x
Breaking News
More () »

'We would love to see the students back': Businesses in college town struggle to survive

Students haven't been on the Colorado State University campus in Fort Collins since March because of the coronavirus. The businesses around town are missing them.

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — It’s quiet in Fort Collins.

Too quiet.

Fort Collins just isn’t the same without the thousands of college students around town. Sure, it’s summer right now, but it’s been four months since Colorado State University (CSU) held classes on campus. 

It's also been four months since Peter Harvey served up dozens of pizzas a day to a seemingly never-ending line of hungry students.

"It’s not been easy," said Harvey, owner of Pizza Casbah, which sits across the street from CSU. "It’s very much a college town. So you take that out of the equation and it’s insanely different."

Fort Collins has grown into a city far beyond the boundaries of the CSU campus. But at its heart, it’s still a college town. It’s estimated that students at the four universities and colleges in Northern Colorado spend almost $150 million a year in Larimer and Weld counties, according to a study released in March. 

RELATED: Legendary Colfax bar Nob Hill working to stay open with help from community

RELATED: COVID-19 hit Northern Colorado college towns' economies hard after students left

While cities across Colorado begin their journey on the sometimes precarious road to recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses that rely on college students in college towns are finding that road to be quite bumpy.

"When you consider all the students, all the staff, it’s huge," said Harvey. "It’s super eerie. Our lobby isn’t full of people anymore having fun. We have regulars that come weekly, and we miss those conversations with those people."

Vincent Booker makes a living selling custom T-shirts and hats out of his shop, BT Imprintables Green and Gold. Most of his business revolves around the now empty campus just across the street.  

"It’s amazing how big CSU is on the economy around here," said Booker. "It was huge on business. I think I lost 80% of my business."

As of right now, the plan for CSU is to have students come back to campus and begin in-person classes at the end of August. Students would finish the semester with remote learning. 

Business owners anxiously await the return of the hungry college student.

"All we want to do is get back to normal and start serving those giant slices to everyone, every day," said Harvey. "Get back to that regular feeling, and there’s nothing more regular than pizza."

RELATED: Pac-12 joins Big Ten in eliminating non-conference games

RELATED: CSU basketball to begin phased return

RELATED: CSU expels student over violent racist, homophobic Snapchat posts

SUGGESTED VIDEO: Full Episodes of Next with Kyle Clark

Before You Leave, Check This Out