Since January, three different tenants have passed through the 1600 block of Pearl Street. In February, the Crowd Collective, a North Boulder arts nonprofit founded by Tiffany Crowder, moved its Crowd on Pearl gallery out of 1711 Pearl. In early April, a new tenant opened a studio in the same space and showed work by more than 50 Boulder County artists. About a week later, the tenant was given 30 days' notice. Pearl Convenience Market then moved in from across the street at 1640 Pearl and held its reopening June 5 through 7. Framebridge, a national custom-framing company, is getting 1640 ready next.
That chain of moves happened during a year when more people were walking the mall than in 2025. Shoppers are coming downtown in larger numbers. The harder part is turning those visits into sales, and the storefronts tend to change hands when a lease comes up for new terms.
More footsteps, flatter receipts
Downtown Boulder Partnership counts pedestrians with sensors at three points on the mall: Pearl and 11th, Pearl and Broadway, and Pearl and 15th. As of September 30, the latest published reports run through June. They show more traffic and roughly flat spending.
Measure | Period | 2025 | 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Downtown pedestrian impressions | January through June | 3,741,496 | 4,359,846 | +16.5% |
Downtown pedestrian impressions | June | 762,845 | 812,600 | +6.5% |
Pearl Street Mall sales tax collected | Year to date through June | $2,023,167 | $1,959,388 | -3.15% |
29th Street sales tax collected | Year to date through June | $2,973,737 | $3,524,130 | +18.51% |
A 16.5% gain in foot traffic next to a small drop in mall sales tax is the year in two lines. Over the city's 12-month window, sales tax at the Pearl Street Mall location is up 1.42%. That is close to flat, and it comes in a year when costs for retailers have been rising.
The data has limits, and they matter for anyone looking at these numbers. The partnership's figures count impressions at three fixed points. They don't count store visits or purchases. The single busiest hour in June was 6 p.m. on Saturday, June 6, with 4,840 people counted. Someone walking past a gift shop at that hour shows up in the count whether or not they go inside.
The city's broader "Downtown" sales tax category looks much worse, down 14.37% year to date through June. In the same table, though, the "Downtown Extension" category went from $31,632 to $470,288, and the June report doesn't explain why. Taken together, the two categories fell about 4.9%. That is a smaller decline, and it fits the Pearl Street Mall row better than the headline drop does.
On the same chart, the 29th Street category gained more than half a million dollars. True Food Kitchen opened at 1710 29th St. in August, after that reporting period ended, so it adds to the area's lineup but doesn't explain the first-half increase.
Where the lease resets, the tenant changes
The 1600 block shows how this plays out. The arrangement at 1711 Pearl was a steeply discounted lease that ran month to month. It could be ended with 30 days' notice if a tenant willing to pay market rent came along. When the tenant at 1640 got proposed lease terms its owners considered too expensive, the market moved across the street and became the long-term tenant at 1711. That ended the discounted art-space arrangement.
Each move followed from new terms on a lease. In each case a business stayed open on the mall by giving up a particular address.
Reformation, an upscale women's clothing brand, opened its first Boulder store at 1142 Pearl on June 30. Peak Design, which makes bags and outdoor gear, lists 1600 Pearl St., Suite 106 on its website as "Boulder Coming Soon." Framebridge's site lists 1640 Pearl as "coming soon." Neither company has posted an opening date.
John Tayer, president and CEO of the Boulder Chamber, pushes back on the idea that chains are replacing local businesses downtown. "Downtown, we're hovering around 70% or more local, independent businesses," he told Boulder Reporting Lab. The reporting agrees that a few national openings don't, by themselves, show a broad shift. They do show which addresses come open when the numbers stop working for the current tenant.
What the sensors can't see
Bliss has been at 1643 Pearl since 2005. Hanna Harem joined the staff in 2011 and became the owner in 2020. The store carries work by more than a dozen local artists and makers, including painters, jewelry designers, ceramicists and woodworkers. Painter Andrew Barker has sold work there for six years, and Bliss was the first store to carry his paintings. Bags from locally owned Adventurist Backpack Co. are displayed near the gifts.
Harem says Bliss's July sales fell nearly 37% from July 2025. Sales in 2025 had already been lower than in 2024, so the drop isn't measured against an unusually strong year. She lists the costs that keep going whether or not shoppers buy: rent, payroll, insurance, utilities, card-processing fees, taxes and inventory.
"There is very little room for a small business to have a slow month anymore, and Bliss is experiencing more of those slow months."
Harem's account explains how foot traffic and sales can move apart. She says some customers look in the store and then buy online, while others follow social media trends built around "no-spend months." Either way, the shopper counts as a pedestrian and the store makes no sale.
Venus Sakha described the same problem from Boulder Bazaar. She and co-owner Babu Shrestha ran the Nepalese and Tibetan gift shop at 1500 Pearl for nearly 20 years and closed it August 31. "Now, even when we do a discount, nobody wants to buy," she told Boulder Reporting Lab. "They like it, but they say, 'Oh, it's very hard to afford.'" Tayer said the pressures reach beyond Boulder. Inflation, import tariffs and higher labor costs are pushing expenses up just as consumers have become more cautious.
The 2026 storefront ledger, west to east
The turnover isn't one-directional. Small, locally focused shops have opened downtown this year too, often in spaces that gave someone a reason to try. This is the 2026 record so far, listed by address from west to east:
- 1142 Pearl St. Reformation opened June 30.
- 1320 Pearl St. Falcha, a Nepalese gift shop, appeared in Axios Boulder's May roundup of new businesses. No opening date was given.
- 1420 Pearl St. Evilo Oils and Vinegar opened in March.
- 1500 Pearl St. Boulder Bazaar closed August 31.
- 1543 Pearl St., Suite 100. 2nd Street USA held its public grand opening March 20.
- 1600 Pearl St., Suite 106. Peak Design, coming soon with no date announced.
- 1640 Pearl St. Pearl Convenience Market moved out. Framebridge is coming soon with no date announced.
- 1643 Pearl St. Bliss is open and, in Harem's words, "fighting to keep its doors open."
- 1711 Pearl St. Crowd on Pearl left in February, a studio opened in April, and Pearl Convenience Market reopened here June 5 through 7.
- 2232 Pearl St. Pearl Street Coffee, a family-owned cafe and bakery east of the mall, opened in August.
Just off the West End, Sugar and Spice Books opened February 7 at 1901 9th St., Unit 125, as Boulder's first romance-only bookstore. It later rebranded as The Romance Section.
What to watch through the holidays
Winter is usually retail's slow season, and summer is when shops catch up. Harem says she can no longer count on that summer rebound. If July was as weak for her as she describes, the holiday season carries more weight than usual for the independents still on the mall.
The next reports will show whether the gap between foot traffic and spending held through the summer. As of September 30, the city's revenue reports page lists March and June as its 2026 editions. The partnership's pedestrian counts page also stops at June. When the July and August numbers come out, check the Pearl Street Mall row against the year-to-date pedestrian total. That comparison shows whether busier sidewalks are turning into sales.
Harem says the stakes go beyond her own store. "When someone spends money at Bliss, they aren't just supporting me as the business owner," she said. "They're supporting an entire network of local artists, makers, designers and other small businesses whose work fills the store."
Storefronts and homes downtown are priced on the same idea: how well the address performs at today's costs, more than how busy the street looks. If you own near Pearl Street and want to see how this year's changes on the mall connect to your own plans, The Bernardi Group is glad to go through the block-by-block details with you. Start Your Strategy Session.
