Big slice of downtown Morrison hits market for $15M

There’s a big new commercial listing in the tiny town of Morrison.

Dave Killingsworth, a business owner in the town of 400 by Red Rocks Amphitheatre, recently put his 1.3-acre block along Bear Creek Avenue up for sale, with a price tag of $15 million.

It includes two parking lots and 12,400 square feet of building space, used by two restaurants, an upholstery shop, three rental units and a bar. His broker, Phil Yeddis of Unique Properties, said it’s the largest parcel to ever hit the market in downtown Morrison.

Killingsworth seconded that point.

“You’re not going to find another chunk like this in Telluride, Aspen, Estes Park, Golden — anywhere,” he said.

If a deal closes, a buyer wanting to celebrate could slip into the Morrison Holiday Bar. Killingsworth has owned that business since 2006 and wants to sell it as part of the transaction.

But if no one shows up with a good offer, he’ll keep the properties and the bar.

“I can do this for another five years. I don’t want to, but if I have to — if nobody wants to buy it, they don’t like it, you know — I’ll keep doing it. It’s not a fire sale,” said Killingsworth, 65.

The real estate came into the Killingsworth family in the early 1970s. Back then, Killingsworth said, his divorced mother Mary and the divorced woman who owned what would become the Red Rocks Grill purchased the main chunk of the site, a row of commercial properties fronting Bear Creek Avenue. The upholstery shop was already a tenant back then, as was the Holiday Bar.

The women were denied financing by 17 banks before one would cut them a check, Killingsworth said, because of their divorced status.

Partners came in and out of ownership throughout the years. Killingsworth said he and his brother bought out the last nonfamily ones in the late 1990s. His mother passed away in 2017, leaving control of the whole property to them.

More purchases were made over the years. A studio addition atop Red Rocks Grill is leased to the eatery for office space. A single-family home to the north is rented to a tenant, and another home behind the commercial buildings is run by Killingsworth and his wife as an Airbnb.

Killingsworth has made extensive improvements. During a tour of the space, he casually pointed out six-figure renovations here and high-dollar upgrades there.

The Holiday Bar is now home to a sprawling three-story patio with pool tables and plenty of seating. A newer added roof beneath the original was removed to give the interior higher ceilings, and the music stage has been demolished and moved three separate times.

But Killingsworth isn’t paranoid about anything breaking. One of his longtime regulars used to be a literal bull named Star — who paraded through the bar at its annual pre-stock show party.

“His horns got so big you’d have to turn his head to get him through the front door,” he said.

Killingsworth’s relaxed demeanor toward the business stems from a much more stressful occupation he once had — 23 years in the Navy.

After he completed his service, he went to work part time for USAID, the federal government’s foreign aid arm, helping coordinate disaster relief efforts. Sometimes that was for things like hurricanes and earthquakes, and other times it was for civil unrest and war. He left that role in 2017.

“​​I’ve seen s*** all over the world. So I try and make things functional and for people to enjoy. There’s a lot of different niches in this bar that people can find,” Killingsworth said.