Downtown Wellington Is Working From the Back Door This Fall

Downtown Wellington is still open this fall, but you get in a different way. The middle and south side of Cleveland Avenue have been a work zone since August. Most of downtown's daily activity now happens one layer back, in the parking lots between buildings, the side streets past the alleys, a brewery's back patio and the side entrances marked with temporary signs. If you know that back route, the construction season costs you very little. If you keep trying to use the street the old way, you'll spend a lot of time looking at orange fencing.

What's Actually Being Rebuilt

The Town of Wellington calls this the Cleveland Avenue Construction Project. It's a full rebuild of the downtown Main Street corridor, covering stormwater drainage, street infrastructure, pedestrian safety, ADA accessibility, parking and downtown lighting. Coulson Excavating is the contractor. More than $4.47 million in grants from three Colorado Department of Transportation-administered programs is covering part of the cost, which reduces how much Wellington has to put in locally.

The work came in stages. Utility work and storm drainage along 5th Street came first. Major construction moved onto Cleveland Avenue in August. Starting August 20, traffic was shifted to the far north side of the street so crews could take over the middle and south portions. Crews removed the south-side street trees on August 24 and said they'd come back later for the stumps. On August 31, a milling machine started grinding up the old asphalt in the south-side work zone.

The Town still expects work on Cleveland Avenue to run into late fall or early winter, depending on weather and other conditions. It hasn't published a fixed completion date. Back in March, the Town released a 3D fly-through of the finished street, but it labeled the video an artistic interpretation and said the features and furnishings could differ from the final design. For now, the confirmed result is the list of goals above. Details like sidewalk widths and light fixtures haven't been published.

The Crossings Keep Moving

Your crossing point changes as the storm drain work moves from one intersection to the next, so it's worth checking the latest update before you leave the house. Here's how the pattern has changed:

• Late August: 1st, 3rd and 6th Streets open. 2nd, 4th and 5th Streets closed.
• September 18: 3rd Street reopened after its own drainage closure. 4th Street, which had opened during that closure, stayed open to give downtown visitors another way across. 2nd and 5th stayed closed.
• September 30: The 1st Street intersection with Cleveland closed for several days while Coulson put in storm drainage across it. The Town said it would announce when it reopens. While it's closed, you can cross Cleveland at 3rd or 4th, and the 6th crossing outside the construction zone is still open.

Through all of these changes, the Town's detour advice has stayed the same: 6th Street for north-south trips, and Harrison Avenue or Roosevelt Avenue for east-west trips. Harrison and Roosevelt run parallel to Cleveland, so they get you across town without going through downtown.

Where You Actually Park

The Town said parking would not be available on Cleveland Avenue during the project. Downtown's off-street parking is built into the blocks themselves, and the Town keeps pointing to two lots:

1. The lot between Soul Squared Brewing at 3740 W. Cleveland Ave. and Rose & Co. at 3734 W. Cleveland Ave.
2. The lot between the Larimer County Sheriff's Office at 3735 W. Cleveland Ave. and North Poudre Irrigation at 3729 W. Cleveland Ave.

Beyond those lots, the Town sends drivers to the side streets north of the north-side alley and south of the south-side alley. It also asks drivers to park at least 20 feet from any intersection so other drivers can still see. In practice, that means your car ends up behind Cleveland Avenue and you walk the last block.

The Sidewalk Is Getting Split, Too

Since the week of September 28, crews have been working on the south-side sidewalk. The Town calls the outer strip near the curb the "amenity zone," and that's where most of the work is. The part of the sidewalk right next to the buildings is expected to stay mostly open, though there may be short closures while crews are working. That phase is expected to last several weeks.

The Town has asked people to watch for orange construction fencing, temporary closure signs and directions from individual businesses about alternate entrances. Since the tree removal in August, it has said that construction won't change regular business hours, and that signs will point customers to temporary entrances when a front door is hard to reach. Some businesses this fall may be using a side or back entrance that most customers have never needed before.

The Town has also asked everyone to stay out of the marked work zones and leave the cones and barriers where they are. That request specifically includes e-bike and e-scooter riders.

Soul Squared Moved Dinner Out Back

Soul Squared Brewing Company is the clearest example of a business shifting to its back side. The sign at the top of its website reads, in all caps: "During the Cleveland Avenue construction, food trucks will be out back on the patio." Soul Squared calls itself a locally owned brewery and taproom that uses locally sourced ingredients and specializes in gluten-reduced beer, with a few rotating taps from other local breweries. The taproom's posted hours are 2 to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 2 to 11 p.m. Friday, noon to 11 p.m. Saturday and noon to 9 p.m. Sunday. The brewery also sits right next to one of the two lots the Town recommends, so you can park and get to the patio without touching the work zone.

The Weekly Rhythm at 3700 Cleveland

At the west end of the block, Old Colorado Brewing's October 2026 calendar keeps a regular schedule. Trivia is Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m., and music bingo is Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. Food trucks on the October lineup include Bite of the Bayou, Double Dubs, Dos Medinas, Merris Bros. and Marchio's Grill. The tasting room pours Old Colorado beer plus guest craft beer, wine and seltzer.

Morning has its own routine. Owl Canyon Coffee at 3745 Cleveland Ave. serves coffee, non-coffee drinks and food that's made in house or locally sourced. Its site advertises double punches on Mondays. For a full sit-down meal, T-Bar Inn at 3803 W. Cleveland Ave. calls itself a locally owned diner serving American food, beer and drinks.

One closure this week has nothing to do with the street work, as far as anyone has said. Thistle, the gift shop at 3713 W. Cleveland Ave. that sells artist-made, novelty and humorous gifts, has posted that it's closed October 4 through 10. You can still order online while it's closed, and pickup or delivery starts again after the 10th.

The Calendar Still Uses the Street

All of this back-door activity still feeds into events held on Cleveland Avenue itself. The Wellington Area Chamber of Commerce has Mingle on Main on the avenue twice this fall, both from 4 to 8 p.m.:

• Friday, October 16
• Friday, November 20

Both dates land inside the period when the street is still expected to be under construction. The parking and crossing advice above will likely matter more on those two evenings than on a regular weeknight.

November 1 has two events on the same block. Thistle's monthly First Sunday Pop N' Shop runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 3713 W. Cleveland Ave., with a complimentary themed mimosa. Sip & Swap runs from noon to 1 p.m. at Old Colorado Brewing, 3700 W. Cleveland Ave. The two overlap for an hour, which makes for an easy Sunday loop.

Later in the month, the Town's events calendar lists Small Business Saturday on November 28, two days after Thanksgiving. Depending on weather, that may be one of the last big shopping days before crews finish on Cleveland, or one of the first after.

Keeping Current

The Town posts traffic patterns, parking information and construction updates on its Cleveland Avenue Construction Project page, and says major schedule changes will go out as soon as they're available. You can send questions to [email protected]. North Forty News has covered each closure as it happens, including the 1st Street intersection now waiting on its reopening notice.

Want to talk about how a rebuilt Cleveland Avenue might change what a home near downtown Wellington is worth once the fencing comes down? The Harvey Home Team follows this project block by block. Call me. Seriously.