For most of the last decade, if you lived in Tabernash and ran out of milk on a Tuesday night, your options were a drive into Fraser or a longer haul to Granby. Tabernash itself, an unincorporated town of about 400 people strung along U.S. Highway 40, had a golf course, a beloved tavern, and not much else in the way of daily errands. That changed this year, but not in the order most people would guess.
The site at 72399 U.S. Highway 40, on the south end of town, spent years as an eyesore. It had been Highland Lumber, then a cannabis dispensary and grow operation called IgadI that opened in 2015 and closed in 2024, leaving the property vacant. Locals Dan and Carrie Merchant bought the 11 acres for $4.5 million in June 2025 and started gutting the smell of cannabis out of the walls. What they built is now called The Merchant Ranch, and the businesses opened in stages, with the grocery market arriving after several other tenants.
First Came the Gym, Not the Groceries
The first business to move into The Merchant Ranch wasn't a market or a café. It was a CrossFit gym, Soulshine Fitness, which opened first, months ahead of most of the other tenants. By January 12, 2026, Sky-Hi News itself had relocated its office there, moving out of a Granby storefront it had occupied since 1995. Alongside the newsroom, the building filled with Bishop Built Construction, The Church Project, the Grand County Wildfire Council, and Matt Shea, CPA.
That mix of tenants established the first phase of The Merchant Ranch.
The Market Came After the First Tenants
Carrie Merchant's original idea for the space wasn't even a grocery store. She had been planning a bakery. The bigger concept only came together once she and Dan looked at what Tabernash was actually missing.
"Sometimes you have to drive 20 miles to get some basic supplies. We saw the space and realized there is a need we can serve and be a nice middle point for some essentials."
That quote, reported by Sky-Hi News, is the whole thesis of the project in one sentence. The market had originally been slated to open in February 2026, but it didn't actually have its soft opening until April, two months after the target date and well after the gym, the newsroom, and the CPA's office were already running next door. If you drove past the site in February or March and wondered where the market was, you weren't imagining a delay. There was one.
What's inside now is a small general store built around two working chefs rather than a stocked freezer aisle. Tammy Reno of Mountain Goat Co. handles prepared dinners and lunches sized for four to six people, along with wraps and salads. Lizzie Clark, who trained as a chef in Chicago before starting Sweetpea and Thyme, focuses on grab-and-go options built around a lighter menu. Between the two of them, the market covers the range from a quick coffee and sandwich to a night when nobody in the house feels like cooking.
Carrie told Sky-Hi News:
"Our traffic keeps picking up. Most of our customers are locals, which is what we are built for. And now tourists are stopping to stop by, too."
A Ladies Night event on June 1, 2026 pulled a real crowd through the door, according to Sky-Hi News, which is a small but telling signal for a store that's been open barely four months. It's becoming less a stop for milk and more a place where people linger.
Still Technically Not Finished
Here's the part that surprises people who assume a business is either open or it isn't. The Merchant Ranch has been operating in some form since last August, has a functioning grocery store and gym, and still hasn't had its official grand opening. That's planned for September 2026, and it's meant to cover every business in the complex at once rather than each tenant marking its own launch.
The market is also preparing to add preordering and business-to-business catering starting this fall, which would let local employers or event hosts order ahead rather than walk in and hope the day's prepared meals haven't sold out. On the industrial side, a second construction phase is already underway behind the main building. Ranger Insulation has moved into the first of two planned warehouses. The second now houses Grand County Landscaping and Steelog, which share an owner, along with Strategic Fabrication. Dan and Carrie have said they're planning three or four more warehouse units with no firm timeline yet, which means the property will keep changing shape for a while.
The Old Anchors Haven't Gone Anywhere
None of this replaces what Tabernash already had. Tabernash Tavern, which has held onto its reputation as a Grand County dining destination for years, is hosting a Bennett Valley Winemaker's Dinner on August 13, 2026, a four-course fireside meal built around wine pairings. It's the kind of event that draws people from Fraser and Winter Park specifically to eat in Tabernash. Pole Creek Golf Club, a few miles up the road, keeps its own rhythm through the season regardless of what's happening at the Merchant Ranch. The new hub isn't replacing Tabernash's identity. It's filling in a gap that sat empty for years while the tavern and the golf course carried the town's reputation on their own.
The market adds a source for prepared meals and everyday essentials to a town whose established anchors remain the tavern and golf course.
If you're weighing what a shift like this means for property values or timing a move in the Fraser Valley, that's a longer conversation, and one Kristen L Meyer & Associates has been having with buyers and sellers in Grand County for more than two decades. Reach out to request a market consultation when you're ready to talk specifics.