Editor’s note: Please note that Valente’s Deli off 72nd Avenue and Meade Street is not impacted by this project at the Rodeo Market building on 73rd Avenue and Osceola Street, and the deli remains open.
Sunshine heats a western style façade of an empty building at 3915 West 73rd Avenue in Historic Westminster. Long shadows stretch across the pavement as people near the front door; Larry and Dino Valente on one side and Ed and Kyle Knudson on the other. The Rodeo Market building, a dedicated historic landmark of Westminster, brings both father-son duos together on a gorgeous spring day to discuss the future of the iconic property. The families step through the front door into welcoming shade.
As they shake hands, longtime Westminster stalwart Larry Valente guides the Knudsons around the large open space, taking them on a tour of the supermarket his father Fred Valente established in the same building back in 1953. “My dad put Westminster’s first supermarket in here,” says Larry. “It was a general store and offered everything.”
His memory of the space is captivating. He points out the precise location and organization of every aisle and shelf, where they used to exist anyway. The way he describes the space you can envision a bustling store, Westminster residents coming and going for locally farmed produce, freshly butchered meats, and home goods.
Larry expands on adventures had while working as a child in his father’s 4,300-square-foot store, even crashing a truck into an exterior wall once, “being a smart aleck,” he clarifies. The tales are bathed in familial pride and entrepreneurial spirit.
Good Old Days
Archival images courtesy of the Westminster Historical Society
The Rodeo Supermarket was a family owned and operated business for over twenty years. “My sisters worked in here,” Larry recalls. “[My wife] Elaine came in here and she helped stock for a while.” After pointing a perturbed look at his son Dino—who now runs the successful family business— he says “Dino was harder to convince.”
Dino chimes in. “I think working with your family is insanity,” he says. Laughter echoes off the beautiful barrel ceiling. After walking back the joke, Dino continues to detail the history of the building.
In the early 1970s, the Valente family relocated their general store to 72nd Avenue and Meade Street. Dino began working in this new location before it eventually transformed into the local favorite Valente’s Deli Bakery.
Decades later, the City acquired the original Rodeo Market building and designated it a historical landmark in 2006. Over the years, several attempts were made to revitalize the building, including repurposing it as offices, establishing a space for Westminster Arts Group, and a proposal for a tavern that fell through due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Valente family worried the space may never teem with the life their store once did and began to take special interest in its future.
The Rodeo Market’s Bright Future
In 2022, the City polled community members on the best use of the building, and residents overwhelmingly requested that it be repurposed as a restaurant and gathering place.
In response to community feedback, Westminster’s Economic Development team reached out to over 86 restauranteurs before finding new tenants in Ed and Kyle Knudson for a taproom called The Barque.
“The Barque will be a relaxed community environment.” says Ed who was born and raised in Westminster. He shares floor plans and designs with Larry and Dino, including his ideas for roll-open garage doors that let fresh air in, and an outdoor space adjacent to Fred Valente Humanitarian Park.
The Barque will be Ed and Kyle’s second location after opening Barquentine Brewing Company in Edgewater Marketplace five years ago, and although The Barque will offer a food option, Ed’s direct in clarifying it will not be a restaurant. “A restaurant is a place where people feel like they have to come in, eat, and leave so they can turn the table. [The Barque is] a place for people to be a community, spend time with each other.”
Kyle Knudson offers, “Just this weekend at Barquentine, Friday night we had a fundraising gala for an elementary school. Saturday we had two baby showers and a celebration of life. The whole thing is just community event space.”
The Knudsons envision The Barque will help re-energize Historic Westminster’s 73rd Avenue corridor. Even before their taproom opens, they are working to have a presence in the area by participating in some of the City’s upcoming summer events.
Before they can begin aesthetic updates to the Rodeo Market, the Knudsons need the historic building to comply with modern building codes. As part of their lease agreement with the City of Westminster, the City will front the bill for electrical, heating and cooling improvements.
Dino thinks it’s worth the investment saying: “It’s nice that they’re not going to tear this down.”
Ed replies, “This block has so much opportunity. We want to see this whole block become a really cool place for people to come and spend an evening or a weekend.”
That’s exactly what the City and the Knudson’s hope to accomplish by revitalizing one of Westminster’s oldest buildings. The partnership invests in breathing new life into the property to bring the community together in a familiar space for the next generation.
The sun sinks below the Front Range and parting pleasantries are exchanged. There’s a heavy sense of satisfaction between the families having learned much about one another, including coincidentally that Ed and Larry both attended Westminster High School and had the same basketball coach. Deeper than that though, is the shared confidence in the idea of a legacy business opening in the Rodeo Market building once again.
As the two families leave, Dino turns to the Knudsons for one last comment.
“We wish you all the best,” he starts. “Finding something that the neighborhood has been asking for for a very long time and finding people with a tie to the community who want to be part of the community and continue that, I think is a recipe for success.” It’s a full circle moment as the legendary property is passed along from one father-son duo to another.
The Knudsons plan to begin renovation and construction on the building in August 2025 and anticipate opening The Barque in 2026.
Learn more about the Knudsons’ plan for The Barque in the video below.