Cherry Cricket eyes purchase of shuttered Tavern in Greenwood Village

The onetime Tavern Tech Center in Greenwood Village, which has been closed since 2020, could become a Cherry Cricket.

The burger joint with locations in Cherry Creek, Ballpark and Littleton is under contract to buy the property at 5336 DTC Blvd., according to Lee Driscoll, CEO of the restaurant’s parent company.

Driscoll, who runs Breckenridge-Wynkoop, LLC, told members of the Greenwood Village City Council last week that his company “just started our due diligence on the property.”

Driscoll said whether his company ultimately buys the property and opens a Cherry Cricket in the existing structure depends on the cost of renovations, which has yet to be determined.

“The property is in very good shape,” he said. “But our concept is somewhat different. So there would be a significant amount of cost in a conversion to a Cherry Cricket, which is just much more of a food-oriented concept. We’re 72% food-to-alcohol at our existing Crickets.”

Cherry Cricket has operated in Cherry Creek since 1945. The restaurant expanded to Ballpark in 2018, and to Littleton in 2023. A fourth location, in Broomfield, is expected to open in late summer.

Breckenridge-Wynkoop also owns Wynkoop Brewing Co. in downtown Denver, Phantom Canyon Brewing Co. in Colorado Springs and Ale House in Grand Junction.

Driscoll told the Greenwood Village council last week that areas outside Denver proper are more attractive for expansion.

“We have been looking closely at another Denver location but we’ve determined that, at this point, we would probably prefer not to be in Denver,” he said.

Alex Bunn, the restaurant group’s chief marketing officer, told BusinessDen that Denver’s higher labor costs were behind Driscoll’s comment. The city’s hourly minimum wage is $4 more than the state minimum wage.

Bunn said Breckenridge-Wynkoop doesn’t have a target for a specific number of Cherry Cricket locations.

“We take it one at a time,” she said. “We look at each opportunity on its own.”

Bunn said the brand is “not venturing far from home” and expects to stay within Denver and the surrounding suburbs.

Tavern Tech Center was once one of a host of local Tavern spots run by restaurateur Frank Schultz and his mother Terry Papay. Schultz attributed its 2020 closure to COVID.

Schultz and his mother sued each other in 2023 and, as part of a settlement, listed a dozen jointly owned properties for sale last spring.

Schultz told the council that he’d originally hoped to buy out his mother’s stake in the Greenwood Village property and keep it himself. He was working through that, he said, when Cherry Cricket expressed interest in buying it.

“I remember designing this place and building it. It’s pretty sad for me,” Schultz said. “But it’s something you gotta do to move on.”