The Story behind Broadway Collective
The story behind the invention of the Broadway Collective and the journey we went on in finding, rehabbing and bringing to life an amazing building was certainly an all-in endeavor! In looking for ELEVATION’s new home, which is my husband Derek’s real estate investment company, I began scouring commercial properties in Old Littleton and Englewood. I first found this building, named the ‘Martin Building’ in September 2021 but when I called in on it, the property had just gone under contract.
We were about to go under contract on a different building in Old Littleton that was much smaller. Even though it would have been a great project, something about it didn’t feel right in that we were limited in what ultimately we could do with it.
When that fell through in November 2021, I drove up and down Broadway to find other opportunities nearby and noticed that the for sale sign was still up on the Martin Building and called again. The contract had literally fallen through the day prior. We submitted that night.
Even though one shouldn’t get too excited in the beginning of a purchase, it was hard not too with all the opportunities we could see in this building. It was built in 1964 and is a mid-mod gem! Two stories with floor to ceiling windows and amazing bones. And let’s be honest, I knew it had to be written in the stars since the building sign is pretty much our last name, Marlin, and with a slight modification in shaving off the crossbar of the T, it was meant to be!
We purchased the building in Jan 2022 and dove into an 18 month renovation. We ultimately decided to completely gut it so that we could start from scratch, build, and design the layout exactly how we wanted. We knew that the space was too big for ELEVATION and being such champions of small businesses and wanting to surround ourselves with like-minded people, we decided to turn the building into a creative cowork space.
My design vision/aesthetic was a blend of modern + mid century design meets boutique hotel yet with all the comforts of home. The goal was for the space to inspire creativity and inspiration by bringing in great colors, tons of textual design all while bringing in unexpected design touches. Why work in a stale, boring, static office environment when you can immerse yourself in a fun and intentionally designed work hub?
The next step was to come up with a business name, OMG SO hard!!! I started writing down words that I liked and that evoked a sense of community. The word ‘collective’ kept coming to mind. I began to write down words that I associated with collective: community, center, hub, gather, hive, cultivate and element of. Even though I continued to try and come up with even more meaningful words, nothing summed up what I had envisioned for this business than Collective. Because Broadway is such a historical transportation artery of Denver, what better than to name it Broadway Collective!
