From Samba Room to Ocean Prime: Larimer Square's trickle-down economics

Ocean Prime is opening right on schedule -- unlike Samba Room. That spot closed more than seven months ago, so that a leak dripping into the Comedy works below could be repaired. But after numerous delays over insurance issues, there are finally signs of life in the building.

"Samba has yet to give us an opening date," says Joe Vostrejs, the COO of Larimer Associates, which owns Larimer Square, "but they just called last week and said they needed to rent an office for interviewing staff. They want that pretty quickly."

This wasn't the first time Larimer Square had sprung a leak, and it wouldn't be the last. Over New Year's, a sewer backup at Suite 200 spilled into Cry Baby Ranch and also the new, lower-level Walkway that just opened last fall.

Fortunately, TAG|Raw Bar, which is going into the Walkway, wasn't affected; according to Leigh Sullivan, this sibling to TAG should open in mid-February.

In the meantime, Vostrejs says, the mess has been cleaned up, and some adjustments are being made to the Suite 200 system so that it won't overflow again. And just yesterday, he signed another tenant for the Walkway (TAG|Raw Bar is the only eatery), which leaves just a sliver of empty space left in Larimer Square.