From general manager to Chipotle's top female executive: a look at Chipotle's Gretchen Selfridge

After almost turning the job down, thinking a concept like Chipotle could never work, Gretchen Selfridge began managing the second Chipotle location in Denver in the early 90's. She has since risen in the ranks and now is responsible for half of locations across the country as Restaurant Support Officer. We think Gretchen is truly one of the best in the business.

From Fortune magazine:

From general manager to Chipotle's top female executive
by  Caroline Fairchild  @CFair1  NOVEMBER 4, 2014, 7:30 AM EST
from: http://fortune.com/2014/11/04/chipotle-top-female-executive/

In 1995, Gretchen Selfridge almost turned down the opportunity to manage the second Chipotle in the country. Now, she runs around 850 of them.

As Chipotle’s restaurant support officer, Selfridge role is similar to that of a co-COO. She is responsible for half of the Chipotle’s across the country while another exec, Mike Duffy, manages the other half. Nearly 20 years ago while visiting on tables at the now-closed restaurant that she worked at in Aurora, Colo., one of her regular customers asked her if she wanted to join the new venture. She said no way. There was no chance a concept like Chipotle’s could survive, she thought.

“Back in 1990s, there wasn’t this category of restaurants. You had fast food and you had full service,” Selfridge said in an interview with Fortune. “I was working at a full-service restaurant. I didn’t want to go work at something like a Taco Bell. I sort of turned my nose down on the opportunity.”

Eventually, Selfridge took a meeting with Steve Ells, Chipotle’s founder and co-CEO, to learn more. It didn’t take her long to change her mind on the company. Calling Ells a “visionary,” Selfridge said she didn’t care what kind of restaurant he was running; she just wanted to work for him. The next year, she became the general manager of the second Chipotle  CMG 0.09%  in the country in Denver.

A 31-year-old Selfridge realized quickly that Chipotle wasn’t like any other restaurant. In her experience in the industry, the only time a customer asked to see the manager at a restaurant was to complain about the food or the experience. But at Chipotle, she had customer after customer asking her how they could open up a franchise and when they planned on opening up a location closer to their home.

Loyal patrons weren’t the only ones who wanted to get a piece of Chipotle’s Mexican-style pie. At the end of 1997 with only a handful of restaurants spread across the Colorado area, the company got a call from an unexpected source: McDonald’s  MCD -0.04%  . The fast-food giant known for its golden arches and greasy French fries wanted to invest. Once McDonald’s agreed to stay out of Chipotle’s business and simply act as a lender, Ells and his team agreed to take them on as a financial partner.

Chipotle eventually dissolved the partnership in 2006, but McDonald’s initial investment allowed the small burrito joint to set its sights on larger growth. When Selfridge came in to run the second Chipotle, Ells and his team thought they could eventually grow to a total of four restaurants. By 1998, the company was opening 13 every year. Last year, Chipotle opened up 185 new restaurants bringing the total to 1,700 stores and raking in $3.21 billion in revenue.

“I remember thinking, ‘McDonald’s is a huge company. What do they see in our just 13 stores?’ That’s when I realized that this could be really big.”

Selfridge, armed with an associate’s degree in business from a junior college, kept up with Chipotle’s exponential growth by focusing on what she knew best: people. Moving up the corporate ladder from the general manager of one store to restaurant support officer also responsible for Chipotle’s compliance department, Selfridge talks about her growth as a leader as if it were as organic as Chipotle’s growth itself.

“When you wear a lot of hats, you tend to figure things out,” she said. “People come to you because you are a resource and you understand how to do things.”

Yet despite Chipotle’s unprecedented success, the company still experiences some growing pains. Namely, Selfridge says the company’s dedication to only hiring the best people has made it difficult to staff restaurants at the same rate as demand for new stores. Chipotle ranks potential new hires on 13 innate characteristics like ambition, presentation and attitude. Finding five managers and 30 employees that fit the bill for each of those stores is a challenge.

“I can teach you how to roll a burrito. I can teach you how to grill chicken. I can teach you how to manage a P&L,” says Selfridge. “I can’t teach you to be happy, and smart and ambitious.”

Personally, Selfridge says her biggest challenge has been believing each time that she could rise to the challenge of her new role. She was never insecure, she said, but she never envisioned that she would rise to the ranks in the food industry that she finds herself in now.

“I was put into a position that I thought I never would be put into,” she said. “Somebody believed in me and gave me the confidence. I have been given a great opportunity.”

Is there enough parking in Cherry Creek North?

Dennis Huspeni Reporter- Denver Business Journal Email | Google+ | Twitter | Real Deals blog

How many times have you heard: “There’s no place to park in Cherry Creek.”

While there’s no doubt construction and street-improvement projects there since the start of the year have removed some of the estimated 555 on-street parking spots in Cherry Creek North, research by the Denver Business Journal shows there are 8,311 parking spots in and around the district.

True, much of that comes from private parking garages that can be more expensive than on-street parking, but the majority of those — 5,000 — come from the Cherry Creek Shopping Center.

By way of comparison, Park Meadows mall in Lone Tree has 6,000 parking spaces.

“There are a host of reasons why the perception [about lack of parking] exists,” said Nick LeMasters, general manager of the Cherry Creek Shopping Center. “But there is ample parking over there.”

LeMasters said Cherry Creek North visitors “are more than welcome to park in our garage.”

“We believe that shoppers who visit the Cherry Creek neighborhood are often our customers as well,” LeMasters said. “We’re not real excited when [Cherry Creek North] employees use our spaces, because employee vehicles stay there all day. We’ll aggressively enforce our rights in that area, but shoppers are welcome to come.”

Julie Underdahl, president of the Cherry Creek North Business Improvement District (BID), said if visitors just used the parking garages more, there’s always plenty of parking.

“Obviously there’s been a loss of on-street parking,” Underdahl said. “But the city did a study recently and even at peak times within the district the parking garages are only half full. ... The BID is working with parking garage operators and the city to see what can be done to increase” parking garage use.

That might include more, or better, signs directing motorists to those parking garages.

The implementation of the “smart meters” by the City of Denver, replacing the parking kiosks, has improved the parking situation, Underdahl said.

Most of the problem comes from shoppers who expect to park right in front of the business they’re patronizing. But that’s becoming harder as more businesses open there and with the advent of at least seven major developments under construction, in addition to the City of Denver’s stormwater drain replacement project on University Boulevard and Josephine Street and street improvements.

“I doubt if it’s going to get better before it gets worse,” said Denver City Councilwoman Jeanne Robb, whose district includes Cherry Creek. “But we’re taking a lot of steps to keep it from being worse.”

Those steps include requiring developers to provide adequate parking for the new residents and workers that will join the district once those apartment, condo and new office developments are complete.

“There will be a critical mass of residents who won’t have to get into their cars to go to restaurants or shopping,” Robb said.

Talks also continue — as they have for years — between the BID, Cherry Creek Shopping Center and the Regional Transportation District for some kind of shuttle or circular between downtown and Cherry Creek North.

“The new Cherry Creek Business Alliance is leading the conversation around this issue,” said LeMasters. “We need a long-term, strategic connection to both downtown and points to the south east. ... We just don’t want to put a Band-Aid on it, we want a long-term solution.”


Dennis Huspeni covers real estate and retail for the Denver Business Journal and writes for the "Real Deals" blog. Phone: 303-803-9232.

New TAG restaurant coming to Denver tower

Brookfield Office Properties Inc. finalized negotiations to bring a signature restaurant to one of Denver’s tallest skyscrapers, 1801 California St., the company announced Monday.

TAG Restaurant Group, owned by chef Troy Guard, will open an American restaurant in 8,687 square feet of ground-level space in early 2014.
It will be the fourth Denver restaurant opened by Guard, who also owns the original TAG in Larimer Square,
TAG Raw and TAG Burger Bar.
Plans call for the largest street-level outdoor patio downtown, according to Brookfield officials, a 2-story glass wall facing 18th Street, an outdoor fireplace and lounge and “a wrap-around, open kitchen.”

The restaurant has not been named.

“Brookfield is thrilled that Chef Guard and his investors have chosen 1801 California for the newest addition to TAG Restaurant Group’s family of renowned restaurants,” said David Sternberg, senior vice president for Brookfield’s Midwest and Mountain Regions. “Chef Guard’s high-quality cuisine is a fitting addition to the other upgrades coming on line here with our $50-million renovation.”

Brookfield (NYSE: BPO), a subsidiary of Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management Inc., paid $215 million for the 54-story former Qwest headquarters in December 2011. It took over the master lease from CenturyLink Inc. (NYSE: CTL) almost a year ago and has been renovating the 1.3 million square foot building.

It also recently announced Ink Coffee would be a ground-level retailer.

The new restaurant will “artfully showcase meat, poultry, and game through skillful culinary interpretations that offer house-crafted charcuterie and hand-made cheeses, an ultra-fresh raw bar, an in-kitchen rotisserie and wood fired grill,” according to Brookfield.

“With the exploding culinary scene here, there’s no place better than Denver to be a chef right now,” Guard said. “I’m really looking forward to expanding the restaurant scene downtown with our progressive American grill concept at 1801 California.”

Kelly Greene, president of Urban Legend, a division of Legend Retail Group, represented TAG while Brookfield was represented in-house by Peter Pavlakis and by Caroline Crowther of Legend.

Legend Retail Group
5150 E. Yale Circle, Suite 400 • Denver, CO 80222
720.529.2999 • www.ul-co.com

KING SOOPERS PULLS OUT OF CU HOSPITAL REDEVELOPMENT AT 9th & COLORADO

By Steve Raabeand Anthony Cotton The Denver Post The Denver Post

 

King Soopers is no longer part of the big redevelopment at Ninth Avenue and Colorado Boulevard in Denver.

King Soopers president Russ Dispense said he likes the location of the old University of Colorado Hospital but can't make a grocery store work under the current redevelopment plan from Fuqua Development.

The grocer was expected to be an anchor tenant for the mixed-use development on the 28-acre site of the former hospital.

"We continue to be interested in this site," Dispense said. "But due to the constraints of the current site plan, we didn't feel like we could create a functional store that would meet our customers' expectations and be reflective of this unique Denver neighborhood."

One of the grocer's problems with the site plan was that it proposed to locate the store's parking lot across the street from the store itself, potentially causing conflicts between shoppers and motorists.

The news comes as a blow to neighbors who fought against a proposed Walmart and had been ecstatic with the King Soopers announcement.

Walmart pulled out of the project last year after a campaign by neighborhood activists who were concerned about the impact of having the giant retailer in the area. The development plan proposes a mix of retail, restaurants and housing for the site that has been vacant since the hospital moved to the Fitzsimons Campus in Aurora in 2007.

City officials said in November that Fuqua Development was negotiating with King Soopers to take Walmart's place. It's too soon to tell whether King Soopers' departure will delay or even derail the redevelopment, city and neighborhood officials said.

"There's a certain level of anxiety that exists until the project moves forward," said Laurie Bogue, president of the Bellevue-Hale Neighborhood Association.

But Bogue said she and others are convinced that Atlanta-based Fuqua and its equity partner, Lionstone Group of Houston, are motivated to proceed and will make the development work despite King Soopers' pullout.

Denver City Councilwoman Jeanne Robb said the council is unlikely to approve a proposal for $21 million in
city-sponsored tax-increment financing without more detail on exactly how the project will be built out.

Robb said she would like to see more housing than has been proposed by Fuqua.

A representative for Fuqua did not respond to requests for comment.

"The economics just didn't make sense," University of Colorado president Bruce Benson said of the plan for the King Soopers store.

He said issues included the exposure that King Soopers wanted; a problem with how Albion Street runs through the property; and street-versus-underground parking.

"It's something you're not in control of. You're talking the city, the City Council, neighborhood groups — it's not an easy deal," Benson said. "We're going to get there — it just takes a long time."

Developer plans $160M mixed-used project near Anschutz Medical Campus

 

A development company announced plans Wednesday for a $160 million mixed-use project near Aurora's

Anschutz Medical Campus on East Colfax Avenue.

The complex, dubbed Block 21 and proposed by Waveland Ventures LLC, would include a six-story hotel and conference center as well as a four-story, 100-unit apartment complex; stores; restaurants; and an “urban park.”

Waveland — with offices in the Denver Tech Center; Austin, Texas; and Milwaukee — says the name is a tribute to the old Army Hospital 21 that stood at the nearby Fitzsimons Army Medical Center.

The site is on East Colfax between Potomac and Xanadu streets.
“This project will be extremely catalytic for future development on Colfax Avenue,” Rick Hayes, CEO of Waveland Ventures, said in a statement.

Block 21 will be developed through a partnership with Jackson Street Holdings LLC and Arrival Partners LLC, Waveland said.

It hopes to begin construction by late this year.

Plans call for a 200-room hotel with 30,000 square feet of meeting space and a 500-space covered parking structure. Developers said they expect to announce a franchise deal with a hotel chain next month.

The proposed project is near the site where Corporex Colorado LLC — a unit of Corporex Cos. Inc. of Covington, Ky. — is developing the 32-acre Fitzsimons Village. A 153-room SpringHill Suites by Marriott hotel opened there in 2011, and Fitzsimons Village also features an office complex used by Children’s Hospital Colorado.

Corporex has filed plans with the city of Aurora for another hotel at Colfax and Xanadu.

Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan, noting that the city is in negotiations with Corporex on those plans, declined comment on either proposal late Wednesday.

“I will say it is encouraging to see two companies interested in this part of the city,” Hogan said. “ It is a strong indicator of the changes occurring in Aurora, and is evidence of the urbanization of our community.”

Waveland, funded in 2002, specializes in venture capital and community development finance. It says it manages $800 million in assets.

Its community development arm has received $312 million in credits under the federal New Markets Tax Credit Program since 2007. The program aims to promote spur redevelopment in economically distressed communities.

Mark Harden directs print and digital news content for the Denver Business Journal and writes for the "Broadway & 17th" blog. Email: mharden@bizjournals.com. Phone: 303-803-9227.

Construction starts on Denver Trader Joe's

Workers this week broke ground on the Trader Joe's store at East Eighth Avenue and Colorado Boulevard, six months after the grocery chain confirmed its plans to open its first Denver store.

Heavy equipment has been preparing the site, and a spokeswoman for the Monrovia, Calif.-based specialty grocer confirmed Thursday that construction is underway.

“Currently, the tentative Denver store opening is fourth quarter 2013,” Alison Mochizuki said via email.

Plans call for a new 18,000-square-foot building with a separate liquor store. Under Colorado law, it will be the only store in the company’s chain allowed to have a liquor license.

Jimmy Balafas, principal of Kentro Group, a Denver development company specializing in retail that is building the store, declined comment.

Trader Joe’s is also opening a store in Boulder, at 1906 28th St. on the west end of the Twenty Ninth Street mall. Construction on that store has not begun, Mochizuki said.

A company statement said the Denver store “will feature a festive décor that mixes traditional Trader Joe’s elements such as cedar covered walls and Hawaiian motifs, combined with a local flair that includes art celebrating the neighborhood.”

Trader Joe’s is known for stocking its own brands of trendy and affordable foods such as Thai lime-chili cashews, sea salt brownies and Belgium butter waffle cookies.

It’s also known for the inexpensive Charles Shaw brand wine — or Two- or Three-Buck Chuck, as loyalists call it.

Dennis Huspeni covers real estate and retail for the Denver Business Journal and writes for the "Real Deals" blog. Phone: 303-803-9232.

Les Schwab Tire Centers opens 1st Colorado stores

Les Schwab Tire Centers said it will have its first five Colorado stores open by Thursday.
The Bend, Ore.-based tire retailer built all five stores since it announced it was coming to Colorado in March.

Customers might be taken aback at first by the chain’s service model, which harkens back to the days of full-service gas stations: A Les Schwab employee runs out to the car when a customer pulls on the lot.
“Sometimes they unroll their windows and ask if they parked in the wrong spot, but a majority of customers are excited and happy to be taken care of,” said Jeff Lowry, area manager for Colorado. “Our big deal is service.”

Since the Aurora store opened first on Sept. 21, Les Schwab officials used it for a training store for the 60 or so employees hired to work the five stores. Most of those hires were made locally, Lowry said.

Les Schwab has 374 company-owned stores nationwide, mostly in the western United States, including the new stores in Denver. The company has sold $1.4 billion worth of tires as of January, Lowry said.

The total number of Les Schwab stores is 440, with 6,660 employees.

The company picked metro Denver to open its first five Colorado stores because of the growing population and improving local economy, Lowry said. “It’s a great community and we’re excited to be a part of it.”

Grand opening celebrations for the stores are planned for Thursday through Saturday, with free food, cake and soft drinks. Saturday, the company is giving away Denver Nuggets tickets and allowing local high schools to sell tickets to on-site food trucks for fundraisers.

Congratulations to Tami Lord and Peter Pavlakis of Legend Retail Group for their work in helping Les Schwab open their first stores in Colorado!

Legend Retail Group
5150 East Yale Circle, Suite 400
Denver, Colorado 80222
www.legendretailgroup.com


The new stores are located at:
• 3430 N. Tower Rd., Aurora, opened Sept. 2.
• 2001 Federal Blvd, Denver, opened Oct. 15.
• 945 Sergeant Jon Stiles Dr. Highlands Ranch, opening Thursday.
• Littleton: 13331 W Bowles Ave., Littleton, opened Oct 5.
• Parker: 11265 Pikes Peak Dr., Parker, opening Thursday.

Denver Business Journal by Dennis Huspeni, Reporter
Date: Tuesday, October 16, 2012, 2:49pm MDT - Last Modified: Tuesday, October 16, 2012, 3:23pm MDT