New owners are on tap for a South Broadway liquor store.

Mandeep Singh Bains and his wife, Preeti Gill, purchased the Sobo Liquors store and its real estate
at 2035 S. Broadway last month for $4.66 million from former Colorado Avalanche and University
of Denver hockey player Mark Rycroft.

“We wanted to buy this store as soon as possible … It’s in a great location,” said Gill, who runs the
business’ day-to-day operations.

The real estate traded for $2.6 million, or $465 a square foot for the 5,600-square-foot building,
according to public records. The business sold for an additional $2 million. It’s located just north
of Evans Avenue along a busy stretch of Broadway.

Rycroft, who also played for the St. Louis Blues in a career ending in 2008, bought the real estate
in 2018 for $2.5 million, records show. The building has been a liquor store since at least 2007,
Google Maps data shows. It was rebranded as Sobo sometime between 2015 and 2016.

Rycroft declined to comment. But Jack Eberwein and Levi Saxen, the brokers with Pinnacle Real
Estate Advisors who helped sell the property and business, said he kept the store stocked with the
right stuff.

“Mark did an incredible job of having the right inventory,” Eberwein said.

Gill said that the inventory inside is worth a little over a million. The business raked in over $3.5
million in revenue last year, she said.

But those dollars are threatened by changing liquor laws. In 2019, Colorado grocery stores began
selling full-strength beer. In 2023, they started stocking wine on shelves.

“I believe we’ve had over a hundred stores close because of the wine effect … Liquor is a low-margin,
high-volume type of business,” Bains said.

The couple said its store maintains about an average 20 to 22 percent markup on its products.
Some items, like cases of beer, are marked up just a dollar above the wholesale price to stay
competitive.

Despite the pressure from grocery stores and liquor store chains, Bains said that Sobo’s customer
service and well-crafted inventory will keep it afloat. The business has a drive-thru. The interior is
decked out in custom metal shelving with digital price tags carrying a wide variety of spirits.

The money for the deal was sourced from Bains’ sisters Karen and Kritika, along with some help
from other friends, family and a little Bitcoin, too.

“My last big sale [of Bitcoin] that helped push me over the line was the last 1.6 [Bitcoins] that sold
at $94,000,” Bains said.

The business’ new owners hail originally from India’s Punjab region, homeland of the Sikh religion.
Bains first carne to Denver decades ago, when his father was working at a freight yard in Aurora just east of I-225. Gill carne to Colorado in 2014, shortly after Bains started working at his first liquor store near Regis University. He later owned a liquor store along Tower Road near Denver International Airport.

“We owe everything to him,” Bains said of his father.

Article published in BusinessDen.