If you have driven down Fourth Street in Loveland any time in the last two decades, you have passed the same quiet storefront across from the Rialto Theater without giving it much thought. It has been empty since 2006, long enough that most people who walk by it now were in elementary school the last time it had a tenant. This past weekend, while the 42nd Sculpture in the Park filled Benson Sculpture Garden a few blocks north, that building sat exactly where it has sat for twenty years. For the first time since it went dark, it is not going to stay that way.
That corner is the clearest marker of something bigger happening on downtown Loveland's restaurant row this year. Three separate storefronts within a few blocks of each other have changed hands or reopened since last fall, and the timing is close enough that it is worth asking what actually changed, and why now.
The Building Nobody Could Fill
The building at 225 East Fourth Street is 6,720 square feet and dates to 1893. Over its 133 years it has held a formal wear shop and a handful of other tenants, but it has sat vacant since 2006. According to Sean Hawkins, executive director of the Loveland Downtown District, the town at one point "intended to tear it down and make it a pass-through" into a parking area behind it, which tells you how little confidence anyone had that a tenant would ever show up.
One did. In April 2026, Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant signed a lease on the space, with CBRE representing both the restaurant chain and the building's owner, Actian Inc. Known for its Tex-Mex menu and margaritas, Rio Grande already operates five locations around Colorado, including the original in Fort Collins' Old Town. This will be its sixth, and its first in Loveland. The build-out is long: doors are not expected to open until the first quarter of 2027, which gives you a sense of how much work a century-old building needs before it can seat customers again. But the lease itself is the news. A storefront that outlasted two decades of empty showings and at least one serious demolition conversation now has a tenant with a five-location track record and a signed deal.
The Corners That Didn't Wait
While that deal was working its way through due diligence, other spaces on the same short stretch of downtown were already turning over.
The space that used to house Origins, a wine and pizza bar, reopened in July 2026 as Urban Hot Pot, an all-you-can-eat concept built around build-your-own hot pot with a wide spread of meat and seafood options, including a seafood bar. The room itself changed along with the menu. Where Origins leaned dim and close, the new layout is bright and open, with mostly four-top tables spaced for a lunch or dinner crowd rather than a wine-bar crowd.
A few doors down, Paulie's Italian Grill came back. Paulie's had built a devoted following downtown before a dispute over building repairs with the landlord forced the dine-in spot to close. In mid-July 2026, Paulie returned to Fourth Street itself, this time out of a converted RV painted to resemble the Italian flag, parked at 103 West Fourth Street just east of The Egg Kings. It is takeout only for now, orders taken by phone, with outdoor seating still in the works. It is not the same building he used to occupy, but it is close enough that regulars do not have to relearn their route downtown.
Line these up on a calendar and the clustering is hard to miss:
- Fall 2025 — Slice House by Tony Gemignani opens downtown, the first Colorado location for the pizza concept.
- April 2026 — Rio Grande signs a lease on the long-vacant building at 225 East Fourth Street.
- July 2026 — Urban Hot Pot opens in the former Origins space.
- Mid-July 2026 — Paulie's Italian Grill returns as a food truck at 103 West Fourth Street.
Four changes to the same few blocks in under a year, after years where the biggest downtown food news was often about who had closed rather than who was opening.
Then the Biggest Weekend of the Year Showed Up
The timing matters because of what happens to downtown every August. This past weekend, August 7 through 9, marked the 42nd annual Sculpture in the Park, billed as the largest outdoor juried sculpture show and sale in the United States. Roughly 160 artists brought more than 2,000 pieces to Benson Sculpture Garden for the three-day run, with a Friday patron party, and Saturday and Sunday open to the public for a $10 gate ticket, free for kids 14 and under.
Because street parking near the garden disappears fast, the show runs free shuttle buses operated by Thompson Valley School District, looping continuously from Orchard's Shopping Center, Loveland Olde Golf Course, Cattail Creek Golf Course, and King of Glory Lutheran Church, with a stop at Benson Park itself. Paid parking was also available at Loveland High School's east lot, which meant a stretch of 29th Street closed to through traffic for the weekend. Right across the street at North Lake Park, the sister show Art in the Park ran the same two days, free to attend, put on by the Thompson Valley Art League with around 250 exhibitors selling everything from jewelry to canvas work.
For years, this has been the one weekend Loveland residents plan around, whether that means embracing the crowds or timing their own errands to avoid Taft Avenue entirely. It has also historically been a weekend where downtown's dinner options after a day at the sculpture show were thinner than the crowd size deserved. This year, for the first time, that same weekend landed on top of a downtown that actually has more going on after dark than it did twelve months ago. Whether that was intentional timing or simple coincidence, the effect is the same: the town's single biggest annual draw arrived right as its restaurant row started catching up.
What This Looks Like If You Live Here
None of this changes what makes Fourth Street worth walking in the first place. The Rialto is still the Rialto. The sculpture garden is still free to visit 364 days a year. But if you have lived downtown long enough to remember when that Rio Grande building was just a place you walked past, this is the year that changes. If you have been driving across town for Paulie's takeout, you can go back to ordering from the truck instead. And if hot pot is new to you, Urban Hot Pot's build-your-own format is a low-stakes way to try it without committing to a full sit-down meal you might not finish.
The corner that waited twenty years is not open yet. Q1 2027 is still a ways off. But for a building that spent two decades as the answer to "what's that empty place across from the Rialto," having an actual answer on the way is the bigger story.
If you are already a few blocks from all of this and curious what a year like this one does to your own street, or you just want to talk shop about downtown Loveland over coffee, reach out to The Harvey Home Team. Call me. Seriously.
