A Russian bathhouse that has operated along West Colfax Avenue since 1927 has been sold by the family that founded it.
The Lake Steam Baths property at 3540 W. Colfax Ave. — an approximately 10,000-square-foot brick building on 0.36 acres — sold for $2 million on Friday, according to public records. The buyer was Boom Car Wash LLC.
Win King of King Commercial Real Estate, the broker who represented the seller, said the sale also included the bathhouse business, although no value was assigned to it. The buyer plans to continue operating the business for the foreseeable future, but will eventually likely redevelop the site, he said.
Scott Kilkenny, registered agent for the purchasing entity, and a broker representing the buyer didn’t respond to a request for comment Monday. No redevelopment plans have been submitted to the city for the property.
The sale paperwork was signed by Amy Hyman, who took over the business in 2015 when her husband Hannon died. Hannon’s grandparents, Ethyl and Harry, started the business in 1927, catering to Jews who lived and worked on the west side of Denver.
In May 2020, two months into the coronavirus pandemic, Hyman spoke to BusinessDen about her attempts to keep the business going given capacity restrictions that allowed 10 people in a building that might otherwise have fit 100.
“I just wake up in a pool of sweat. It’s terrifying,” Hyman said at the time. “I don’t sleep at night.”
Hyman said she has generations of customers who come to the single-sex bathhouse — men on one day, women the next — for a schvitz, shower and schmooze. Prior to the pandemic, the cost was $22, you could stay as long as you wanted and grab a meal or snack at the lunch counter she ran inside the brick building.
King said the property went under contract in March.
This story was reported by our partner BusinessDen.
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