A Boulder experiment in affordable downtown art space comes to an end

This story was updated on July 9, 2026, at 3:45 p.m. to include additional information about Pearl Convenience Market.

Affordable downtown space has become increasingly difficult for Boulder artists and arts organizations to find. For more than a year, one vacant Pearl Street storefront offered an unusual alternative. 

That experiment has now come to an end. 

The space at 1711 Pearl St. hosted the Crowd Collective and later Sweetbird Studio under a discounted, month-to-month lease. It now has a new long-term tenant: Pearl Convenience Market, which recently relocated from 1640 Pearl St. under new ownership.

The two arts organizations occupied the storefront at different times, turning it into a gallery, retail shop and gathering place. In the process, the arrangement offered a glimpse of whether temporary, subsidized storefronts could help address two persistent Boulder challenges at once: vacant commercial spaces and the high cost of downtown space for artists and arts organizations. 

The agreement was always intended to be temporary. Still, many hoped it would last longer. The property owner leased the storefront at a steep discount while continuing to market it to traditional tenants paying market rent. The lease allowed either side to end the arrangement with 30 days’ notice, including if a long-term tenant came along.  

When the Crowd Collective, a North Boulder arts nonprofit, moved into 1711 Pearl, the storefront had sat empty for months after women’s bag company Sherpani shifted to online-only retail.

Hunter Barto, senior vice president of Dean Callan & Company and longtime manager of the property, said the owner simply “wanted something other than vacancy.”

The Crowd Collective transformed the space into Crowd on Pearl, a storefront and workshop space intended to raise the profile of local artists while generating additional revenue to support the Crowd’s 12 artist studios in North Boulder. 

“This was my first real foray into retail, so I didn’t know what to expect, especially going downtown,” Tiffany Crowder, founder of the Crowd Collective, said. 

The storefront stocked houseplants and artwork made by Crowd artists. A classroom-like area toward the back hosted workshops, receptions and a collage club that met on the first and third Monday of each month. 

But operating two locations proved difficult. After eight months, Crowder decided to close Crowd on Pearl. 

“It wasn’t making financial sense for us in the end,” Crowder said. “All in all, it was a very positive experience. The artists did really well, and it was beneficial for getting the word out about the North Boulder scene.”

The Crowd vacated the space in February 2026. 

The next tenant was Sweetbird Studio, a jewelry company operated by artist Nancy Anderson, which opened at 1711 Pearl in early April. 

Anderson transformed the storefront into a working jewelry studio, gallery and exhibition space featuring the work of more than 50 Boulder County artists. She also planned rotating exhibitions and workshops. 

A week after Sweetbird’s grand opening, however, Anderson received a 30-day notice to vacate. 

Dean Callan & Company had found a market-rate tenant willing to sign a traditional, multi-year lease. 

That tenant was Pearl Convenience Market, a specialty mini-market, which celebrated its reopening at 1711 Pearl St. June 5-7 after relocating from 1640 Pearl St.

The move also coincided with a change in ownership. Husband-and-wife team Kristine and Tony Halley bought the business in May. Halley, originally from Philadelphia, said that “neighborhood mom-and-pop stores [like Pearl Convenience] . . . make a community feel like home.” 

Moving, however, was not part of the original plan. 

“When we were thinking about buying Pearl Convenience,” Halley said, “we didn’t imagine we’d be moving it to a new home. We enjoyed the location at 1640 Pearl Street and hoped to stay, but the proposed lease terms were significantly higher than what made sense for the business.”

The new space will allow Pearl Convenience to grow beyond what it’s been before. Halley is eager to host pop-up events and collaborations and has already formed partnerships with local artists. “I grew up as the daughter of an artist,” Halley said, “so supporting local artists has always been important to me.” Halley recently put out a call for artists and is working on getting more artwork into the store.

“We’d really like it to become a place where people can discover what’s being created in Boulder,” Halley said.

On Friday, July 31, Pearl Convenience will host a “Last Friday” event where artists and makers will be selling their work.

In different ways, Pearl Convenience Market and the artists who occupied 1711 Pearl confronted the same challenge: making Boulder’s high commercial rents work. 

The agreement between the property owner and the arts organizations always carried uncertainty. 

“It was never meant to be a permanent solution,” said Deborah Malden, Chair of Create Boulder and the arts liaison to the Boulder Chamber. “There were risks, but it was an exciting opportunity. There’s a lot to learn.” 

Barto said the experiment still accomplished something valuable. 

“In this instance, there were local artists that wanted a presence, even if it’s short term,” Barto said. “The severely low cost obviously comes with strings attached — they never know when their 30-day notice is going to pop up and displace them.”

Crowder understood the reality. 

“Ultimately the owner is going to go with someone who can afford the full rent,” she said.  

But the experience also highlighted the limitations of relying on temporary vacancies to support Boulder artists. 

“As wonderful as a pop-up is, when there isn’t a set period of time and you could get booted at any point, there’s a level of stress that inherently becomes part of your day-to-day,” Crowder said. 

After seeing the benefits and the challenges of this informal pilot, Malden, Crowder and Anderson all said they hope it leads to more durable solutions.

“I would love to see Boulder turn this into an actual program to take advantage of vacant spaces,” Crowder said. “Although we know that is challenging in its own way and there would probably need to be some [policy changes] to encourage businesses to do that.” 

For Anderson, affordable space for artists is essential to maintaining Boulder’s identity.

“I really do believe that artists create the character of a town,” Anderson said. “I’m hearing from numerous artists that they’re either going to have to move or shut down. There’s a lot of creativity and culture leaving our town.”