Drive up and down Colfax Avenue in Denver, and chances are you are passing through a business improvement district. That is, unless you go east of Colorado Boulevard — but that could change in the near future.

Some business owners along East Colfax and a nonprofit organization are looking to form the ‘Fax/Mayfair Business Improvement District between Eudora Street and Monaco Boulevard on East Colfax. The district would also grab the Mayfair Town Center on 14th Street between Kearney and Leyden streets.

A business improvement district (BID) is a specified area where businesses pay an additional tax that funds improvement projects within the boundary of the district.

“This is a critical initiative for our area. We are at a tipping point on East Colfax,” Fax Partnership executive director Hilarie Portell said. The Fax Partnership is a nonprofit group that seeks to revitalize East Colfax from Colorado Boulevard to Yosemite Street.

Portell cited $26 million in investment in the district since 2010, but also that there are high crime rates, sidewalks and street crossings in poor condition and more opportunity for existing businesses to grow.

“We want to organize in a way where we can partner with Denver to access grant funding and bond improvements to do things that the private sector can’t do,” she said.

If the improvement district is passed, it will form a board of directors that will serve as a singular voice for the district, which some owners feel is better than having many different voices all try to get what they want.

Several of the business owners are already on board with the concept.

“It’s really easy to just spin in your own little world and see crumbling medians and crime up and down the street,” said Barbara Macfarlane, who owns Marczyk Fine Foods, 5100 E. Colfax Ave.

In order to become a BID, the group must gather signatures from 51 percent of the property owners based on square footage and value along the proposed district and turn the signatures in to the city. Denver City Council then must create an ordinance to create the district and then there would be an election in November where the business owners in the district will vote. If passed, the taxes would start being paid in 2015.

Portell said her group has about 43 percent of the property owners on board so far with about two weeks to get the rest.

Businesses would pay 7.5 cents per square foot of the property’s total lot and building size. The district would have an annual budget of $120,000.

The four focus points of the district would be economic development, public improvements, safety and advocacy.

“When you go somewhere, you want to have that good feeling where you can hang out and sit down,” Mayfair Town Center owner Jamie Harris said, referring to the safety portion of the plan.

Colfax already has the West Colfax BID from Federal Boulevard to Sheridan Boulevard, the Upper Colfax BID from Grant Street to Josephine Street and the Bluebird BID between St. Paul Street and Colorado Boulevard.

Both Stephanie Salazar with the Upper Colfax BID — formed in 1989 — and Dan Shah with the West Colfax BID, which dates to 2006, said they have seen benefits from their BID and it’s much easier to get city, state and federal funding for improvement projects.

“One of the strongest things about a BID is having the ability to leverage additional funding,” Shah said.

He added that his district has seen developers put in $72 million and there is $550 million in the pipeline through 2017.

Joe Vaccarelli: 303-954-2396, jvaccarelli@denverpost.com or twitter.com/joe_vacc