It’s been a year since fourth generation Coloradoan Luke Johnson purchased a building that housed a service station in the early 1900s and more recently, Moe’s Original Bar B Que. Johnson, founder and CEO of Luke and Company Fine Pet Supply & Outfitters, is now moving forward with plans to relocate his pet shop.
Johnson told What Now Denver that he had been looking for a new location for about four years, and once COVID hit, business grew and properties became available. “Timing worked out good, and I was able to purchase that property which would have otherwise been turned into another apartment complex.”
The permitting application process has been difficult over the past year, but Johnson hopes to have permits for the new location at 530 N. Broadway by January 2022. Work would then begin to renovate the existing structure and add onto the building to create a 6,500-square-foot space for Luke and Company.
Johnson wants to restore the existing building and then construct another building around it. As customers walk into Luke and Company, it would appear as if they are walking into an old service station area. Johnson plans to add a 1953 pickup truck inside the building along with gas pumps to make it feel nostalgic.
“I wanted to preserve that as a piece of Denver history,” Johnson shared. “It fits with the theme of Luke and Company. If you walk in here, our walls are covered in old petroleum and transportation advertising signs. And it’s got a funky vibe mixed with the feed store vibe.”
The new space will include more room for pet food and supplies, a full-service grooming area with two salons, and three self-serve dog washes. The second story will house dedicated office space and a dog training center.
“It will be like a three-story glass barn on the front facing Broadway and a silo on the back of the property. So it will be pretty cool—a unique building for Broadway,” Johnson said.
“We carry a lot of things that other places around us might not carry.” Luke and Company also offers same-day delivery for its customers.
Johnson plans to stay open without business interruption at the original location at 430 Broadway, which is about a block away, until the new building is ready to open. If all goes according to plan, he’s looking for the new Luke and Company to open in the fall of 2022.
