Nine months after real estate developer Paul Tamburello bought the old Lehrer’s greenhouse in the Elyria-Swansea neighborhood with the dream of turning it into an urban farm, things don’t look much different from the outside.
The sign out front still reads Lehrer’s — not GrowHaus, the name of the new business. There is no market yet, selling produce to neighbors.
There is no vast aquaponic system that resembles the water purification that happens naturally in streams: Plants and bacteria cleaning water for the fish, and fish waste fertilizing the plants.
But there is hope.
“It’s been an uphill battle, and it takes every bit of creative energy and time to get over that first hurdle,” Tamburello said. “We’re not there yet, but we’re getting close.”
He started the project with Ashara Ekundayo, founder of the Pan African Arts Society and a longtime social activist who’s active in the food-justice movement.
They found fundraising in these tough times to be a challenge for the startup, even though it promises green jobs and a fresh-food market in an undeserved neighborhood.
Their application for a big grant from the city’s Office of Economic Development was turned down.
“We dreamed big,” Tamburello said. “We asked them for $350,000, which would have given us a huge jump start, but we had no track record. We’d barely set up our nonprofit. I was a real estate developer trying to grow vegetables for the first time, and she was an urban-art activist.”
They regrouped and made a second application, this time for $47,000 to cover the cost of creating a 5,000-square-foot hydroponic lettuce and herb farm.
They’ve just received word that the city expects to award them the money, although details are not yet finalized.
“The building itself needs so much in infrastructure costs and redevelopment that we decided to start with a hydroponic system, which is a lot simpler, and will create some income for us,” Tamburello said.
Currently, GrowHaus has a demonstration aquaponic tank, which is shown to groups that visit.
Interest has been intense.
“The community pulled us faster than we had the capacity to deal with,” Ekundayo said. “We had groups from around the world showing up.”
But the complete aquaponic system — which combines indoor fish farming with crop cultivation — will require about $60,000. Much work still needs to be done surrounding that.
They’ve applied for a grant for this from the Colorado Health Foundation, formerly the HealthONE Alliance, and are hoping for the best.
“We need to replace the roof and get energy-efficient heating and cooling systems so we can really launch our farm in earnest,” said Adam Brock, the director of operations. “Without that, we really can’t garden all year around, which is the whole point in being here.”
Still, they soldier on.
They created a demonstration farm in the spring, raised a couple thousand seedlings that they sold, or gave to gardeners.
They launched the GetFRESH Food Justice Youth Program, a series that allowed kids to meet eco-chef Bryant Terry, author of “Vegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy and Creative African-American Cuisine.”
On that day, they planted vegetables and took a tour of “Mini Eden/Many Eatin’ ” Greeleaf Youth Garden in the Cole neighborhood.
And last Friday, teens gathered out back of the GrowHaus where, on the sprawl of three empty greenhouses, they began to paint a large mural designed by local artist Joshua Mays.
“The idea is sustainable living,” Mays told them. “It’s up to you guys, as you step further into adulthood, to come up with ideas that will save us all and help us all.”
As the community comes together, they look forward to October, when the grant from OED is expected to kick in.
“That’s a tough time to begin growing lettuce,” Tamburello said. “But we’ll do it.”
Colleen O’Connor: 303-954-1083 or coconnor@denverpost.com
