Bill Dale seeking someone to take his building, and his mantle

A historic Denver Avenue retail space that’s been a pharmacy for 43 years is looking for a new business to call it home.

Pharmacist Bill Dale, retired since 2008, is looking for someone to take over his 237 Denver Ave. Dales Pharmacy space.

 “I still own the building,” Dale said. “My wife Irene and I moved from the area in 2017. We have had a couple of failed lease attempts.  It is currently vacant and ready for a new chapter. We are hopeful to find a tenant with an existing business that will enhance the community and bring back a gathering place for local people.”

Dale learned of a great opportunity to start his own pharmacy when a former classmate was contacted by a group of businessmen from Fort Lupton looking for someone to open a new pharmacy to bring a more competitive environment. 

Dale and his wife Marlene graduated from the University of Colorado School of Pharmacy in 1982, working as pharmacists while they raised two children. 

“He passed on the opportunity and gave me the contact number of the person with the Fort Lupton Development Corporation and left it up to me to pursue.”

Replacing La Copita

Dale said he contacted Sam Funakoshi, who showed him an empty building at 417 Denver Ave and suggested that it would be a great space to open a pharmacy. It wasn’t ready to open, but he was able to visualize what it could be.

“When I saw it the first time, the front of the building was gone, the floor had been stripped down to the joists, and across the back wall there was a mural of a huge Caballero with a mustache that stretched the entire width of the building. It had previously been La Copita, a local ‘watering hole,’” Dale said. 

Dale said he agreed and opened Dale Professional Pharmacy in May 1982, selling their first prescription. 

“We stayed there until January 1988, when we moved to 421 Denver Ave. – the former home of Lenzi’s Sporting Goods and a much larger space,” Dale said. 

Dale said that while he was getting established, Bob Easterday was running a competing pharmacy at 237 Denver Ave.
 
“I developed a good working relationship and a good personal friendship as well with Bob Easterday, we attended the same church, Bob and I sang bass in the choir,” Dale said. “I found my pharmacy, a short distance from Easterday’s Pharmacy, did not have any detrimental effect on his business, and we worked well together as separate businesses to serve the needs of Fort Lupton.”

Transitions

It was a comfortable status quo until the mid-1990s. Marlene was diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer in the summer of 1995.

“She passed away on January 2, 1996, and I carried on the best I could,” Dale said. 

Later that year, Easterday told him he was ready to retire and asked Dale if he was interested. He was, purchasing the business, including the building, and moved to 237 Denver Ave. 

“I kept on all of the former Easterday employees and brought one of my own. Over time, I ended up with about 12 employees in all, and business was good,” Dale said.

Dale said Easterday had an old-fashioned soda fountain and a coffee bar.  Every morning, a group of men from in town would stop by and have coffee.  

“There were usually four of them, sometimes five, so we kept an extra chair nearby just in case. These men would sit and drink coffee for usually 30 minutes or so and talk about world affairs, the high school football game last night, or the price of wheat,” Dale said. “I always thought that if we could get our government to listen to these wise men, we could solve the nation’s problems in very short order.”

Retiring

Dale said he made several changes, however, and remodeled the building over the years. But finally, at his 25th anniversary running his pharmacy, and he decided to sell out if he could find someone who was interested. 

“Almost exactly a year later, a young pharmacist who had been working in pharmacies in the Brighton area and I had an opportunity to talk,” Dale said. “We talked about the advantages of owning a pharmacy and discussed the relative benefits of buying an existing pharmacy or starting from scratch like I did. Well, it turned out he was interested in buying and I was interested in selling.”

After the closing in 2008, Dale said Huy Duong R.Ph. corporation, called Caring Hands Pharmacy, Inc., took ownership of the Dale Pharmacy business and name while Dale kept the building.

“He asked if he could use the name Dale Pharmacy since it already had a loyal clientele,” Dale said. 

Dale and he and his family moved from the area in 2017.  Huy stayed there for the next 13 years, but decided to expand to larger place of his own, keeping the Dales Pharmacy name. 

“He purchased a piece of land across the street from Safeway and built a new building, then moved the pharmacy operation,” Dale said. “His building also houses a coffee shop and has attracted several other businesses to that area.”

Now Dale said he’s looking for someone to take over his Fort Lupton building. The commercial space is unique, featuring 3,324 square-feet of wide-open retail area situated above a substantial 3,324 square foot basement for storage space, he said.

“This building is also eligible for grant money for renovations through the Fort Lupton Urban Renewal Authority, which is the City of Fort Lupton’s redevelopment agency,” Dale said. “We are hopeful to find a tenant with an existing business that will enhance the community and bring back a gathering place for local people.”

If interested in the property, contact Bill Dale at 720-490-5800 or email at thedalebuilding@gmail.com 720-490-5800.