Story By Kevin Litwin Photography By jeff adkins
E
xcitement, enthusiasm, entertainment, enchantment, excellence, energy – everything. The Greater Pueblo Chamber of Commerce has launched a new visitor destination initiative called E District. The district is actually a geographic area in the heart of Pueblo that encompasses the Riverwalk, Pueblo Convention Center and the historic Union Avenue shopping district. The initiative is an effort to further promote venues that already exist in the E District, plus plan several future projects to further enhance the area. Some of those proposed projects are huge. “Our Riverwalk channel currently runs where E Street used to be, so this new initiative began with the old E Street name and then we started using all the other E words to market the effort,” Rod Slyhoff, president of the Greater Pueblo Chamber of Commerce, says. “This newly named district has a lot of entertainment potential, and much of it will focus on attracting sports events.”
center would have a lap pool for large swimming competitions, with spectator viewing. There is a growing demand for those types of aquatic facilities along the Front Range, and we want one.”
Expand and Establish More Hot Spots Slyhoff says the chamber, city officials, urban renewal officials, Destination Pueblo, the Pueblo Convention Center and other groups are now concentrating on expanding and establishing more venues that can be used for amateur sport competitions in the E District. “First of all, there are expansion plans for a large exhibition hall inside the convention center where Pueblo can host large volleyball tournaments, karate tournaments, cheerleading competitions and wrestling events,” he says. “There are also plans to eventually construct a regional aquatic center and water park in the E District. The aquatic
It’ll Take Time to Develop Slyhoff says E District is already within close proximity to Pueblo Memorial Airport, and he believes several residents from Colorado Springs would make the 45-minute drive to Pueblo to attend sporting events once everything in E District is in place. “This is a project that will take years in the development process, but we have already begun construction of a building that will house four restaurants and have office space,” he says. “E District is an exciting project – it’s already home to an inspiring Medal of Honor Memorial and a Walk of Valor. This district is a lofty vision that this community is dedicated to creating.”
Colorful international flags fly on Union Avenue.
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Pueblo Already Welcomes Sports There are also talks of the E District aggressively attracting some big-name, sports-related retailers to settle along Union Avenue. “Pueblo already is home to the Professional Bull Riders world headquarters, and the city hosts the annual 1A state boys and girls high school basketball tournaments, as well as the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference men’s and women’s basketball tournaments,” Slyhoff says. “A large soccer tournament called the Sunbelt Classic also comes to Pueblo each year, along with the National Little Britches Finals Rodeo. We host a lot of sporting events – we just want to start hosting a lot more. We want to be a destination for athletic competitions.”