Merchandise is stocked in Gear Junction's new storefront, 436 Main Street, on Wednesday, May 25. The store will official reopen in this location on Thursday.
Trail Life Brewery owner, Ryan Dutch, right, works to build the bar in the brewery on Wednesday, May 25, as Gear Junction, seen through the window on the left, prepares for its opening on Thursday.
Gear Junction owners Cole Hanson, left, and Jacob Thaden, climb the stairs to the second floor of Gear Junction's new storefront, 436 Main Street, on Wednesday, May 25. The store will official reopen in this location on Thursday.
Jeff Cunningham at Gear Junction stocks throw bags Wednesday in the new storefront, 436 Main St. The store will reopen today.
MCKENZIE LANGE/The Daily Sentinel
Merchandise is stocked in Gear Junction's new storefront, 436 Main Street, on Wednesday, May 25. The store will official reopen in this location on Thursday.
When Cole Hanson and Jacob Thaden initially opened The Gear Junction at 537 Main St., they were leasing the space and knew they would eventually want to buy a larger building on the street.
They laid out a list of their five preferred spaces. At the top of their list was the Twisted Turtle, a bar just down the road at 436 Main St.
The Twisted Turtle closed in July 2020. By that Christmas, Hanson had purchased 436 Main St. LLC, and the purchase of the former bar to turn into the newest home of The Gear Junction was finalized March 1, 2021.
After more than a year of remodeling and construction, Hanson and Thaden are finally ready to welcome shoppers to their outdoor gear store once again — this time with more space and a second floor.
The Gear Junction opened Thursday at 9 a.m., with its grand opening featuring food, drinks, and (likely) a raffle for gear slated for Saturday.
Gear Junction owners Cole Hanson, left, and Jacob Thaden, climb the stairs to the second floor of Gear Junction's new storefront, 436 Main Street, on Wednesday, May 25. The store will official reopen in this location on Thursday.
“We’re pretty excited,” Hanson told The Daily Sentinel. “I know people have been into our previous store and it was pretty tight corridors and we had a lot of stuff crammed in there, so to be able to just display a fully rigged raft and have space to set up a raft for someone buying a new one, it should be good.”
Moving into the former Twisted Turtle was an ambitious undertaking on paper and in its design, but the final result proved even grander than Hanson or Thaden were anticipating.
“Honestly, seeing it come to fruition and seeing it in real life is better than I expected,” Hanson said. “You look at drawings for months and months and months and try to plan out how things may or may not go, but seeing it all in here and seeing it actually be real, we’re pretty proud of how it turned out.”
When The Gear Junction first opened, it specialized in used outdoor gear. However, in the past half-decade, as the store has grown a loyal customer base and expanded its overall customer base, it began selling brand-new equipment.
Jeff Cunningham at Gear Junction stocks throw bags Wednesday in the new storefront, 436 Main St. The store will reopen today.
MCKENZIE LANGE/The Daily Sentinel
Hanson and Thaden always had their eyes on 436 Main St. because of its character and its vast space in which the business could spread its wings, and they believe they’ve cracked the code for utilizing the space to its full potential. The first floor at its new location features new items while most of the items on the second floor are used.
Arriving to today, however, was not easy, either in terms of the budget or the workload required to make their dream a reality. Hanson said that they started the project with a modest budget, but they quickly ran into issues.
“We ended up going a lot deeper into remodeling this place than we had initially planned, to the extent that we spent about three months trying to work with various general contractors to run the project for us,” Hanson said. “We couldn’t find one that would work within our budget and our schedule, so I ended up getting my general contractor’s license and we just ran the whole thing ourselves, which saved us some money in that regard, but we also ran into some issues with a sprinkler system that needed to be replaced because there were some issues with it when it was installed in 2011.
“We pretty much gutted and remodeled the entire building, which ended up being good because we could build it to suit us rather than living with what was here.”
Trail Life Brewery owner, Ryan Dutch, right, works to build the bar in the brewery on Wednesday, May 25, as Gear Junction, seen through the window on the left, prepares for its opening on Thursday.
The Gear Junction is sharing 436 Main St. with Trail Life Brewing, which Hanson described as “a brewery with some folks that share the same values and are definitely into the outdoor scene like we are.”
During this past weekend’s Rides and Vibes festival in Downtown Grand Junction, the brewery held an open house, serving food out of its kitchen. The kitchen is up and running, with employees trying out recipes in an effort to nail down a comprehensive food menu by the time the brewery officially opens.
There’s still work to be done, however. Trail Life Brewing owner Ryan Dutch said that he’s hoping for the brewery to open by the end of June.
“We have our tanks coming and they should be here by next week to be installed,” Dutch said. “We have a few big projects to get installed, but we’re five weeks away, probably, from our planned opening date. Of course things happen, but that’s our goal.”
The brewery has largely taken shape, though, and Dutch is satisfied with its state and how it will look when finally completed.
“It’s going to be awesome,” Dutch said. “It’s what we wanted it to be from day one. It’s exactly like what we were hoping.”
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