About Jeff

As a real estate developer and placemaker, restaurateur, strategic investor, and philanthropist, Jeff Hermanson has directed transformative projects for more than four decades.

Jeff is currently a partner at Urban Villages, the Denver-based real estate development firm with a deep commitment to sustainability and a mission to alter the future of the built environment. The team is currently building Populus Denver, a Jeanne Gang-designed lifestyle boutique hotel destined to be an architectural masterpiece and the first carbon positive hotel in the country. It marks the beginning of bold plans to help revitalize Denver’s Golden Triangle with multiple projects, and continues Jeff’s passion for engaging others to join him in becoming “agents of change.”

Jeff also served as a principal partner in the restoration of Denver Union Station, where he helped shape the standard for the revitalization of historic transit centers around the country. But he’s probably best known as the 27-year owner and steward of Denver’s Larimer Square. From 1993 to 2020, he established the importance of the city block as a community gathering place with the highest concentration of chef-driven restaurants in the country.

Along the way, he has partnered with a number of notable chefs to create some of Denver’s most acclaimed restaurants, as well as two restaurant groups: TAG, which includes Guard & Grace, and Crafted Concepts, with local favorite Rioja, among others. For his accomplishments over 45 years in the restaurant industry, the Colorado Restaurant Association honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019, when he was inducted into the Colorado Food Service Hall of Fame.

In addition to his current philanthropy around hunger awareness and land conservation, Jeff is devoted to working with Mountain Roots to support residents and entrepreneurial farmers in the Gunnison Valley. These efforts are part of his desire to use local and regenerative agriculture to change the food paradigm, demonstrate a new model that can be replicated in other locations, enhance the vibrant restaurant scene, and support the community where his daughter attends school (and where he’s quite sure he’s the oldest parent). An avid skier and outdoorsman, Jeff, with his partner Theresa, divides his time between Crested Butte and Denver, where his business is based.