Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade and Downtown Partnership head Susan Edmondson have a decade-old bond, of sorts, when it comes to the city’s downtown.

In 2013, Mobolade co-founded the Wild Goose Meeting House and Good Neighbors Meeting House in downtown and, as a fledgling businessman, admits he had a “deer in the headlights look. I was in over my head; didn’t know what I was doing.”

That year, Edmondson began her tenure as president and CEO of the Downtown Partnership, the area’s lead advocacy group. She and her staff worked to assist Mobolade and other downtown newcomers at a time when the area still was thirsting for more restaurants, stores, gathering places, attractions and housing.

On Friday, during the Downtown Partnership’s 26th annual breakfast that took place at Colorado College’s 2-year-old Ed Robson Arena on downtown’s north edge, Edmondson and Mobolade took stock of the area’s progress — lauding it as a better place to live, work and play than a decade ago when both started out.

“When I look back on that year, 2013, downtown was in a very different state,” Edmondson told about 750 people who sat at tables on a floor installed over the arena’s ice surface.

“It had some tremendous longstanding retailers and restaurants, but also, frankly, lots of storefront vacancies. To put it softly, business was in a bit of a lull. But there were hints of a new generation of business leaders that year.”

Among them: Brother Luck, the entrepreneurial celebrity chef whose Street Eats on Wahsatch Avenue was the first of his several restaurants; Uyen Le and Chris Morrison, who launched the Beauty Bar salon on Tejon Street; and Mobolade, who started the Wild Goose coffee shop and pub.

“He was renovating a sleepy corner at Boulder and Tejon (streets) that previously had been a cartridge store,” Edmondson said. “And for any of you under 40 in this room, there used to be entire businesses that sold nothing but printer cartridges. You can imagine that made for a really lively downtown at the time.”

But downtown has come a long way since printer cartridge stores over the last decade.

About 2,000 apartments are expected to open downtown in the next two years, while the area has added Robson Arena, the Weidner Field multipurpose stadium and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum, all of which were state-supported City for Champions tourism projects.

Videos shown during Friday’s breakfast touted downtown’s increasing number of housing options, while renters living in some of the several hundred apartments that have opened since 2016 extolled the area’s restaurants, coffee shops, parks and recreational opportunities.

One of its newest amenities: the Adaman Alley — a lighted and paved makeover of a formerly smelly and garbage-strewn walkway off Tejon that now carries an overhead arch and is dedicated to the mountaineers who hike Pikes Peak every New Year’s Eve.

“Our downtown is not just a physical space,” Mobolade said. “It’s the beating heart of our city, a place that encapsulates our history, our culture and our aspirations for the future of our city. It’s a hub of innovation, creativity, commerce and civic leadership.

“A healthy and economically prosperous Colorado Springs,” he added, “starts with a thriving city center.”

The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, meanwhile, has opened a downtown location that serves more than 1,000 students and professionals monthly, said Jenifer Furda, this year’s Downtown Partnership board chairwoman and UCCS’ director of partnerships, governmental affairs and military liaison.

Downtown’s improvements and accomplishments didn’t happen by accident, Furda said.

“The renaissance of downtown isn’t random or accidental; it’s intentional and collaborative and involves the leadership of Downtown Partnership and the involvement of everyone in this arena,” she said.

Downtown suffered a big blow last week when an underground electrical fire led to a power outage over multiple blocks and the temporary closing of several businesses along and near Kiowa Street and Nevada Avenue, Edmondson said.

She tearfully thanked firefighters who battled the blaze and Colorado Springs Utilities crews who worked round-the-clock for several days to restore power. A Utilities spokesman said a portion of Kiowa near Tejon will remain closed for several weeks or longer because of underground electrical repairs near the fire’s origin.