Jeff Snook & Jody Corey - Spoke and Vine Motel - Full Circle With The Christi Reece Group

Christi sits down with Jeff Snook & Jody Corey, owners of the Spoke and Vine Motel, and hears about what brought them to the Grand Valley, renovating an old motel, buying the Palisade Cafe,  and all their other exciting adventures in Palisade and the Grand Valley!

Info on the motel:
https://spokeandvinemotel.com/

The Palisade Cafe & Wine Bar:
https://www.palisadecafeandwinebar.com/

Check out the video of the interview at https://youtu.be/ydAaAAC5tfo.

Transcript

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Christi 0:05

The Full Circle Podcast, compelling interviews and incredible tales from Colorado's Western Slope, from the mountains to the desert, Christi Reece and her team hear from the movers, shakers and characters of the Grand Valley and surrounding mountain towns that make the Western Slope, the place we all love. You'll learn. You'll laugh. You'll love with the Full Circle. Hi everybody, Christi Reece here with a full circle podcast, and I'm really excited today to have Jeff Snook and Jody Corey , the owners of the Spoke and Vine Motel in Palisade, Colorado, and the brand new owners of Palisade Cafe. Also. Congratulations. So , um, one of the reasons we really wanted to interview you is that you have just jumped right into the Palisade business scene and really all over the grand valley. And we also love your social media so much. It's really fun to watch. So , uh, we have a lot to talk about, but let's start with, how did you end up buying the motel? What was your first introduction to Grand Junction and yeah. How how'd you get here?

Jody 1:04

So Jeff and I have lived in Steamboat for almost 20 years and we have been coming down to this area for almost that entire time to come mountain biking and play in the desert. We love the area , um, but we didn't really know much about Palisade. We would drive through and every now and again, we would stop for a bloody Mary, but that's really all we knew about Palisade and fast forward , I went on a girls' trip. It was a friend's birthday and she wanted to go to Palisade where we would road bike at the Colorado national monument and then come back and go wine tasting. And I said, yeah, that's fine. Let's do it. Let's let's plan this vacation. So she looks around there's nowhere to stay. And she finds this place called the Mesa view motel and she, she books. It there's no website on, on online. Uh , we took a chance and so we showed up and it wasn't as good as we had hoped. So needless to say, after, after that , uh, after checking out, we early, we checked, we checked out early. We were, we were a little nervous about the surroundings. Um, so we checked out early, but we continued on the girl's trip and we're sitting around and I said, you know, Palisade is super cool. We should buy the Mesa view Motel. Was it for sale at the time? It was not for sales at the time. So I

Jeff 2:29

Had to be clear. You were sitting around with your girlfriends,

Jody 2:32

Totally drinking wine. Yes.

Christi 2:35

Which always makes you think you want to run a lodge or a hotel or a new business venture. Just to be clear. Okay ,

Jeff 2:45

Please .

Jody 2:47

Um , so I texted a girlfriend who lived in Palisade and I said, what do you know? And she said nothing. So a few months later she texted me and she said, it's for sale. So we were in the thick of our winter. I was in, I owned a property management company at the time. Um , in Steamboat Springs, Steamboat Springs, it was called simply Steamboat. And we manage 150 condos and town homes for other, other people. And I managed a bunch of HR ways . So you were kind of busy, kind of busy, kind of busy. So this was, you know, this was just playing on me ever so slightly through the winter. So we came down to Palisade again in may for a great bike race. It was called the grand Fondo. Fortunately it's, they're not doing any more , but we had a beautiful time. We stayed at base campers or there was about 12 of us. And we had like the best weekend in Palisade. And before we pulled out of town, I said, Jeff, let's go drive by the

Jeff 3:41

Motel. Let me see what you like .

Jody 3:43

Yeah. He still hadn't seen it. Um, so we drive by and he said, what are you talking about? The place is a dump. So different language , different language, different language. Yeah .

Jeff 3:58

So basically what I said is like, you have three hours to convince me, but within an hour we had booked a stay at wine country in the following weekend and brought our cruiser bikes down and spend another weekend in palaces. Yeah . So,

Christi 4:11

Jody , what did you say on that three hour ride home? I don't even remember [inaudible] . I mean, owning a lodge is not easy, so you weren't under any , um, fantasies that like Jeff, this is going to just be fun, fun, fun.

Jody 4:29

Totally. We knew when we were getting into Jeff also has a property management background. Um , so we know, we know the , um, the idea of setting rates and caring for a property and dealing with guests. Um, so, so that was, that was certainly in the wheelhouse. So th this would re require moving down from Steamboat , um, a big capital outlay of , of funds and Jeff and I don't come from money. So this was, you know, a big deal for us to take this leap, but I've been watching the motel trends go on for quite a few years. And yeah , and I have an interior design background, and I just always thought that that would be fun to design something from the ground up because the property management company that I had in Steamboat, I bought, so it came with the logo, it came at the branding and the condos and the townhomes weren't my own to decorate and design with the full idea that it is for the traveler. So this, I , it was just so exciting to be able to do that, start to finish. And,

Jeff 5:36

And right there is how she sold me in that first hour that got me excited. I was like, yeah. Cause I had always worked for other people and , and worked my tail off for someone else to be successful. And she sold the idea of, of that to me. And I'm like, yeah,

Christi 5:54

We can do this year round

Speaker 5 6:03

[inaudible] .

Jeff 6:03

So

Jody 6:03

Yeah. Free time has gone .

Christi 6:07

Was your initial goal to live here year round when you thought about the motel, because you kind of were back and forth a little bit. Yeah . So

Jody 6:13

W I was back and forth for awhile , really for the financial, I had a great job in Steamboat. Um, so Jeff came down and he went because the motel was major, major construction, and there were months where he didn't have water or, or, or plumbing or heat. So he was living in the camper and the driveway. So for essentially, even after we opened, I was running back and forth from Steamboat and coming down on the weekends and help. And, you know, and I can, you know, do a decent part of it remotely, even during the construction and then subsequently after we opened. So when COVID hit, I've been down here full time and it's, it's been just so great to , to be with my husband and in Palisade Palisade is, is great at first. So, you know, and I still think Steamboat is an amazing community, but Palisade really has, has stepped it up and we're, we're enjoying it. We have some great friends.

Christi 7:12

Yeah . It's a really special place. And I think you're not alone. I, you know, I grew up in the mountains of Southwest Colorado and would go to salt lake city or Moab and drive through grand junction. And I never really got off highway 50 or 70. And until you do in this community, you don't realize the beauty. And once you do, you're like there so much here. It's incredible. So , um , one country and is a beautiful place, but there's not a whole lot of lodging and Palisade . So that had to weigh into your decision making process. Like there's a real opportunity here

Jeff 7:45

Came back down in that , um, that following weekend for being sold , uh , on the property. Um, that's exactly what we did. We tooled around town on our bikes and we went to the restaurants and we talked to people and did a lot, whatever research we could find , uh , our lodging and yeah, it was, that was it. And we realized that , uh, they have a cap on their VRB owes . So that was kind of helpful. Um, so very limited lodging. And it was kind of like, all right , I think this is a really good opportunity. Once we were down there, we saw it live. It was, we realized

Jody 8:17

It and we really believe that Palisade is getting to be, if they're not already, you know, on the, on the tourist map. And that weekend, we came down to do our due diligence. We went to a bunch of wineries and there was a ton of young people. It just seemed vibrant. They were dressed. So, you know, just out for a day wine tasting. And we were like, where are they staying? So , you know what, you know, if the country is full, right. And we just were like, let's, that seems like the demographic that is going to be the new crop of wine tasters. So we, yeah, we basically appeal to a demographic that I don't think necessarily had had a great place. And the, and the spoken vine has a great location downtown, so you can walk everybody everywhere. So as soon as you arrive at the spoken vine and in Palisade, you don't even have to drive again until you leave, which is fantastic. It's uh , yeah. So

Christi 9:16

The, the, the most tell itself was still not for sale when you made this decision. Correct. So did you , it was by that test . Okay.

Jeff 9:24

Again, pushed us in that direction. And when we came down, we set up a showing at that, at that point, it was with a realtor. So , um, Jody reached out to , uh , I don't remember her name, but , uh, reached out to her and we had a showing walk to the property. That's

Christi 9:38

Good. I'm glad you just , you know, it wasn't one of us donating it

Jeff 9:44

Property with a realtor and the owners who had had it for 30 years. So, you know, they were very proud as they should have been. Um, so yeah, that was when it was like, okay, we're now we're in. Yeah. And it took a , it took us about four months, four months ,

Jody 9:58

Um, getting financing.

Jeff 10:01

I came back down probably twice a month, twice a month to do inspections, meet with the owners again and just understand the property. So I was taking a little dangerous back and

Christi 10:09

Forth. And you did most of the remodel work yourself? I was there

Jeff 10:15

Counts, right? Yeah . I mean, it did a lot more than I ever thought I would, without a construction backgrounds . I had painted, I had a painting business long time ago, so I'm a handy guy, but when it comes to like that involvement of like , uh , the construction part of it. Yeah. The actual labor of it and the construction part, it was new to me. So I was in a world I had never really fully been in completely

Jody 10:43

Gifted . We certainly had an electrician and a plumber. Um, Jeff did the majority of the work himself to a point, and then we started getting behind on the schedule. So then we, we found some really great local crews that, that helped us hit our six month timeline, which was, which was perfect. And I had the construction background. I've done project management before. So I would keep track of , um, all of the ordering, where, where we were in the timelines, the critical path, that kind of thing. And then manage the branding and the interior design , uh, finishes.

Christi 11:22

It was , uh , it was just a lot more than interior design. You didn't just put some lipstick on there. You did a lot of work.

Jeff 11:29

Essentially. Our plan was to, we knew we were going to have two new electrical and plumbing right off the bat. We were going to have to rip up, you know, at least two feet of the floor from the exterior wall to get to that plumbing. It ended up being a lot more, probably about 75% of every room was down to the floor, joist . Wow . Ceiling

Jody 11:49

On the inside. It , it, it's essentially a brand new building. Yeah. How many rooms do you have? 17?

Jeff 11:57

Uh, it was 18 when we bought it, but we took one room and turned it into a suite. So it has , uh , one of the reasons it was so small. I'm like, [inaudible] ,

Speaker 5 12:09

I don't even think it's been that in there. It was a small , yeah . As we turned

Jeff 12:13

One of them into a suite. Um, there's a really cool room and, yeah. Good. Right . And then , um, a variety of double Queens twin , uh , excuse me, double Queens. Single Queensland Kings. I mean , we have one apartment, like four apartment, which is that's the, that's the sweet spot, right ? Yeah. It's a cool

Christi 12:32

One. So what, w when did you actually open for business and relaunch?

Jeff 12:37

April 1st of, oh, excuse me. May 1st of 19. 19. Yeah. So we bought it, we bought the motel close on the motel on Halloween of 18, which was super weird. Um, and then reopened that , uh, May 1st of 19

Christi 12:51

And love your social media. I mean , you're a natural born performer. Thank you. I'll be here for at least another 35 minutes if you'd like to do any dancing or stretch

Speaker 5 13:07

[inaudible] .

Christi 13:07

So for those of you watching or listening, if you haven't checked out spoken vines , social media, please do it's. It's very entertaining. So thanks for bringing a little levity to I've gotten a haircut. So you had some time to , um, build your business before COVID hit. And I know the response right off the bat was great. Did you start filling up right away where people

Jody 13:34

The first year was, was good? It was, it was, it was, it was better when we first started building, one of the locals said, oh, you're going to do great. You'll be busy all the festival weekends. And he said, I hope we're busier more than just a mess. Yeah .

Jeff 13:48

It was like literally three weekends where like what? No.

Speaker 5 13:52

Um, but the first year was,

Jody 13:52

The first year was good. We were, we're excited about it. We did well. And then

Jeff 13:57

Really cool people. Yeah .

Jody 13:59

And then we started for the second year and we had a bunch of weddings on the books for that second year. It was starting off strong March was better than we had thought. And then COVID hit. And we just started canceling that those first three days, just Jeff took out , took the phone calls for all the cancellations and he was crushed. He was mentally drained. You know,

Christi 14:22

We I'm sure it had to be really scary, really scary, really

Jody 14:26

Scary. And , um, you know, and then it was like, oh, we , you know, few, few weeks have shut down . Oh, wait, we're going to be shut down another month.

Speaker 5 14:33

And actually I should back up, we weren't

Jody 14:35

Shut down. We didn't have to shut down, but we could have been, should have I get

Jeff 14:41

The ones he twosie if somebody like traveling cross country or

Jody 14:46

Maybe six reservations one night stays in like two months. Yeah . It was tough. Um, so we sat around and we thought, when it , when it opens back up, we are going to be so appreciative of all the guests that come back and during COVID we noticed that a lot of businesses were just slashing services. Oh, we don't do that. COVID sorry. Pre COVID. We used to take care of you , but you know, that was , and it was just like this , this thing. And

Jeff 15:11

Yeah , it was felt like it was kind of an excuse and everybody had their own situations. It's not a dig at them. I get it. It's what their choice was. We just didn't want to be that we want it to be something different and something that would still put who we were, who we are out

Jody 15:27

There. And one of the big things was, you know, serving breakfast in the lobby. We used to put out like a , a little spread, nothing, nothing fancy, but just quality stuff. And with COVID, we weren't going to be able to do that. So we pivoted and now we do room service. So I think we're probably the only motel in the U S that does room service on a tray with a silver corral and people love it, you know? But just those, those, we really treat our guests like family it's we, we want them to enjoy Palisade just as we've enjoyed it. And we're there to help them along, you know, any, any stage of their trip. And, you know, Jeff has often gone to rescue people who have gone flat tires or got you tipsy at the winery and advertised like a scent , he'll be getting

Speaker 5 16:15

Phone calls . [inaudible]

Christi 16:19

We know those people are going to pick us up. That's right.

Jeff 16:21

Only if you're staying with us, [inaudible]

Christi 16:24

Clarify that maybe .

Jody 16:28

And so, but yeah, that's, we really just want them to have fun and it's definitely reflecting in the reviews and we wanted it to be more than a place to stay. We wanted it to be a community. We wanted the guests to get to know each other. Um, Monday nights we we've turned into has turned into this , uh, locals night at the, at the spoken vine, tend to locals come , we have a community bike ride that leaves right from the motel. And by the end of the night everyone's friends . Yeah . We have a food truck. That's great. Yeah. We have a food

Jeff 16:56

Truck pretty much every Monday. Now the Spoke and Vine has a , we have the motel bar, so that's cool. Yeah. Uh , yeah, it goes with COVID really, I mean, it really that's what it came down to. So , uh, we were going to do our , uh, courtyard, the spring of COVID and then COVID hit and we didn't have any money. So we were like, okay, let's not do that. Um, so we planned it out this winter and , um, planned out the courtyard with a fence, a pergola and all this seating area now.

Christi 17:28

Yeah . Yeah .

Jeff 17:30

And the lobby was no longer a lobby because everything is remote check-in we have these remote locks that you send to code. Nobody has a key. So the lobby is basically just sitting there empty, like you got to do something with this thing. It's really cool. Um, so we're like, okay, let's get a liquor license and see if we can get a liquor license. So I went through the process of getting a liquor license and we're going to just do it in the entryway to the lobby and have, you know, a couple of beers on taps and wine and small bar stuff. Yeah . So then we ended up moving out of the motel.

Jody 18:02

Yeah. W we, we, we lived at the

Jeff 18:04

Motel, which is very

Jody 18:07

Strange at the same time. Um,

Speaker 5 18:11

Everyone's like, oh my God, I worked

Jody 18:12

So much. I'm like, no , no, no, you don't.

Speaker 5 18:15

We literally live at work. Well , we bought

Jody 18:20

A place in January, so we were now living offsite . So when we were designing what the lobby was going to look like with the bar,

Speaker 5 18:27

We have, we have no space.

Jody 18:32

Then if you're going to do it, let's do it. Right. You know , whatever . So we, since we're not living there, we busted a hole in the , in the wall that led to our former living room. Again, we weren't using it. So we thought let's dedicate this to the bar. So now it's like , it's a great space. It's open every night. Um, it's from five to five to eight, and it's just an amenity for the guests. It's open to the public. But, you know, it's, it's, you know, super casual place after, after getting out of your car after a long road trip. So

Christi 19:02

The Monday night bike rides, everybody then hits the bar and hangs out and

Jeff 19:08

Yeah. And how's the food truck and a few trucks on Thursday and Fridays and Mondays right now. So it's pretty cool. Like, it's a , it's a fun little thing they got going on, you know? So,

Christi 19:21

So when did you start to feel the recovery in the hospitality industry for you and was it different for you than other places because of the type of motel and the innovative things that you were doing? I mean, what a year it was for ?

Jody 19:37

Yeah. You know, it was the hotels and the lodging properties in the large cities took a nosedive. Um , and our hearts go out to, you know, what they're still even dealing with now. But in the, in the, the style of property, we have people felt safe. They went right from the car, into their room. They had an individual heating and cooling unit. It was, you know, they have key pads, no shared spaces. So people felt safe. So I would say that we picked up and June-ish

Jeff 20:12

Yeah. We started to feel the positive effects in June. And it was really busy. That's an understatement. And it was really busy also because we were understaffed. We didn't, we didn't want to hire because you're gonna be shut down next week. You're gonna be shut down. And we're like, oh my God. So we're literally cleaning rooms. Yeah . Yeah . It was . And it just kept

Jody 20:33

Coming like, well , like, oh, it'll, it'll slow down. After September, October was crazy.

Speaker 5 20:38

Um , and this year has been insane. Um, in an integrated way. We love it .

Christi 20:45

We love track everything. So where are most of your hotel guests coming from Denver? For sure. Coming down to just do the same thing like you did, which is ride bikes and wine taste and just enjoy small town life. I know you coming from, I'm a ski town and I came from the mountains as well. You know, grand junction, 20 years ago. Wasn't a place that you would consider moving to just wasn't didn't have that cool factor anywhere here in the valley, because I remember doing a , um, a branding session with , uh, Jeff and , and uh, some of the other folks and the word that we kept talking about, what's it like to live in Colorado? It's sexy. Like when you go travel other places, you're like, I'm from Colorado, it's a cool place. And I just don't think grand junction or Palisade, or Fruita had that sexy. I think we do now. And I think people from other parts of Colorado, or like, I think I could live there. It gives me goosebumps. Like

Speaker 5 21:45

I definitely

Jody 21:47

Agree. Yeah . We have had a bunch of our guests that came to stay and they have subsequently moved on to buy a property down. And a couple of other friends , I think the allure is the mild climate. Yes. It's hot in the summer, but the evenings are beautiful in the

Christi 22:11

Morning. Fantastic.

Jody 22:13

And the price point, I think it's still reasonable. It's still reasonable compared to definitely the mountain towns in Denver and that small town living I think is, is very attractive and there's opportunities. There's definitely jobs to be had down here on the, on the Western slope. Yeah .

Christi 22:32

So fast forward, you've gone through this crazy period of time with your brand new business through COVID and things are picking up and oh, lo and behold, there's a restaurant for sale.

Speaker 5 22:46

This one was my idea. [inaudible] I was just getting her back [inaudible] . So how did that happen? How'd you find it was a Monday

Jody 23:00

Night. So locals night , essentially, you know,

Jeff 23:03

At the Spoke and Vine, cafe. So a bunch of, a bunch of

Jody 23:07

People come in and everyone , you know, starts talking and , uh, somebody came in and said, the Palisade is for sale, John . Uh Sabala and Marty, his wife, they they're gonna, they're gonna sell it. Uh, and if they don't sell it by the end of the month, it's probably going to close.

Speaker 5 23:25

And this was, this was the end of may.

Jeff 23:28

Maybe the last day of may.

Jody 23:31

I probably couldn't know that day.

Jeff 23:34

Sorry . We found out about it in the beginning of that at the beginning of may, sorry, at the beginning , if it wasn't sold.

Jody 23:44

So for us, we eat out a lot. Um, and we enjoy a little variety in our life as you do.

Speaker 5 23:52

And our guests

Jody 23:54

Also Palisade gets busy and sometimes it's tough to get in a place because they're they're booked or, you know, there's a line out the door, that kind of thing. Yeah. So we , we, we looked at us each other. We said, we both looked at each other, like not in front of everyone. I used to wait tables and manage a few restaurants in Steamboat and Jeff , right before we bought the motel, he, he was in restaurants. He was a GM of a great restaurant in Steamboat called soft in line . And then he also worked , uh, in the restaurant business, in the ski area right before that. So it's still very fresh in our minds, you know, what it entails. And again, we knew what we were getting into. This is not a time . Well ,

Christi 24:43

If you know what you're getting into the restaurant is a ton of work, then we should have known for sure .

Jeff 24:48

Yeah. So it was fresh out of our brain, but

Jody 24:52

Yeah, it's, it's a lot of work and I think that's the difference with Jeff and I, we are, we are definitely not afraid of hard work. We , we like to see projects where we can have an impact. I really don't know if we would ever buy a successful, you know, like a business where we would change nothing that that's just not, that's not how we are. We like to put our stamp on it and put our spin on , uh , whether it's service or the product itself, you know, that that's.

Christi 25:22

Yeah . So anybody that's been to Palisade cafe can attest to great food, really nice little small town atmosphere. What is the stamp you're going to put on it? What are you going to do? Yeah.

Jody 25:36

It's it's service and consistency.

Jeff 25:38

Yeah . Yeah. I think our main goal was, was keeping it open for the, at least for the busy season, because if we had another, if we had a closed restaurant, even in Palisade anywhere, it would, you know, the options are not there. You know, we have a couple other really good ones, but it's just not everybody wants to go to the same place every day.

Jody 26:01

And we got a chance to meet with the staff ahead of, ahead of the closing and they are great. And we wanted to make sure that we kept them. We wanted to make sure that there was some continuity in their lives and, you know, they have, they have a paycheck and they know what's going to happen at the end of the month. And so , so we met with them and they're awesome. So we're right now, we're focusing on upping the service level. Jeff and I are, you know, again, that's what we're about. We really care about the customer and the experience and then everything else it's just, we're making minor tweaks, but basically mostly, mostly the same. And then our thought is we would probably close this winter and do a little bit of a and see

Christi 26:46

Jeff. I mean, you haven't been able to like tear anything apart or put anything back together in a while. So

Speaker 5 26:53

Kind of get back in there.

Jeff 26:55

Yeah, we're ready. I mean, I wouldn't, you know, it was really was my, was like , we could do this. She's like, we're busy. I'm like, we

Christi 27:01

Can do this. I was out there with some friends a couple of weeks ago and you guys were both in there working and I have to say it was a absolutely fabulous meal. We had a great time loved the wine and the carrot cake was , it was fantastic. It was really good. And I got home and I told my kids, like I just had the best carrot cake. And they were like, why didn't you bring any home? It's like, yeah, good point next time. So next time I will , um, let's see where to turn next. Um, so motel restaurant, and , um, and you're also working on a development here in grand junction as a project manager, Jody , that's really exciting. What can you share with us about that?

Jody 27:45

It's very exciting. Um, there is a , uh, an opportunity that I got presented with. I know the developer from Steamboat Springs, I had the pleasure of working with them just a little bit up there, and they are involved in a great project down here called dos Rios. Dos Rios is a swath of land that has been rehabilitated over 10 plus years. At least it is along the river. It is right down the stream from Lucy's office. Right. And take a bike path, right? Yeah . Yeah. It is a, it's going to be the place to go in grand junction. It is , um, it's going to have condos townhomes, a commercial area. Think on the, on the river food hall style brewery, we are going to attract a bunch of retail in the, after our rec industry. Can't share some of those details, but it's again, open to the public. Um, the residents, it is going to be a, they're going to have a boat ramp, right, right. Outside the food hall where you can, where you can totally,

Speaker 5 29:00

You can literally, you can literally

Jody 29:02

To Bob raft up, get out, have a beer, have a great meal. It's going to be, it's going to be a blast. And it's, you'll probably hear some more stuff about that. This , this coming fall when we launched the ,

Christi 29:16

The marketing. Jodi , tell us a little bit about the vision for the project that these developers are , um, bringing in because they've done other projects in other areas and they have a really specific vision for this place. And as we all know, grand junction has not taken huge advantage of the riverfront property in the past. And here we are down at the riverfront , uh, in the bonsai building. And the three of us are out looking at the pond and watching people paddleboard and everything. It's really exciting to think about more things going on along the riverfront. So talk a little bit about their vision.

Jody 29:48

I think a lot of cities had more commercial areas around the riverfront . I think that that's indicative of most areas. And now there is a shift of embracing that riverfront and the property down here Lowe's Las colonias is, is beautiful. And I think this is going to be a great opportunity to extend that for, for some miles down the road. So the vision is really that place-making where people want to be. There. There's a sense, there's a vibrancy about it. Um, there again, there's, there's a new crop of people moving to this town, the younger generation of people who have been locals their whole life. I think they're looking for a little bit more to fill their days and what dos Rios is going to be. It's going to be the hub of activity. There's going to be a conference space. We're really excited. There's going to be a music venue. Live music is , you know, is back right now. And I think, goodness, thank goodness. And this is going to be that opportunity to just have that world-class music venue. And really, it's also going to be a place for families to come. We are going to, there's going to be a playground, some splash park elements for the kids. Again, you're going to be able to take out or put in at that part of the river and just really make it a place, a place for junction. Um , it's right along the bike path that bike path can take you all the way to Palisade and it often, and it also can take you all the way to Loma

Christi 31:26

Amazing. I mean, not too many communities have that kind of,

Jody 31:30

And the , the man bike trails and Loma are fantastic, but even even better, the lunch loops, the lunch loops . The lunch loops is our , is our local network here in grand junction where you can ride for 30 minutes or five hours and put together just a really amazing ride. And it's all right from dos Rios. Yeah.

Christi 31:48

I think that there's so much going on down here with , um, you know, the project that's on the old Brady trucking site, just , um , east of us here and then Jen Taylor's project , uh, down at dos Rios. Um, I think they're all going to compliment each other so well. And it's just going to be such a vibrant area for miles. We

Jody 32:06

Are Jen Taylor's project , um, is, is definitely one of the reasons that we got involved here in grand junction. We think this is going to dovetail perfectly with what she's doing. And she shared her lookbook . We shared ours any . So it's right on, on par with each other. And we are both trying to elevate what's going on here. There's going to be art sprinkled through not just, this is the art section. We are going to have art woven through the property. And Jen is going to , you're going to feel a heartbeat soon as you walk onto her property as well.

Christi 32:45

How do you feel that the downtown core and main street is going to benefit from the development on the river front ? Because obviously that's been the , the main hub of activity and , um , a lot of businesses there that don't want to see everything go down to the riverfront, but have a balance between the two.

Jody 33:06

This is something that is very exciting. The city is building a pedestrian bridge and it's going to , um, go from dos Rios across the railroad tracks and dump right next to the old , uh, the train station train station. And it's going to be a multimodal transportation hub. It is again, it's, it is going to be on par with some of the best cities. And so, so really, if you were staying at dos Rios, you can walk bike to downtown and then vice versa. If you were in downtown, you can walk bike back over to dos Rios. And I think that is going to connect that energy, not be two separate locations.

Christi 33:49

You know what I keep thinking about as a trolley, you know, like from, from here to downtown, because when we moved down here, we really miss having all the restaurants around and we understand there's some, at least one restaurant coming down this way, but you know, it it's, it's not that far to go in the car, but it'd be really nice if there was just , uh , something we could hop on to go get a lunch and come back. So I love the idea of trolley, but anyway, yeah. Um ,

Jody 34:13

I think definitely pedicabs are gonna take off down here.

Christi 34:16

Yeah , for sure. Definitely. Definitely. Um, so you mentioned if you're staying at dos Rio, so , um, Jen will have rental properties too, but the, you said , um, apartments, condos, and town homes, and those are going to be for rent,

Jody 34:30

Right? They're going to be for rent. So when I was asked to be part of this project by the developers , uh , they asked me what I thought of this concept. And I think it is a huge need for this area, grand junction, Mesa county to have a property where you can come with your family, your gear, your, your friends, and, and travel together, where you have a garage, there is a kitchen, you could cook your meals, but you also can be right next to your friends. The other bonus of being at dos Rios is you'll be able to have all of those other amenities at your fingertips. You can ride from the house to go to the lunch. You can, you could run the river on your, on your kayak, and then you can also finish off and walk right down to the brewery and the food hall to get dinner. Um , it's just, again, an easy vacation when they come, they can almost leave their car and travel with their friends. It's just right here from desperate . Yes. Because it's so centrally located.

Christi 35:30

And what's the timeline like? So the

Jody 35:32

Timeline, it's a five to 10 year project. We are going to be announcing , uh , launching the marketing this fall. So keep an eye out for that. And we are hoping to have the first row of townhomes built probably at the beginning of the summer, early spring, if the weather fantastic.

Christi 35:53

That's super exciting. Yeah. Yeah. And we expect, well , you've just been busy. She has her, [inaudible]

Speaker 5 36:04

Definitely not picking the character.

Christi 36:07

So , um, I love that, you know, in real estate, I talked to my agents a lot about think like a consumer, you know, what does the consumer want to see? What kind of , um, kind of photos that they want to see of a home , uh, when they're looking in they're in Denver or they're in California or Las Vegas and , and what do they want to see of this area? Um, so you all being fairly new residents here, what are the other gaps that you see? I mean, not, not that I'm going to hold you to any other business ventures here in town, but are you looking at any other things like, you know, what grand valley really needs? What else?

Jeff 36:44

Uh , I'll be honest. No, I'm not looking at that. Um, I, my world is really small right now. Uh, you know, it's, my reality is focused on the restaurant in the hotel right now. So honestly, I, and another reason is I don't want to say anything because then she's gonna be like, Ooh, that's a great idea. Let's start another business. I need at least two years before we give you

Christi 37:04

That. Just keep a lid on that. Yeah.

Jeff 37:07

So that's kind of where I am. Um, you know, I think for , for Palisade specific, it would be nice to have some more lodging so people could , um, you know, see Palisade for what it is and be able to get in. And , um, but I also understand why there isn't and that's okay. Um, I guess I always feel bad when I have, when I'm full, you know, when we're full, I turn people away. I say , God , I wish you could be here right now. You know?

Christi 37:29

Yeah. A good feeling and a bad feeling at the same time.

Jeff 37:32

I don't care where you stay. You know, so for me, that's, I guess my thing

Jody 37:38

W we definitely, we like to support all businesses. Um, you know, the wine country in there, it's an amazing property. And we do believe that if you have a successful business and everyone shares in that success, you know, we'll , we'll all be there. And we try to, we try to recommend local businesses as much as we, as, as much as possible, as far as a gap in what junction doesn't have. I don't know. I mean, it sounds like you're, yeah, we're getting there. We're getting there. Yeah. I don't, I don't see any obvious holes. I would like more of things.

Jeff 38:22

So restaurants ,

Jody 38:25

Um , that maybe say open a little later, or , um, I think, I think this area in general used to be a sleepier town. A lot of businesses are only open a few days a week. I would like to get to a point where the majority of the businesses are open seven days a week. And , and we're one of them now. So we right now are only open four days a week. And that is that's mainly because of staffing. Staffing is tough . So there's definitely jobs to be had. But I think traditionally people didn't think that they were busy on the Sunday, Monday nights, but now with tourism being what it is, there are people

Christi 39:06

That night we , uh , dined with you. We , um, we rented e-bikes and rode around Palisade and it was raining if you remember that night, which was really fun. It wasn't raining when we got there, but we left. It was, but we had e-bikes and it was really fun. Uh, the light on the book cliffs was amazing. And I was amazed at how many people were downtown milling around and having dinner at the restaurants. And it was really busy. And I think that was a Thursday night. I want to say Thursday or Thursday. Yeah. So thank you very much for just giving a shot in the arm and the economy and Palisade and, and , uh , keeping the restaurant going and the motel as well, looking forward to the project. So , uh , beer or wine.

Speaker 6 39:50

Hmm .

Christi 39:52

I mean, what's your , what's your, what's your , uh, what do you like, you know, do you like to go to the brew pubs or do you like to drink wine?

Jody 39:59

I like cocktail

Speaker 5 40:06

[inaudible]

Christi 40:07

So another great thing about Palisade, right?

Jody 40:09

I mean, I love going to the wineries too,

Christi 40:12

But how about you, Jeff?

Jeff 40:15

Um, I, you know, I'm not really biased. I'll take them all. Yeah, it's cool . I mean, it depends on the, you know, we have a lot of great writers . It depends on I'm really specific. It depends on who I'm going with. It depends on what their mood is and, you know, if I was going to go by myself, I would go by myself on a Saturday at noon. I'd probably say a winery a Tuesday at three brewery

Christi 40:37

Point. Good point. Well, thank you. Jeff snuck and Jody Corey for joining us on the full circle podcast, it's been a pleasure to get to know more about you and your projects. Is there anything else you'd like to share with our listeners and viewers? I would say, come down and see your office.

Jeff 40:55

This is spectacular. The building

Jody 40:57

Is beautiful. The space is beautiful and the view is thank you. We appreciate having a great space for

Christi 41:02

It. Thank you. And if someone wants to make a reservation at your hotel or at your restaurant? Yeah.

Jeff 41:09

So spoken vine, motel.com and it , the word and is spelled out , um, and then , uh , Palisade cafe and wine bar

Speaker 5 41:21

And specialty cocktails. [inaudible] I don't want to cut that out though . [inaudible] there's one in Minnesota

Christi 41:51

For somebody that's going to drive from Fruita or grand junction. They probably want to have a reservation.

Speaker 5 41:56

No , not necessarily . Yeah,

Jeff 41:58

That'd be , uh, so we, we only take reservations at this point for six or more. Um , good to , uh , we felt , um, a lot of our friends and locals, we talked to felt like they weren't able to get in because of so many of the small reservations. So, you know, that was, that was John's thing. And it worked for him. We, we want everyone to experience it. You know, we want it to be that I want to go there. I want to go there. And, you know, we don't want reservations to tie that up. Cause you know , it's a solid hour, hour and a half of, of mealtime. So , um, we've done a really good job. Our kitchen really has done a good job of getting, getting them through and we're working on it. Um,

Christi 42:36

So awesome . Yeah. So what's that website [inaudible]

Speaker 5 42:48

Yeah. Airplane mode . You got

Christi 42:49

To go folks. You got to go , uh, check out the, the Monday ride, the bar

Jeff 42:55

Food truck is awesome. Food. They're usually set up like four 30 to eight , uh , cruise around and these around six. Um, it's been a little hot last couple of weeks, so it's been very limited amount of people on sadly. Um, but they still come and hang out, even if they're like, oh , okay. We'll just hang out at the bar open and Pali Thai. Like it's pretty cool.

Christi 43:19

Fantastic. Thank you again so much for joining us and thank you for watching and listening to the full circle podcast. We'll see you next month.

Speaker 1 43:31

Thanks for listening. This is Christi Reece signing out from the Full Circle Podcast.