Skyland's Empty Corner Was Built as Three Storefronts. It's About to Be Three Again.

For nine years, the building at 28th and Madison has sat with its windows papered over, still wearing a faded sign advertising 99-cent apricots from whenever Frank's Food Mart last restocked produce. Neighbors walking past would slow down. Some would cross the street. As Denverite reported, a few stopped their cars outright to ask the two people who kept showing up to look the building over in early 2025 what was coming next, before those two had even signed a lease.

That's the detail that tells you what this corner actually means to Skyland. Not that a grocery store is opening. That people were already asking before anyone had committed to building one.

A building built for three

The structure at 2800 N. Madison Street went up in 1952 with three storefronts under one roof: a grocery, a liquor store, and a third unit that later became a laundromat. That layout held for decades. Frank's Food Mart ran the grocery bay until it closed in 2017. Ben's Supermarket, the neighborhood's other longtime grocer, closed in 2020 and the space became Ephemeral Rotating Taproom.

What's happening now isn't a redevelopment pitch dressed up as neighborhood revival. According to Naked Denver's reporting on the project, the building's owner kept the grocery unit empty for years specifically because they were holding out for another grocery operator, not whoever would sign a lease first. The Corner on Madison will occupy that same grocery bay. Effin's Bottle Shop is set to take the old liquor store unit next door at 3513 E. 28th Ave, with 200 to 300 wines and a lineup that leans toward mid to high-end tequila, mezcal, and whiskey. The former laundromat unit is still available, which means the building could return to its original three-tenant footprint for the first time since Frank's went dark.

Two people who don't live in Skyland noticed first

The Corner on Madison's owners, Max Bramer and Emily Quinlan, live across Colorado Boulevard in Northeast Park Hill, not in Skyland itself. Neither had worked in grocery, retail, or real estate before this. Bramer's background is in operations, Quinlan's in nonprofit and community development work, and according to Denverite's coverage, they negotiated the lease and coordinated the buildout largely on their own.

They found the building on a walk with friends. Bramer reached out to the listing agent the same day.

Those questions reflected a broader hope for the commercial space.

In Denverite's coverage, Natasha Myers, president of the Skyland Neighborhood Association, described what residents have been hoping for in that commercial space:

"we want to see the commercial space in our neighborhood utilized for third space"

That phrase, third space, is doing real work here. Skyland hasn't lacked places to eat and drink. It's lacked a place to run an errand and then linger, which is a different kind of business entirely.

What survived without a grocery store

Here's the part that's easy to miss if you're only tracking the grocery news: Skyland's food and drink scene didn't collapse when the grocery stores did. It just changed shape.

The Plimoth has run a farm-to-table, seasonally rotating menu on a quiet Skyland corner for more than a decade, occasionally hosting wine dinners that draw people in from outside the neighborhood. MyKings Ice Cream Shop became enough of a fixture that 5280 named it among the neighborhood's cherished staples in its 2026 Denver neighborhood rankings. Ephemeral Rotating Taproom, in the old Ben's Supermarket space, built a following around beers sourced from around the state, country, and world.

None of those are errand businesses. They're destination businesses, places you drive or walk to on purpose rather than pass through on your way home. That's the kind of retail that can survive in a neighborhood without a grocery store, because it doesn't depend on daily foot traffic the way a produce aisle does. What Skyland has been missing isn't dining options. It's the boring, essential kind of commerce that a grocery store, deli, or corner bottle shop provides, the sort of trip that happens two or three times a week rather than once for a special occasion.

Right now, the closest full-service grocery options are Spinelli's Market in Park Hill and Park Hill Supermarket in Clayton, both more than a mile away and across two major roads, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Colorado Boulevard. For at least one resident without a car, Denverite reported, that mile turns into a bus trip that eats up roughly half an hour of a day just to get there. That's the gap this corner is meant to close.

Then and now

The building's original uses line up with what's arriving in two of the three storefronts:

The Corner on Madison's own site describes the concept as built for neighbors, by neighbors, with a market and deli carrying both premium and budget-friendly options, plus a café and patio meant to stay open all day for morning work sessions or afternoon happy hours. Back in January, Bramer and Quinlan were describing an April opening as an aspirational goal rather than a locked date. That month has come and gone, and neither the business's site nor recent coverage confirms whether doors are open yet. If you've walked past and seen lights on or crews still inside, that's the kind of update this corner has been waiting nine years for.

The ripple nobody's confirmed yet

Bramer and Quinlan have heard talk of a restaurant taking that third unit, the old laundromat space, and one Skyland Neighborhood Association member has floated opening a lunch spot just a few doors down. Across the street, another commercial space at 2801 Madison Street is also sitting available. None of that is locked in. All of it depends on whether The Corner on Madison actually pulls foot traffic back to that block the way its owners are betting it will.

That's worth watching if you live within walking distance, because a single successful grocery reopening on a corner that's been dark for nine years tends to change what a landlord across the street is willing to bet on next.

Why the timing lines up

None of this is happening in a vacuum. Skyland climbed 37 spots in 5280's 2026 neighborhood rankings to break into the magazine's top 10, a jump the outlet attributed largely to real estate momentum. It was one of only 13 neighborhoods, out of 78 ranked citywide, that saw both closings and average sale prices climb over the same period. The average home price in Skyland reportedly reached around $705,000, up 13 percent, still the least expensive neighborhood in that top 10 group.

That kind of attention usually shows up after the small stuff changes first. A grocery store reopening on a corner that sat empty for the better part of a decade is exactly that kind of small stuff, the sort of shift residents notice years before a magazine ranking catches up.

In the meantime, Skyland's other anchors aren't going anywhere. City Park Golf Course finished an extensive redesign that reopened in late 2020 with a new driving range, water features, and clubhouse, and J. Langston Boyd Park in the neighborhood's northeast corner remains one of the quieter green spaces in the area, especially once the trees turn in the fall.

If you're already walking these blocks, the corner at 28th and Madison is worth watching right now. It's rare to see a neighborhood get back exactly what it lost, in the same building, under the same roofline, however many more months it takes to get there.

If Skyland's next chapter has you thinking about what's happening on your own block, or curious what a home here looks like as the neighborhood gets more attention, the team at Live.Laugh.Denver. Real Estate Group knows these streets well and is always glad to talk through what you're seeing and what it might mean for you.

For any inaccuracies or concerns, kindly reach out to [email protected].