“Normally, when things burn down, they fall down. So, to have a burned down building that’s still standing, we wanted to try to bring it back to life.”
The 33-year-old Denver resident is in the midst of renovating a 24,000-square-foot building, built in the 1940s, at 476 S. Broadway in Wash Park West. It was previously home to LeGrue’s, a flower shop and year-round Christmas store that operated for 50 years.
BurnDown, which he hopes to open in the fall, will have three stories, plus a rooftop deck and 6,000 square feet of office space, which Sparks hopes to rent out. The light-filled atrium makes the whole building feel connected. Each floor features balconies and terraces. On the 4,000-square-foot third floor, where the atrium stage is still visible, there will be an indoor and outdoor seating area, plus a bar. And a 1,500-square-foot rooftop deck will provide views of the Front Range.
So in 2012, he moved to Jackson Hole to become a ski bum and ended up staying there for six years. During his time there, he worked at Snake River Brewing, where he met Navratil.