“We funk-tified it,” says Lyjha Wilton. He’s referring to
Boulder Coffee Co. on the South Clinton-Alexander
Street intersection. Granted Wilton’s
a little biased. He is, after all, the coffee shop’s owner. But the interior is
undeniably funky. The walls meet at odd angles; the décor is a mix of antique
mirrors, orange-beaded lamps, and overstuffed coaches, and the paint job makes
you wonder why somebody looked at that particular shade of green and decided to
throw it on their walls.

“I like more of a casual scene,” says Wilton,
29. He’s dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt. His hair’s buzzed. A silver
earring studs one ear. “It looks nothing like it really did when I purchased
the building,” he says. “This was actually an Avon
retail center. The ceiling came down to the top of the windows. It was just
very commercial-feeling.” Now, almost exactly one year later, Wilton
says Boulder’s “become a living
entity.”

“I’ll come in, and the furniture will be rearranged. Even
when we don’t have bookings, I’ll come in and people will be here playing their
instruments,” he says.

Wilton’s become
something of a cheerleader, not just for his cafe, but for the entire
neighborhood: the South Wedge. Few areas in Rochester,
he says, have experienced as much growth as the Wedge in recent years. But
unlike other Rochester hubs, such
as Park Avenue and Corn Hill, the Wedge hasn’t had a
festival to call its own. Until now.

On August 19 and 20, Wilton
will host BoulderFest, an outdoor festival with stalls, food, and music.
“BoulderFest’s going to be a huge extension of the coffee company,” says Wilton,
whose original goal with the coffee shop was to promote local artists and
musicians. Because BoulderFest is so new compared to the area’s more
established festivals, Wilton’s
hoping to attract rising artists and musicians, particularly those living in or
near the South Wedge. “The point of the festival is to showcase the
neighborhood and show off how far we’ve come,” he says.

This festival, however, has one marked difference from other
area festivals: none of it will take place on public streets. “We won’t need to
close off any city streets, because I own all the property,” he says.

Welcome to Wilton-land. Aside from the coffee shop, Wilton
also owns 30 or so houses — about 80 rental units — on Alexander
Street between Mt.Hope and South Clinton.
Instead of holding his festival on the street, Wilton
got permission from his tenants to hold it in their backyards. Admission will
be $3 each day. The festival will run from 10
a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday
and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. If it
rains, activities will move indoors to the nearby German House.

While the small courtyard outside Boulder
will feature acoustic musicians, on the large stretch of land immediately westof the shop there’ll be a bandstand, a
tent, artists, and vendors. People can park in a city-owned lot on South
Clinton, says Wilton,
who is still working through the paperwork with city officials.

Wilton got his
start in development about five years ago, convincing a friend to buy one
property, learning how to fix it up, buying out his partner, and using the
equity to buy another. And then another. And another.

“You have to have a real tolerance for risk,” he says. But
he’s still keen on growing his development company, now known as Boulder
Realty, and his café, which falls under the Boulder Enterprises umbrella.

Now he’s finishing up a house behind Boulder,
which he says he’d love for somebody to turn it into a restaurant. And there’s
the property he recently bought on South and Alexander, a notoriously difficult
corner. “My long-term goals are to renovate the mini-mart storefront, exterior
and interior, and either attract a new tenant that’s going to operate an
upscale convenience store or do it myself,” he says.

With two sons under age 3 and a daughter due in November, Wilton
says his biggest challenge is leaving work behind when he goes home. “Sometimes
it’s hard to stop thinking about BoulderFest and help him build his little
block house,” Wilton says referring
to his oldest son. “I want to try to slow down a little bit. It’s been a crazy
couple years of growth. When I really sit down to think about it, my head
spins.”

At the fest

South Wedge developer Lyjha Wilton is planning a two-day BoulderFest,
with music and artists’ exhibits, for August 19 and 20 in the South Wedge.

By early this week, the performance lineup included Giant
Panda Guerilla Dub Squad, The Isotopes, 40oz to Freedom, The Niche, St. Phillip’s
Escalator, and Gregory Paul.

This article appears in Jul 26 – Aug 1, 2006.