken salad that the site pitches to people heading up the mountain. The hours posted on Eddy's site have no date on them, so check before you plan a Tuesday lunch there.
The Aspen Arts Club
The studios came out of a problem Buckhorn Public Arts founder Tim Sack had already been discussing with donors Mark Pincus and Hilary Shaw: working artists in Aspen struggle to find space they can afford. With Pincus and Shaw's support, Buckhorn leased eight offices and turned them into rent-free studios, each given to an artist for a six-month residency. Sack estimated that six of the eight artists had never had a dedicated studio before. The first residents are Rae Lampe, Axel Livingston, Jamison Menard, Abril Ramos, Greta Zaveckaite, Carol Breen, Aggie Flores and milliner Kendra Lauren. The Aspen Times reported that the group started July 1 and that this first residency runs through Jan. 1, 2027.
The Grove
Buckhorn also runs The Grove, which its own page describes as a 2,000-square-foot room for community programming. So far it has hosted comedy, yoga, breathwork and private gatherings. Cook and Sack have floated speaker series, receptions and larger branded events as future possibilities. Cook calls it a "one-of-one" space in Aspen. Dated October and November events weren't posted when this was written. The Aspen Arts Club calendar is the page to watch.
Why a list of local tenants is news on Hyman Avenue
On most streets, a building full of local businesses wouldn't make headlines. Downtown Aspen is different. In an April 2026 story about local businesses closing, Aspen Public Radio recalled that Mi Chola closed after nearly 10 years at the corner of Main and Mill once its rent was raised from $42,000 to $85,000 a month. The same report quoted a 2023 Aspen Daily News article saying that soaring rents and long offseasons "don't faze the luxury chain stores."
The city is working on the problem from another direction. On March 24, City Council formally acknowledged the incorporation of the Aspen Area Community Trust. The trust is a nonprofit community land trust set up to keep commercial space in Aspen affordable for businesses that serve locals. Tim Sack, who runs the studios and The Grove at ThreeFifteen, sits on the trust's board. That puts one person at both the city's long-term effort to protect local commercial space and a privately backed version of the same idea, two blocks apart from each other.
The month ThreeFifteen opened also brought a farewell. Carrie and Larkin Horn closed Aspen Eclectic, their toy, game and gift shop at 635 E. Cooper Ave., in early September as their lease came to an end. The owners praised their landlord for supporting them. Downtown is gaining local shops and losing them in the same weeks.
October and November are the first real test
Gravity Haus pointed to the cost of doing business when it left this address. The offseason is when that cost is hardest to cover, because rent stays the same while foot traffic falls. ThreeFifteen opened just before that slower stretch. Eddy's is listed in eatAspen's Fall 2026 dining guide, but none of the sources say whether its daily market hours will hold through November.
Some dates are already set:
- Through December: Carol Breen is working toward the jewelry collection she plans to launch from her studio.
- Jan. 1, 2027: The first Aspen Arts Club residency ends.
Liz Savickas describes the building as something close to a downtown block party: grab a coffee, run into a friend, meet an artist working upstairs, go to an event downstairs. "I think it's just something that this town needs and has been lacking for so long," she told the Daily News. The building is open on Hyman Avenue across from the Wheeler, with coffee starting at 7 a.m.
For owners in the downtown core, the businesses on your block shape what living there is like day to day as much as the home itself does. If you'd like to talk through how places like ThreeFifteen fit into what you want from an Aspen address, Whitney McLaughlin is glad to meet for coffee at Eddy's. Let's Connect.
