Colorado- It turns out there are better ways to make money in Allenspark than running a pornographic art gallery after all, a Niwot couple said Saturday.
Jeff and Vicky Mead had been planning to open a porn shop in the two-story log cabin they own at 14863 Colo. 7 this month, and until recently were promoting the adult store with a large banner outside the building.
But now the couple — who have found themselves the center of some local residents’ fury over the proposed “Patterson XXX Porn Gallery” — say they will instead sell the $428,000 building to a non-profit group that wants to convert it to a community center.
“It seemed to us we’re better off focusing our energy on our other businesses,” Jeff Mead said of the pending sale.
The Meads previously said they had no choice but to open a porn shop after a protracted fight over their former ATV-rental business based at the cabin ended in April with the county shutting down the operation.
The couple plans instead to open a new business converting gasoline vehicles to run on natural gas. The company will be based at their ATV rental company in Lyons.
The decision to abandon the porn idea, Jeff Mead said, has nothing to do with pressure from locals.
“I would never succumb to that,” Jeff Mead said. “It’s more that I have an opportunity to put my energy in one direction.”
Margie Patterson, an Allenspark resident who has fought against the Meads’ ATV rentals and proposed porn plans for years, is now the chairwoman of a newly formed non-profit group that on Saturday signed a contract to purchase the building that she said was to be named after her in spite — a claim the Meads have denied.
“The building is so prominent in town,” Patterson said. “It needs to be a use that represents who Allenspark is.”
The Allenspark Community Cultures Council has so far raised more than $61,000 from donations and grant money, Patterson said. She estimated it will cost about $700,000 to pay off the building and renovate it.
When it’s finished, she said, the building will host amenities such as community meeting space, art studios, an exercise room, a community garden, a convenience store and a playground — all based on feedback from a survey the group sent out to all Allenspark residents earlier this summer.
“It’s so great to be doing a positive thing for the community,” Patterson said. “There really is nothing like that up here.”
The council, led by seven Allenspark residents, has an aggressive fundraising plan to reach its financial goals and plans to pay off the investment within 10 years. Its members want to open the building to the public sometime next spring.
“We’re hoping for grants, more donations and corporate sponsors,” Patterson said.
She said that had the controversy over the Meads’ business plans not drawn so much public attention to the prominent cabin, Allenspark might not ever have landed a community center.
“In a sense, we have to say the Meads almost did us a favor,” Patterson said.