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Starbucks and Bruegger’s, completed a renovation of their DU-area stores Friday after a month-long project, which began in mid-March.

“Starbucks renovates their stores every five years, just to keep up with the times and keep things fresh,” said Joseph “JJ” Dearmore, the Starbucks store manager.

Starbucks and Bruegger’s are located on the corner of University Boulevard and Asbury Street in the same shopping center.

Dearmore said the ultimate goal of the renovation was to increase the amount of seating from 20 seats to 31 throughout the store, which required moving things around and buying new furniture.

Starbucks also installed a Clover brewing machine, an automatic French press that allows the barista to digitally control dose, water temperature and brew time.

The machine will also increase efficiency, said Dearmore.

“It makes the best cup of coffee you’ve ever tasted,” said Dearmore.

This Starbucks location is the second store in Denver to get such a machine, following the one on 16th Street and Blake Street in downtown Denver.

Dearmore said he would not release the total cost of the renovations, but according to Wired magazine, the Clover machine costs about $11,000.

“It wasn’t cheap, I can tell you that,” said Dearmore.

Dearmore said Starbucks has not seen a great swing in sales since the renovations, but rather it has been business as usual.

However, he said customers seem to enjoy the change.

“Most people have been very excited about it,” he said. “We’ve only had a couple of complaints out of the thousands of customers we see, and those were just from people who don’t like change.”

Dearmore also said he was unaware Bruegger’s was also renovating, even though the renovations happened around the same time.

“This is the first I’ve heard of it,” he said. “We have a desire for our shops to be different, and the atmosphere here is different from next door.”

However, Fabian Vargas, the general manager of Bruegger’s, confirmed the renovations were in response to the ones at Starbucks.

“We are absolutely competing with them,” he said. “We love the students, and we like them to come over here and sit and study.

Starbucks used to have more outlets, so we added more outlets. They got rid of their comfortable furniture, so we’re keeping our booths and re-upholstering them to make them even better.”

Vargas said he could not release the cost of their renovations. In addition to the outlets and booths, Bruegger’s re-painted the walls with a fresh coat and bought new umbrellas for their patio furniture. Vargas said small changes can keep a store looking fresh.