After two years of delays, Illegal Pete’s is poised to open in Colorado Springs.

The fast-casual, Denver-area restaurant concept — popular for its Mission-style burritos, tacos and other Mexican dishes — will debut April 11 at 32 S. Tejon St., across the street from the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee in downtown, said owner Pete Turner, who founded the chain in Boulder in 1995.

In January 2022, he announced that Illegal Pete’s would expand to Colorado Springs, signed a lease for the downtown location and targeted an opening for summer of that year.

Who opened? Who closed? Dozens of Colorado Springs retailers and restaurants came and went in 2023

Company personnel changes, however, contributed to delays in Illegal Pete’s expansion, Turner said.

At the same time, his restaurant chain was working on other new and remodeled locations, he said. Planning, architectural work and obtaining government regulatory approvals for those locations effectively pushed back his plans for the Springs, Turner said.

“These other new restaurants all stacked up,” he said. “It just took a lot of resources and planning. Which is all a good thing.”

Chipotle becomes latest national restaurant chain to expand to Falcon, outside Colorado Springs

Now, Turner said, Illegal Pete’s will embark on an aggressive expansion over the first few months of 2024 and add to its dozen locations in Denver, Boulder, Greenwood Village, Fort Collins and Tempe and Tucson, Ariz.

An Illegal Pete’s will open in February in Wheat Ridge at Gold’s Marketplace, a renovated retail center with several food concepts, while another location will debut in March at Boulder’s Table Mesa shopping center, Turner said.

Illegal Pete’s then will open on the main level of the Tejon Street building, which also is home to the Studio 32 Discotheque dance and nightclub on the top floor. In May, Illegal Pete’s will reopen its location near the University of Denver that was recently closed for a remodeling, Turner said.

Colorado Springs’ growth, and especially the addition of thousands of apartments that have opened in recent years in downtown or that are under construction or planned for the area, made the Tejon Street location attractive, Turner said.

Illegal Pete’s will join other Denver-area restaurants and entertainment concepts that have expanded to the Springs’ downtown in recent years, including Atomic Cowboy, Fat Sully’s Pizza, White Pie Pizzeria, Denver Biscuit Co., Dos Santos Tacos and Jax Fish House & Oyster Bar.

Colorado Springs strip center faces wrecking ball after its purchase by convenience store chain

“Colorado Springs … is one of the hottest markets in the country, if not the (hottest),” he said. “Just all that residential moving downtown, it’s just phenomenal. The Springs, again, it’s nationally known as a great place to do business and a growing, thriving town.”

Illegal Pete’s has launched a remodeling of the roughly 6,000 square feet it’s leasing at 32 S. Tejon, which will include a patio and an indoor stage for live music.

Derek Cohn, half of The Baldwin Cohn Group of Colorado Springs that owns the Tejon Street building, said he contacted Turner about expanding to the Springs after eating at a Denver Illegal Pete’s in 2018.

Impressed with the food and concept, he approached Turner and initially sought to interest him in the building at 112-114 N. Tejon that he and partner Brent Baldwin also own, Cohn said. The timing of that deal didn’t work out because of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

No more buckets of chicken or root beer floats at two KFC/A&W locations in Colorado Springs

Turner then became attracted to the building at 32 S. Tejon, which sits at Tejon and Colorado Avenue. Cohn and Baldwin had upgraded the building with gas-strut windows, which open up and outward at a 90-degree angle — like a car hatchback. The windows wrap around the building on its Tejon and Colorado sides.

When they’re open, the windows will connect patio and dining room customers, while diners sitting outside and passersby can enjoy music from the restaurant, Cohn said.

“It really will allow that music to drift outside and allow people to enjoy it, even if they’re just walking by,” he said.

“But if somebody wants to sit on the patio and enjoy Illegal Pete’s, they can also enjoy the music.”

Cohn and Baldwin continue to market the building’s basement space, which could be suitable for a speakeasy-type of use or other tenants, Cohn said.