Why I Built My Business in Castle Rock (And You Can, Too!)

A resident shares the ins and outs of owning a business in Castle Rock.

By Amy Antonation on September 18, 2023

Castle Rock / Jeff Adkins

Jason Gray came to Colorado in 1998 to open a business for someone else. The Washington state native was living in Alaska when his employer sent him to the Lower 48 to launch a coffee shop in Denver. When his job in the city ended, Gray stayed in the Centennial State. 

“I fell in love with Colorado right away,” he says, “I realized winter here wasn’t so bad and started looking for the place I wanted to be.” 

He settled on Castle Rock, CO, and in 1999, he opened Crowfoot Valley Coffee. Over the next 24 years, Crowfoot has thrived, and Gray was elected mayor in 2018 after stints on the boards of several local business and development associations. Here’s what he has to say about starting and running a small business in the town. 

Why did you start your business in Castle Rock? 
I wanted to be in a smaller community so I could be an integral part of that community, and was also looking for a town or city that was growing quickly. You need to know what growth pattern you’re looking at. At the time I moved here, Castle Rock was about 15,000 people, and I knew that they were selling about two homes per day here. I knew it was growing. 

What local resources did you utilize to help get you started? 
The Castle Rock Chamber of Commerce is a longtime staple. I was fortunate to belong to [a chamber] in Alaska, so I wanted to belong to it here. As with any organization that helps businesses out, you can’t only pay the fee to belong. You have to get involved. If you just throw money at it and walk away, you’re throwing money down the drain – but if you get involved, I think that really helps. 

How would you describe Castle Rock’s small-business scene? 
I think the small-business scene now is going really well. I love small businesses, but I especially love good small businesses! I want to support them not only because they are friends but because they’re good. Right now, we have [places like] Wild Blue Yonder Brewing Co., Provision cocktail lounge, the Emporium small business shopping center and Tribe [at Riverwalk] restaurant. 

Why would you recommend Castle Rock to other entrepreneurs looking to open a business? 
For a bunch of reasons! The town does a good job of helping out businesses, making it easy to get paperwork filed. And in and around downtown, there’s a community of small businesses that lean on and trust each other. 

What advice would you give other entrepreneurs trying to open a business? 
No matter what the business is, just stay consistent: Know why you’re going into it and put the effort in. You can’t be changing your hours constantly. I think that’s hard because there’s the mystique of, ‘I can open a business and work whenever I want.’ 

I’ve been in coffee for over 35 years, and I’m not putting in 80-hour weeks anymore, but it’s still a full-time gig. There are a lot of businesses that fail because the entrepreneur doesn’t understand that.