Sara Rosenthal
Audio By Carbonatix
In 2024, La Plaza, a sprawling Latin marketplace with 125 vendors, debuted in the former Super K-Mart at 15200 East Colfax in Aurora. The project had been in the works for nearly four years by the time it opened, and one key part of the business was still taking much longer than expected to come together.
But now La Plaza’s food hall, which has space for 24 vendors, is finally ready for its debut. “This is like a little village. We have entertainment, food, a grocery store, barbershops, hair salons. You can buy flowers, go to the law office, transfer money, buy your jewelry,” says developer Doug McMurrain, who co-owns the project with his daughter, Isabel. “Our average stay time is over four hours.”
On the first weekend in April, La Plaza will celebrate its second anniversary. That milestone will double as the official grand opening of the food hall, which is billed as the largest Hispanic food hall in the United States.
Sara Rosenthal
Buying Into the Vision
McMurrain acquired the La Plaza property in 2019, just months before COVID hit. The pandemic created immediate setbacks. Investors pulled back, supply chain disruptions delayed construction, and portions of the original buildout were scaled back as costs doubled.
When the market portion of La Plaza opened two years ago, the food hall portion was still being finalized, but McMurrain was hosting food trucks in the parking lot. Many of those vendors have now transitioned indoors.
“It’s funny, a lot of the food trucks didn’t see my vision…some people can’t do that, until you actually build it and they can see it and touch it and feel it,” McMurrain recalls. “But the people can see it now, and we’re on probably the two-yard line of getting all the kitchens open, which is our last component.”
Sara Rosenthal
Tacos Guerrero is one of the trucks that started by serving from the parking lot and now has a stall inside La Plaza. “We had barely started with our food truck, we had never owned any kind of business like that, and for [Doug] to give us a chance to rent outside at a place where people were already coming, it just made it easier to start business,” says Fernanda Moreno Martinez, whose parents, Alberto Moreno and Elizabeth Martinez, own Tacos Guerrero. “He later told my dad what he was planning to do in here, and when he told us, my dad said that he wanted to come into it.”
The name, Tacos Guerrero, is a nod to the family’s roots in Guerrero, Mexico. It serves regional specialties like green chicken pozole, white pozole with pork, picaditas con cecina and tacos, along with creative offerings like birria ramen and pizza birria.
Sara Rosenthal
Each kitchen is about 160 square feet and built from shipping containers. Vendors customize their spaces, resulting in 24 distinct kitchens that reflect individual brands and styles. With flexible licensing agreements and typically twelve-month terms, the lower barriers to entry for business owners can make it more affordable to open a stall here than launching a food truck from scratch.
“We’re brand-new, so we’re getting traction, but this is something we’ve always wanted to do,” says DaJuan Thomas, who co-owns the House of Vibes Kitchen food stall with his sister, Alexia. “We wanted to do a food truck, but we knew they had this type of environment here, and this was just more feasible at the time.”
House of Vibes Kitchen has now been open for a month, serving comfort food like smoked chicken plates with Mexican rice and beans; potato and zucchini spirals; loaded fries like the Taco Vibe with ground beef, shredded cheese, lettuce, pico, cheese sauce, sour cream and green salsa; loaded baked potatoes; hot dogs; and fresh squeezed lemonade with flavors like strawberry, mango and even cotton candy.
“Business is going great,” Thomas notes. “The goal, depending how well this does, is to open up in the mall next.”
Sara Rosenthal
Inside the Food Hall
The food hall began leasing in September; today, 19 of the 24 kitchens are open, with the remaining vendors expected to launch within the next three months.
Mexican spots like Tacos y Pollo Zazaza, a family-run operation known for its grilled chicken that’s been marinated for 24 hours, anchor the food hall. Beyond traditional Mexican food, there are places like Mr. Wings offering — you guessed it — chicken wings; Sushito, which serves sushi rolls packed with Mexican flavors; and 5280 Hibachi, which counts some Denver Broncos quarterbacks as fans.
Sara Rosenthal
Even McMurrain operates his own wood-fired pizza concept called La Plaza Pizza. He installed a $40,000 dual-wood-and-gas-fired oven and uses white oak and mesquite to bake his pies. The dough incorporates sourdough starter, Italian and American flours, and a carefully calibrated water profile designed to mimic that of New York City.
Sara Rosenthal
Beyond the kitchens, the space is dotted with kiosks and market vendors selling fresh-cut fruit, aguas frescas, roasted corn, protein shakes, cotton candy and more. There are also two bars: El Matador, a full-service bar housed in a large shipping container, and El Barcito, which opens during large events. Thanks to a common-consumption liquor license, customers can carry cocktails throughout the 70,000 square-foot marketplace.
Sara Rosenthal
More Than a Market
“We help small businesses open. We do 30-day licenses, and our success rate is really, really good,” McMurrain says of his market vendors. “One of the other cool factors is over 58 percent of our businesses are owned by females.”
Beyond the market vendors and food offerings, La Plaza has also become an entertainment venue. Live music, including bands from Mexico, has drawn large crowds, prompting the stage to be relocated and expanded to create a significantly larger dance floor. McMurrain also wants to host an outdoor summer concert series. Additionally, there’s weekend programming like the Colorado Collectible Show, which bills itself as the state’s first weekly collectible show featuring Pokémon cards, Yu-Gi-Oh cards, Labubus and more; plus plans for a birthday party event center, upgraded arcade space and outdoor dining area.
Sara Rosenthal
The broader property stretches over nearly 13 acres, with a 152,000-square-foot building that houses VASA Fitness and a 25,000-square-foot Ahorra Mucho Hispanic grocery store – the first of its kind in the U.S., developed jointly by Lever Supermarkets and Save-A-Lot. According to McMurrain, they’re taking that model around the country.
In total, more than $20 million to date has been invested in the broader property’s redevelopment.
Looking ahead, McMurrain hopes to replicate the La Plaza model in cities nationwide, targeting vacant big-box spaces like former JCPenney, Kmart or Walmart stores. He believes cultural marketplaces can breathe life back into underutilized retail centers across the country.
“We want to get the word out that we’re here, and let the food and the experience speak for itself,” McMurrain concludes.
La Plaza is located at 15200 East Colfax Avenue in Aurora and is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For more information, visit laplazacolorado.com.
