Downtown Littleton's Fall Calendar Is a Test Run for the Main Street Being Designed Now

Steve Skundberg had stopped for a meal at McDonald's when he spotted a "For Rent" sign on the building next door. He called the owners. According to the Littleton Independent, they called back within three hours to say they wanted him as a tenant. That building on Rapp Street is now home to Lewis and Cluck, the chicken feed and supply shop that opened on Prince Street in 2016 as an offshoot of Lewis and Bark. It spent a few years on South Broadway before Skundberg bought it from founder Pete McClintock and moved it back downtown.

Downtown Littleton has been gaining this kind of small, independent shop all year. The street those shops face is also in line for its biggest change in a generation. The City of Littleton has funded a Main Street rebuild and is collecting public input on the design this fall. Construction isn't scheduled until mid-2028. That leaves a stretch of falls when the old street keeps running as usual while the new one is drawn up. Lamppost skeletons, ghost walks and candlelit sidewalks make up most of this season, and they test the same things the city's design survey asks about.

The New Arrivals Are Small, and Half of Them Are on Rapp Street

Most of this year's openings downtown are shops you walk into on the way to somewhere else, not destination restaurants:

• Leaves on Main, 2699 Main Street, opened Sept. 5 and sells indoor plants, books and plant-related goods.
• Tonic Zero Proof Bar, 5767 S. Rapp Street, serves mocktails and kava. It was already open when the Littleton Independent covered it in May.
• Lewis and Cluck, 5827 S. Rapp Street, is the feed store from the opening story. It came back downtown this summer.
• The Diamond Reserve, 2569 Main St., is a jewelry shop that held VIP grand-opening tours from March 2 to March 31.

Two of the four are on Rapp Street, not Main. Rapp sits outside the Main Street corridor that the city plans to rebuild first. That matters later in this story. The city's Project Downtown plan covers more than Main Street. It also includes projects on Prince Street, Alamo Avenue, Nevada Street and Little's Creek Trail, and Main Street was chosen to go first.

October Is a Walking Calendar

Most of downtown's fall events only work if people can move along the sidewalks, stop, and drift between storefronts. The October and November schedule, including a few nearby events at Aspen Grove and Hudson Gardens:

Bones About Town puts more than 25 skeletons on downtown lampposts for the whole month and holds a weekly gift-card drawing. It's a scavenger hunt laid out across the streetscape, so it depends on sidewalks that are easy to walk end to end. The Haunts of Littleton tours run on four evenings over two weekends. On Prince Street, Reinke Brothers' Haunted Mansion is advertising its 50th season. Prince is one of the streets named in the later phases of Project Downtown.

Aspen Grove's events are a useful comparison. The night market and the Monster Bash are held at a shopping center at 7301 S. Santa Fe Drive. Downtown events take place on a city street, where every closure and staging area has to work around the existing Main Street layout.

The Street Is on a Design Clock

That gap between the street and the events it hosts is what the Main Street project is meant to fix. The city's Project Downtown: Main Street Improvements page sets out the timeline:

• November 2024: City Council adopts the Project Downtown Concept Plan and names Main Street the highest-priority major project.
• May 2026: The city allocates $32.6 million to design and build the improvements.
• May 2026 to mid-2028: Preliminary and final design, community engagement, and parking and curbside planning.
• Mid-2028 to late 2029: Main Street construction.

The money is already in place. In an Aug. 1 notice, the city said council approved up to $30 million in Certificates of Participation. They are generally repaid from available city revenues, subject to annual appropriation. Investors paid $32.8 million for the $30 million in certificates, and the city says the extra proceeds go toward the project.

The adopted concept describes the finished street this way:

"...new trees and amenity areas, gathering spaces, raised planters, specialty paving, event-closure infrastructure, and gateways at the east and west ends of the street."

Event-closure infrastructure is the item that ties most closely to this fall's calendar. CBS Colorado reported that the rebuilt street could be closed temporarily for events. The city has not yet published a plan for how the Candlelight Walk, Western Welcome Week or other downtown traditions will run during the 2028–2029 construction period. For now, its page says only that it is evaluating phasing strategies to limit impacts and keep downtown businesses accessible.

What the City Is Asking, and Where to Answer

The city held a gallery-style open house on Monday, Oct. 5, in Arapahoe Community College's Half Moon Room at 5900 S. Santa Fe Drive, and said two public surveys would follow. The Main Street Priority Outcomes survey asks people to weigh five topics:

1. Pedestrian circulation and comfort
2. Business and street activation
3. Trees and landscape
4. Event flexibility
5. Downtown Littleton's identity and character

Set the list beside the October calendar and the overlap is close to one-to-one. Bones About Town and the ghost tours depend on pedestrian comfort. A feed store, a kava bar and a plant shop opening downtown in the same year is business activation. The Candlelight Walk tests event flexibility. The city says the feedback will be weighed alongside council direction, technical analysis, cost and constructability as design scenarios take shape.

The second survey runs through Project PARKing, a parking and curbside strategy for downtown and Littleton Boulevard. The city says it started that work to reduce the parking and curbside impacts of rebuilding Main Street. It covers loading zones, access, and where cars go when a street closes, so it shapes how events work as much as the streetscape design does.

Getting Downtown This Season

Some of the roads leading to downtown are already under construction. The Santa Fe and Mineral improvements are underway, with completion expected in 2027. The city's project page posted Oct. 1 updates and a Sept. 28 night-work advisory. South of downtown, city council approved a sales-tax incentive on Sept. 15 for a Scheels store at 700 W. Mineral Avenue. The Littleton Independent reported that construction is expected in 2027 and the store should open in early 2029. That would be about the same time Main Street's construction is wrapping up.

Closer in, the city's July 10 update said Broadway at Lee Gulch would go back to two lanes in each direction. Work on trail connections, a flood wall and a pedestrian bridge continues through late 2026, and occasional lane or shoulder closures are still possible. On the Mary Carter Greenway, South Suburban says its detour at Reynolds Landing will stay in place for the length of construction, which is scheduled to run through spring 2027.

The last date on this season's calendar is Friday, Nov. 27. That evening the Candlelight Walk fills Downtown Main Street from 5 to 8 p.m., and Aspen Grove holds Karaoke, Carols & Cocoa from 6:30 to 8 p.m. It's one of the few remaining Candlelight Walks on the current Main Street before construction starts in mid-2028.

Abby is following the Main Street design closely, including how long construction will last, how parking and access will be handled, and what the finished street could mean for downtown Littleton homes and businesses. If you have questions about any of it, Abby Barratt is glad to walk you through what the city has published so far. Let's Connect.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.