Loveland's Fourth Street Will Be Finished Before It's Full

"It's one of the final pieces to completing this puzzle," HIP Streets project manager Shelley Aschenbrenner told the Reporter-Herald in September. She was talking about the BNSF crew tearing out and replacing the Fourth Street rail crossing between Garfield and Railroad avenues. The puzzle is the city's Heart Improvement Plan. Work started in February 2025 on five blocks of Fourth Street, from Garfield to Washington avenues, and four of those blocks are now done.

The fifth block's deadline lines up with the Festival of Lights on Friday, November 20. The Loveland Downtown District is promoting it as the first festival held on the "newly completed" Fourth Street. The pavement and sidewalks are close to done. Much of what will make the street look and work the way it was planned comes later, on its own schedule: the art feature planned for early 2027, the Rialto's new marquee, the restored clock, and the restaurants due next spring in buildings that have been empty for years.

Every block has opened with a party

The city has used the same plan for each block. Construction wraps up, and the reopening is paired with an event downtown already hosts. In the city's words, the goal is to "activate the block's true intention." So far it has played out like this:

1. Blocks 1 and 2 opened as part of the Festival of Lights.
2. Block 5 opened during the Bluegrass Festival.
3. Block 3, between Lincoln and Cleveland avenues, reopened to traffic and parking on July 24, 2026. Its official block party was Pastels on 5th Street on Saturday, September 12.
4. Block 4, from Cleveland Avenue to north Railroad Avenue, is the last one. The city expects it to be done "by late fall 2026," and expects the intersections around the railroad tracks to be finished "before the holidays."

That makes this year's Festival of Lights the end of a loop. The event that opened the first two blocks is now the first one planned for the whole corridor. The city hasn't announced a ribbon cutting for the full street or a firm completion date. Its most recent official forecast is still "late fall 2026."

What November 20 puts back on Fourth Street

The festival runs from 5 to 8 p.m. The Downtown District lists live music and entertainment, a tree lighting, live reindeer, a holiday market, carriage rides, and Mr. and Mrs. Claus, along with the first night of holiday lighting along Fourth Street.

Block 3 was the middle of the construction zone, and two things the city tied to it come back this season. The official downtown Loveland Christmas tree will stand on Fourth Street again, in front of the Rialto Theater. The historic Fourth Street clock, which was taken down from the same block, is being professionally restored with Downtown Development Authority funding. The city says it will be reinstalled near its original spot "in the coming months." That timeline leaves room for the tree to go back up before the clock does.

Another downtown move lands that same week. Bank of Colorado plans to leave its branch at 206 E. Fourth St. for a new downtown location at Cleveland Avenue and Third Street in mid-November. It has scheduled a community event for November 20, the same day as the festival.

Block 4 between now and then

For the next several weeks, the last stretch of construction affects anyone walking or driving downtown. As of the city's weekly project update for September 28 through October 4, Block 4 was still closed to vehicles while crews worked on lighting, concrete and pavers. Crews can work from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Because so many storefronts have doorways on this block, sidewalks are being rebuilt in small sections. Temporary detour walkways keep each entrance reachable, and businesses stay open throughout.

Aschenbrenner called the start of paver installation "a really exciting milestone." Once the pavers are in, Block 4 businesses can stop using temporary ramps to reach their front doors. The rail crossing work closed the tracks to pedestrians for a short stretch, with walkers sent to the legal crossings at First and Sixth streets. The city warned against crossing at Second, Third or Fifth streets, which have no designated crossing or sidewalk. When the railroad finished, foot traffic across the tracks reopened. Fourth Street itself stays closed to cars between Railroad and Cleveland until the block is done.

The pieces still to come

Even with the concrete done, the street has more coming. Only some of it has a date. The city lists the art, sculptures and marquee as remaining improvements, and the restaurants have announced their own spring timelines:

• A new art feature spanning all five blocks, scheduled for installation in the first quarter of 2027.
• Sculptures returning gradually to the new sandstone art pedestals at each block corner. Nine of them are part of The Art Advocacy Project's rotating 3-D sculpture program.
• A new Rialto marquee directly on Fourth Street, plus the return of "Persistence of Vision," the Patrick Kennedy bronze that is closely tied to the theater.
• Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant, under construction in the former Mr. Neats space near Fourth Street and Lincoln Avenue and expected next spring.
• Georgia Boys BBQ, which plans a smaller downtown Loveland restaurant for late spring 2027. It hasn't disclosed the property or address.

The pedestals for those sculptures are already in place on Block 4. The city installed large sandstone pedestals at the block's corners before paving started. For a few months this winter, the bases will be there before the art.

Why the empty storefronts matter to a new street

Rio Grande counts as more than one more restaurant because of where it's going. In a September column, Loveland Downtown District executive director Sean Hawkins wrote that Independence Gallery, across Fourth Street from the Rialto, has had a vacant building as its next-door neighbor to the west for about 20 years. That building is the old Mr. Neats Formalwear. Hawkins expects "the Rio" to bring hundreds of people downtown each week, with a direct effect on Independence Gallery, The Collab Boutique and Tap and Tavern.

His argument is about traffic between neighbors. He described the downtown circuit of ice cream at Josh and John's after a meal at Comet Chicken or a beer at Verboten Brewing as the kind of foot traffic small businesses depend on. He also pointed to a gap that remains. The former Heartland Café at Fourth Street and Lincoln Avenue is still boarded up.

According to Hawkins, a look at the Larimer County Assessor's records shows that vacant downtown properties can pay half the property taxes of an active building next door, and they generate no sales tax. To close that gap, the Downtown District offers facade grants, fire and life safety grants, and tax increment financing. He listed several projects already moving: plans to renovate the 30,000-square-foot former Loveland Elks Lodge on Fourth Street, a development taking shape at the former Colotex site at Third Street and Lincoln Avenue, and finished conversions such as Cleveland Station at Fifth and Cleveland and the former Feed and Grain property.

A rebuilt street makes the case for that investment more easily. Right now, though, the timelines don't line up. The new paving, patios and pavers will be finished in late fall, while the businesses that bring people to them open in spring 2027 or later.

A winter calendar built around the finished blocks

The new street gets its first real use between now and early 2027. These are the dated downtown events confirmed so far:

• Friday, November 13: The Drifters at the Rialto Theater Center, 228 E. Fourth St., at 7:30 p.m. The same evening, from 6 to 8 p.m., Downtown Loveland's Night on the Town offers more than 40 local beers and ciders for $5 each.
• Friday, November 20: Festival of Lights, 5 to 8 p.m., on Fourth Street.
• Saturday, November 21: Jeki Yoo at the Rialto, 7:30 p.m.
• Saturday, November 28: last day of "Connected by the Canyon: 50 Years Since the Big Thompson Flood" at the Loveland Museum, 503 N. Lincoln Ave.
• Thursday, December 3: Kalani Pe'a's "Hawaiian Christmas" at the Rialto, 7:30 p.m.
• Friday, December 11: Night on the Town returns, 6 to 8 p.m.
• Saturday, January 2, 2027: last day of "Creative Confluence: The Origins of Abstract Art in Colorado" at the Loveland Museum.
• Saturday, January 30, 2027: Ladysmith Black Mambazo at the Rialto, 7:30 p.m.

November 13 is the busiest night on the list. The Drifters start at 7:30, and the Night on the Town pour runs from 6 to 8. With Block 4 forecast only for "late fall," whether that night comes before or after the last pavers go down is still open. The art installation planned for the first quarter of 2027 would land soon after the Ladysmith Black Mambazo show at the end of January.

If you own a home near downtown Loveland and want to know whether a finished Fourth Street and the businesses moving into its empty buildings affect your property's value, Forever Front Range can walk you through the local sales behind the number. Request a free home valuation, and Steve will share a clear, data-based read on your street.