Downtown Greeley's Holiday Season Runs Through a Construction Zone, and There's a Bingo Card for It

On 10th Street, the sidewalks run between chain-link fencing, and "open for business" signs are zip-tied to the fence. A Greeley Tribune photographer caught it in early October: one pedestrian, a lot of fencing and dirt, and construction equipment sitting in the 8th Avenue intersection. That is still how downtown looks heading into the holidays. What changed is the timing. The weeks between now and New Year's are the one part of this project that was scheduled around people shopping downtown.

The work began in early September on 7th Avenue near the Greeley Area Chamber of Commerce building. It moved north to 10th Street and then west past 8th Avenue, and it will keep heading west and north while staying east of 11th Avenue. There's no public end date, but the estimate is at least 2028 and likely later. So the current stretch is a short break inside a long project, and the businesses, the Downtown Development Authority and the City of Greeley are treating it that way.

Shopkeepers asked for November and December, and the schedule bent

The construction is for water, sewer and stormwater lines. The work was sped up because Weld County is building its new justice center downtown, and the county, the city and Greeley-Evans District 6 combined their new buildings into the Downtown Civic Campus. DDA Executive Director Bianca Fisher told the Tribune the underground lines have to go in before any building goes up.

Downtown retailers didn't fight the work. They asked about the calendar. "Some of the feedback that was found and clear from some of our retailers was, 'Please, please, please avoid November and December,'" Fisher said in the Tribune's Oct. 26 report.

Suzanne Sereff has run the Warm Hugs gift shop downtown for nearly two decades. "We make more in November and December than we do the rest of the year," she told the Tribune. "So that was a big thing, but I feel like they've listened to us." Pablo Guzman of the Midnight Oil bookstore said the city asked owners which months were slowest. He named September and January for retail, and he called the timing "a really good time."

Heavy work fell in September and October, and the holidays come next. The next closure is the long one: once the water and sewer lines are done, crews will close the area again to install storm pipe and box culverts under the street, and the Tribune reported that closure will likely last much longer.

Getting in this month

The 8th Avenue and 10th Street intersection was the biggest obstacle for 10th Street shops, and part of it has reopened. According to the city's project update from Oct. 28, southbound traffic has been moving through it since Tuesday, Oct. 20. The city also asks drivers to follow posted detours, because work continues elsewhere downtown.

That other work includes 9th Avenue and 12th Street. In a project update from Oct. 30, the city said crews were placing rebar forms for a new underground stormwater box culvert there. The culvert will be 5 feet tall and 12 feet wide, about three golf carts parked side by side. Crews are building it in place inside the excavation because the downtown site has no room for precast sections. The city had said earlier that the block of 9th Avenue between 11th and 12th streets would be closed for several months.

The city says businesses, sidewalks and pedestrian access stay open, but some on-street parking near the work may be unavailable. Closures shift week to week, so check the detour and parking dashboard on the Downtown Infrastructure project page before you drive in.

The bingo card maps the open blocks

The city and the DDA are offering more than reassurance. Bingo on the Blocks runs from Nov. 1, 2026, through Jan. 1, 2027. It's free, and no purchase is required. The city's Speak Up Greeley page is direct about why: construction is hard on local businesses and their customers, and the game gives people a reason to come downtown over the holidays.

The rules:

1. Download and print a board, or pick one up at any participating business. Each square names a business and its address.
2. Visit a business and ask for a stamp or signature in its square.
3. Finish one line for a $15 Downtown Greeley gift card, two lines for $30, or the whole board for $50.
4. Turn in your card once, for the highest tier you've reached. Gift cards are available while funds last.

To redeem, the DDA's Bingo on the Blocks page asks for an email with a selfie holding your finished card and a readable photo of the back, sent by Jan. 1, 2027. The DDA reviews cards on Fridays and emails approved gift cards on Mondays.

The board lists 25 businesses. Sorted by street, it doubles as a walking route around the fencing:

The addresses show how to play efficiently. Three squares share 802 9th St., so MOXI, Spotlight Cafe & Creamery and Stella's Pinball are all in one stop. The 900 block of 9th Avenue holds six squares, from Mom's Popcorn to Rise & Pies, so you can cover a quarter of the board in one short walk.

The 10th Street row matters most, because those three shops sit on the stretch the Tribune described as right in the middle of the work. Warm Hugs is adding its own incentive. Anyone who spends more than $40 is entered in a weekly drawing for a $100 gift card, with a $500 gift card drawn at the end of the month. "I've never done anything like this before," Sereff told the Tribune.

The DDA is supporting the businesses directly, too. Its Construction Impact Grant Program launched Oct. 12 with up to $3,000 for each of 60 eligible downtown businesses. The DDA had planned to start it in 2027, but after hearing from owners it made $1,500 available now, with the rest available next year. "It's meant to be a little boost, a little shot in the arm," Fisher told the Tribune.

Three Saturdays of WinterFest, plus one more First Friday

Most bingo stamps will likely get collected on WinterFest Saturdays. The DDA's WinterFest page lists Downtown Greeley WinterFest on Saturdays from Nov. 28 through Dec. 12, 2026, at Lincoln Park and 9th Street. That makes Nov. 28, Dec. 5 and Dec. 12. The season opens with the Holiday Open House on Shop Small Saturday. It also includes the Light Up Lincoln tree lighting, Holiday Lane displays, Makers' Workshops, carriage rides, live music and a North Pole Mailbox for letters to Santa. Visit Greeley lists the same Nov. 28 to Dec. 12 run.

Lincoln Park and 9th Street sit right next to the bingo board's densest addresses. The 802 9th St. stop and the Cow Saloon at 800 9th St. are on the festival's own street.

First Friday is also still going. The city's Tointon Gallery page says the art walk runs the first Friday of every month from April through December. November's walk falls on Nov. 6. The last one this year is Friday, Dec. 4, between the first and second WinterFest Saturdays.

The longer closures come after the water and sewer work

Bingo cards are due Jan. 1, and January is one of the two slow retail months Guzman named. Once the water and sewer lines are done, the storm pipe and box culvert closures come next, and the Tribune reported they will likely last much longer than the current ones. As of Oct. 23, crews had laid 1,070 feet of water line and 2,215 feet of sewer line. They still had 7,409 feet of water line and 1,238 feet of sewer line to go.

"I keep telling people, it's like a marathon," Fisher told the Tribune. "If you take your water and snacks on Mile 3, you're going to be out of energy by the time you get to Mile 20." For anyone shopping downtown, the 25 squares on the board are a list of open businesses to visit before Jan. 1, along with the three WinterFest Saturdays and the Dec. 4 First Friday.

My Greeley clients ask me about downtown more than almost anything else: what's open, what the construction will change, and what the Civic Campus means for the blocks around it. If you're trying to think further ahead than this holiday season, Rachel Vesta can walk you through it calmly and clearly, in English or Spanish. Book a consultation, and I'll gladly bring my own bingo card along.