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Aspen Main Street Bakery building likely to remain a restaurant

Erica Robbie
The Aspen Times
There's reason to believe the space at 201 E. Main St., home to Main Street Bakery for 27 years, will continue to operate as a restuarant in its future.
Anna Stonehouse/The Aspen Times |

The historic building that housed Main Street Bakery for nearly 30 years is under contract to sell, and there is a strong possibility the space will continue to operate as a restaurant under its new ownership.

Aspen resident Claude Conner is the current owner of the building that’s located at 201 E. Main St., said Bill Dinsmoor, who owned the bakery, which closed Thursday, along with his wife.

While the identity of the buyer and official plans for the building’s future are unknown at this point, Dinsmoor said, “My sense is (the prospective new owners) are interested in doing something in the food business.”



City of Aspen Chief Building Official Stephen Kanipe also has reason to believe the space will continue as a food-service establishment — but maybe with not as much focus on baked goods.

Kanipe said he had a “very productive” meeting earlier this month with the building owner and prospective buyer, where they outlined future intentions for the building as best they could without revealing too much.




“They wanted to replace quite a bit of the bakery equipment, the way I understood it,” Kanipe said, along with expanding the seating area and “modernizing” the space.

There also was talk of ovens and dishwashing, said Kanipe, adding that “it seemed as if it was kind of set up to be continuing as a restaurant.”

Dinsmoor said one individual involved with the purchase of the Main Street building “has quite a bit of experience in the food business with restaurants and stuff.”

“Whether or not that translates into what they’re going to do, I don’t know,” he said. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if it has some food component here.”

The Pitkin County Assessor’s Office confirmed Thursday afternoon that no deed of sale has gone through the office.

The 9,000-square-foot parcel has an assessed value of $910,830 and an actual value of $3.14 million according to the Pitkin County Assessor’s Office.

Whether or not a restaurant will occupy the space, Dinsmoor said he wouldn’t hold his breath on anything happening inside the old building immediately.

“It’s going to need a lot of work before it can have any business, and certainly a food business,” he said. “My sense is any construction will be drawn out for many months.”

The building was built in the late 1880s, he said, and originally served as a duplex apartment.

“Once you open up the wall, you never know what you’re going to find,” Dinsmoor said.

erobbie@aspentimes.com