# Fuel & Iron

A catalyst food hall and apartment project in historic downtown Pueblo, Colorado

## Elevator pitch
Fuel and Iron is a real estate development in downtown Pueblo, CO, in the Union Ave. Historic District. We are converting the historic Holmes Hardware Block building into a food hall and 28 apartment units. The food hall will serve as a restaurant incubator, helping the next generation of restaurateurs in Pueblo develop their concept and prepare to open their own brick and mortar. The apartments will bring needed density downtown, supporting the food hall and all businesses in Downtown Pueblo.

- Canonical URL: https://wefunder.com/fuelandiron
- Entity ID: wefunder:company:66265
- Last updated: 2026-06-23T05:01:31Z
- Generated at: 2026-06-23T19:02:51Z

## Quick facts
- Fuel & Iron includes a food hall, single-family and multi-family housing units, and other amenities.
- Phase I includes five food vendors and a 28-unit housing in the historic Holmes Hardware Building.
- The food hall model is a culinary incubator allowing restaurateurs greater margins.
- Increased likelihood of distributors with a low amount of private capital with a preferred return.

## Active fundraises
- wefunder:fundraise:36820: 4(a)(6) successful (USD)

## Story
The city of Pueblo has a rich history centered around building the American West. At the helm of this growth was Colorado Fuel & Iron, a steel mill that was once the largest employer in Colorado with 15,000 workers from around the world speaking 40 different languages. At its prime, Colorado Fuel & Iron employed one-tenth of the state’s entire workforce, 15,000 workers, and was listed on the Dow Jones Industrial Exchange. Today, Pueblo’s steel mill is still producing rail, seamless pipe, rod, and coiled reinforcing bar and an integral part of the economy.Holmes Hardware Block Redevelopment Inside the former Holmes Hardware Company sits the future site of Fuel & Iron. Part of the Holmes Hardware Block, a two and a half acre site, the historic building sits on the southern edge of downtown across from Pueblo’s Union State near the Riverwalk. The company was a partnership between George Holmes, a self-made businessman, and Alva Adams, a three-term governor of Colorado and the eponym of Adams County. After a fire destroyed the original wood-frame Holmes Hardware Block in 1915, the building was immediately reconstructed with its original façade but with a fireproof concrete structure, leading it to survive the flood of 1921. The Fuel & Iron project plans to generate increased traffic by locals and tourists to strengthen current businesses and encourage growth.The building sits on the southern edge of downtown, directly across from Pueblo’s Union Station and at the opposite end of Downtown from the Riverwalk, downtown Pueblo’s biggest draw. By creating an incredible amenity at the other end of Union Ave. from the Riverwalk, Fuel & Iron will draw locals and tourists alike back and forth along Union Ave., generating increased traffic and opportunity for the businesses in between. As such, Fuel & Iron will be not only a success in and of itself, but a boon to downtown Pueblo and the city as a whole.The Fuel & Iron ProjectThe redevelopment of the Holmes Hardware Block will begin with the build-out of the hardware building to create Fuel & Iron, a food hall and housing complex. The building’s renovations will be the first phase of the project. A half-acre urban garden, parking lot for food hall customers and apartment residents, a performing arts space, and a half-acre lot dedicated to multi-family housing are planned for the second phase of the Holmes Hardware Block.Fuel & Iron will serve as an incubator for the next generation of great Pueblo restaurants. The five restaurant spaces within the food hall will be occupied by independent local chefs and restaurateurs. During this time, the up and coming culinarians will receive business planning and financing guidance, in addition to help with site selection and lease negotiation for their own brick and mortar location within Pueblo.After the restaurateurs are successful in opening up their own standalone brick and mortar location, their space in the food hall will be given to another restaurateur, and the cycle will be repeated, affording these entrepreneurial chefs opportunities they would not have otherwise had and at the same time invigorating the Pueblo restaurant scene as a whole!The upper floors of the Holmes Hardware block, in conjunction with Phase II of the site redevelopment, will bring much needed housing into Downtown Pueblo, and will help activate Pueblo’s downtown during a much greater portion of the week. The aim of the project is to be catalytic, encouraging more commercial and residential development downtown and further encouraging Pueblo’s growth in a way that honors local residents and businesses to live, work, and play downtown.Floor PlanFood Hall:Affordable Housing:Encompassing the second and third floors of the hardware building will be Fuel & Iron Apartments, a 28-unit complex. This project will consist of two studios, 18 1-bedroom units, and 8 2-bedroom units available for renters with 60% to 80% of the Area Median Income. This affordable housing complex along with the more than 20,000-square-feet plot designated for future residential development, will revitalize Downtown Pueblo allowing for a live, work, and play environment. The intention of the Holmes Hardware Block is to encourage further residential and commercial growth in Pueblo. The presence of residents downtown will create greater economic opportunities for all businesses. The Food & Iron project plans to be the catalyst to increase market demand for more housing development and the burgeoning of more local businesses.Community Impact The Holmes Hardware Block redevelopment is designed to strengthen the restaurant community and surrounding businesses, increase tourism, and improve the economic prospects of food producers in Pueblo County. Food halls provide a diverse and dynamic employment pool that ranges from highly-skilled artisan and managers to entry-level service staff. The current projections have the Fuel & Iron Food Hall creating 57 FTE positions, including 29 entry-level positions. Fuel & Iron has created an internship program in conjunction with Pueblo Community College and the Business Management program at CSU Pueblo. This program is designed to give hands-on experience to foster entrepreneurship and forge paths for future employment.To impact the community, Fuel & Iron will partner with the Pueblo Food Project to reduce food waste and support Pueblo residents dealing with food insecurity. Together with Pueblo Urban Farmers, the team will develop a portion of the project into an urban farm to provide fresh ingredients to food hall restaurants along with a food box program. The project team plans to organize seasonal farmer’s markets providing other local food producers and vendors a platform to sell their goods. Project ScheduleThe project began in May 2020 with the creation of schematic designs, financial models, logos, and branding. Since then, Fuel & Iron has worked diligently with the city and state to assure the project prioritizes the preservation of the Holmes Hardware building. In July 2021, construction will begin with plans to open the apartments and food hall in Summer 2022.The InvestmentInvestors in the campaign will receive B Shares, which receive a 9% annual preferred return on capital. Interest began capitalizing on July 1, 2020, and the project team expects to be able to pay out distributions beginning in December, 2022. The distribution in 2022 will be larger to catch investors up for interest that capitalized in 2020 and 2021.

## FAQ
1. **Is automatic equity return reinvestment an option?**
   - Hi Jeffrey, we don't have an automatic option to reinvest equity, and but please feel free to reach out if at any time you would like to consider another equity investment. Thank you so much for your contribution!
2. **Are there opportunities for investing in common units of the company? Will preferred unit-holders be allocated a portion of the historical preservation and new market credits on their K-1s?**
   - Hi Lucas, at this time we are only offering B (preferred) shares. The investors in the tax credits will receive 99% of the tax credits, and so we don't anticipate having a meaningful amount of credits to offer to preferred shareholders, nor for the common shareholders (Zach and myself).
3. **I am just seeing your opportunity..since your raise is so low compared to goal are you still going to let Investors be involved or will wefunder require that the Investors get a refund etc. Obviously you are going to have to raise money from VC's. Have you spoken to any yet? I...**
   - Hi John if we don’t hit our goal the investors will get their money refunded to them. After we finish construction, the cash flow from the food hall and the apartments should pay for the debt service on the project so we don’t anticipate raising additional capital. We are open to doing similar projects in other cities/states down the road but don’t have any other projects in the pipeline currently. Thanks.
4. **So you already have the money you need to do the Construction, predevelopment etc?cause your raise you mentioned was to go towards that.**
   - Hi John, we already have financing in place for the construction costs. However, we will not close on the financing for construction costs until July. The money we are raising now will go towards paying for predevelopment costs, until the rest of the funding comes in. Thanks for your interest!
5. **Thanks for response Ryan. I want to invest but Nathan said if you guys don't reach the minimum Investors will just get their money back. Wefunder charges as soon as you click to submit investment amount they don't wait. I hate to invest just to get my money back. All companies...**
   - John, Thank you for your consideration.

## Team
- Nathan Stern (Co-Founder)
- Zach Cytryn (Co-Founder)
- Greg Topel (Food Hall Operator)
- Ryan Madic (Development Intern )
- Susan Powers  (Co-Developer )

## Recent posts
- LAST DAY TO INVEST (2021-09-27T17:31:11Z)
- 48 Hours to Invest and Governor's Visit (2021-09-26T00:12:45Z)
-  (2021-09-25T20:20:27Z)
- LAST CHANCE TO INVEST (and other project updates) (2021-09-21T18:54:25Z)
- Coffee Break - Thank You! (2021-06-08T23:02:17Z)
- Fuel & Iron Virtual Meet & Greet Thursday March 18 at 10AM! (2021-03-15T20:06:51Z)
- Fuel & Iron Investor Update (2021-03-09T18:32:21Z)

## Q&A
- Q: Hi F&I team, I just came across your pitch, and it seems like a great opportunity in real estate dev. for crowd investors. I had some questions regarding return for investors: 1. I saw on the investor panel video you plan on distributing 9% return to class-B shares when there is enough CF to distribute. Can you shed some more light on these details? When do you expect this to happen, what other milestones does this depend on, and is this 9% return an expected yearly return or for a different timeline? Any other info you could share would be highly appreciated. 2. Have you given some thought to exit strategies (maybe too early in the game, but it would be good to know if you have at least considered this). (Sorry if these have been answered before!)
  - A: Hi Felipe, these are excellent questions. 1) We should be able to make our first distribution at the end of 2022, which will catch you up on your capitalized interest (which will start accumulating once the campaign concludes). After 2022 the distributions will be annual at the end of each year. Our ability to pay any distribution depends on the performance of the food hall and the housing. 2) Our initial loans will become due in 2028, which will mean we will need to refinance the property. That will be an excellent time for investors to exit if they want to and we intend to provide all investors with that opportunity. It is important to remember that the lead investor in the campaign (Alice Hill) will be making that decision (to exit or remain in the project) on behalf of all of the investors in the Wefunder campaign. Thanks for your thoughtfulness and let us know if you have other questions.
- Q: Has anyone ever seen any distributions? What happened with the sale??
- Q: nice.
- Q: Hello Nathan, it sure has been a while, can you please provide an update. When are the returns going to be paid out?
- Q: Am I able to still invest in this?
  - A: You are Jared! The campaign closes in two days at 9M MST on 9/27
- Q: Hello. What will be my tax consequences as an investor in this project? My understanding is that an investor will be considered a limited partner? K-1 tax form?
  - A: Hi Eugene, you will be a limited partner in the project, and I believe you will receive a K-1 from Wefunder. Thanks so much!
- Q: Are those train tracks behind the buildings still active, what is you assessment of the noise for people who own housing in the building as well as restaurant noise, will this be a deterrence for people?
  - A: Great questions Gregg. The train tracks are still active, so we took sound mitigation very seriously. We hired an acoustical consultant and have a number of strategies to reduce the noise. With that said we won't eliminate the noise completely, so it may be a deterrent for some people. However the need for affordable housing is so great that we don't foresee a challenge filling the units even if downtown living isn't for everyone.
- Q: Hello, what is the current status of this project as of EOM September 2021 as far as construction, local government approvals, funding, etc.?
  - A: Great question Alex and allow me to provide an update. All government approvals have been secured and all loan documents should be signed by EOM. We will most likely be waiting for funding to come in from two funders, which means we won't technically be fully closed until early October when those wires hit. We gave the full notice to proceed to our contractor yesterday, so construction will be underway.
- Q: Hi Nathan, thank you for the update!
  - A: My pleasure - thank you Travis!
- Q: Are you still on track to begin construction this month?
  - A: Hi Travis, our financial closing is taking a little longer than expected. Construction should start in August.
- Q: Hi Nathan, I don't think I can respond directly to your message, but thanks for responding and giving a clear-cut answer to me! Best regards, Blake
  - A: My pleasure Blake!
- Q: Hello, I saw an article in the paper today; so sorry I didn't know about the open house. Damn time to have a good ice cream place here in such a beautiful place. I'm very interested in investing but didn't see the terms anywhere/or what the hoped-for return would be? Thank you. Patricia
  - A: Patricia, thank you for reading the Pueblo Chieftain article on the Fuel & Iron Project! The Fuel & Iron team missed you at the open house! The return for investing is this campaign is an annual 9% return on capital. If you invest, you will receive B shares and you will be a part owner in this incredible development. We hope to see you at future events and see you when the food hall opens next Spring! If you have any more questions regarding this campaign, please reach out to me.
- Q: Good morning. I just attended the open house and as a tenant on Union Ave, I'm VERY excited for this. I know if you don't hit the goal the investor money is returned and I'm curious if the amount shown relative to the goal is updated. I'd love to see this succeed and be a part of if but the gap seems large at this stage. Thank you very much.
  - A: Travis, thank you for attending the open house this morning! Our goal for this wefunder campaign is to raise a minimum of $50K, even though the goal shows $70K. We have currently raised 50% of our goal. We are confident that through more engagement with Puebloans and new marketing efforts that we will be able to hit our goal. We would love to talk with you in person if you have any other questions or if you would like to meet the developers for this project? Thank you for your interest in Fuel & Iron!
- Q: Hi! Just came across your project here. It seems like there hasn't been activity for a month or so -- are you still looking for the raise? What's the status of the Tax credits and other items that were supposed to complete in April?
  - A: Hi Raymond, the Fuel & Iron Project has met a lot of milestones in the last few months. Just last week, the developers for the project took possession of the Historic Holmes Hardware Building and the surrounding 2.5 acre site. Construction is on schedule to begin in mid-July. Federal historic tax credits and state historic tax credits are being used as a portion of the capital stack for the project. We are still looking to complete this raise sometime in July. On June 3, there will be an open house event at the Historic Holmes Hardware Building where the public and investors can get a glimpse of the building before construction begins. We will be posting more updates on this page soon, as we have a lot of exciting news to share with wefunder investors. Thank you for your interest in the Fuel & Iron Project.
- Q: You guys are raising for predevelopment costs yet will just give investors their money back if you don't reach the minimum. That may have stopped some from investing. Why can't you just do like others take what you can get let investors be involved and don't extend raise. I am in if you guys don't just give me a refund later..thanks
  - A: John, we are required by wefunder to raise a minimum amount of funding. The minimum amount is a number that we have no control over. We have a great team in place currently working on this wefunder campaign, and we are confident that we will raise the minimum and exceed our goal.