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Colorado - Fri. 05/29/26 |
A Free Business Publication from Alpine Bank
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GOLDEN-BASED COMPANY LANDS $220 MILLION NASA CONTRACT FOR MOON ROVER
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Lunar Outpost, a space company based in Golden, has won a $220 million contract from NASA to provide transportation for astronauts who could land on the moon as early as 2028. Lunar Outpost is one of two companies chosen to supply the wheels for the crews expected to eventually set up infrastructure and a semi-permanent presence on the moon. The company’s rover, called Pegasus, can operate autonomously by teleoperation or with people on board. The other company awarded a contract for what NASA calls light terrain vehicles is Astrolab, based in California. Blue Origin, owned by Jeff Bezos, will provide landers to deliver the rovers to an area near the moon’s south pole.
“We’ve spent the better part of the past decade engineering advanced mobility solutions designed for the realities of operating and building on the lunar surface,” said Justin Cyrus, Lunar Outpost CEO and founder. Cyrus, a Colorado School of Mines alumnus, said Pegasus leverages technological advancements and lessons learned from another Lunar Outpost rover, MAPP, or Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform. MAPP collected data during its journey to the moon and on the lunar surface in 2025. The company has a test facility in Rye, in south-central Colorado. NASA’s plan is to establish a base on the moon starting in 2029, achieving a semi-permanent crew presence by 2032.
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NATIONAL WESTERN STOCK SHOW ELECTS NEW BOARD CHAIRMAN
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Bruce Wagner, president, CEO and chairman of Aurora-based Wagner Equipment Co., is the new chairman of the board for the Western Stock Show Association after being elected during a May 21 meeting by National Western Trustees. Wagner has worked at Wagner Equipment Co. since 1977. He has also served on several local boards, including the Children's Hospital Colorado and the Roundup Riders of the Rockies. The Western Stock Show Association is a nonprofit that governs the National Western Stock Show and is tasked with promoting the Western lifestyle and showcasing the agriculture and livestock industry. Wagner has served on the WSSA board for several years, most recently as its treasurer. He succeeded Doug Jones, who has served as the head of the organization since 2019. Jones, who has worked with the WSSA for more than 35 years, will continue working with the association board under the title of immediate past chairman.
Wagner comes at a time of growth and change for the National Western Stock Show with a new CEO, Wes Allison, taking the reins last year with hopes of expanding the 16-day event into a venue that attracts people year-round. Under his leadership, the 2026 show beat its attendance record by over 23,000 attendees and set a record high for auction sales. In January, the complex unveiled the new Sue Anschutz-Rogers Livestock Center and its new headquarters, the Legacy Building. In June, the city agreed to more than $800 million in financing for a project at the National Western Center that involves developing a 160-room hotel, an equestrian events center, a parking garage, a community building and workforce housing on the stock show campus at the edge of the Elyria-Swansea neighborhood north of downtown.
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COLORADO'S BIGGEST OUTDOOR ADVENTURE FESTIVAL RETURNS THIS WEEKEND
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Colorado’s celebration of the outdoor adventure lifestyle returns for its third year this weekend with a new name, new location and an expanded schedule. What started in 2024 as the two-day Outside Festival at Civic Center moves to the Auraria Campus, expanding to three days of music, film, speakers and outdoors culture. Renamed Outside Days, the event is a production of Boulder-based Outside Interactive Inc., which owns two dozen media and service brands including Outside, MapMyFitness, Velo, Gaia GPS and Trailforks. Last year’s event attracted 35,000 attendees, nearly double that of the inaugural year. Rock climber Alex Honnold and co-host Fitz Cahall will record an episode of their Climbing Gold podcast with ski mountaineer Jim Morrison in a discussion of risk and resilience. Honnold was the first to free solo Yosemite’s El Capitan. Morrison made an epic ski descent of Mount Everest last fall via the Hornbein Couloir on the mountain’s North Face.
The film lineup, curated with Mountainfilm, includes 11 titles. Feature films include Threshold, the story of Jessie Diggins, an Olympic champion in cross country skiing who struggled with an eating disorder at the height of her career; Surfilmusic, a documentary about Jack Johnson and his evolution from surfer to filmmaker to musician; No Hands is the story of the Schwinn Bicycle Company, an iconic brand dating back to 1895. Short films include two documentaries about athletes with disabilities. For musical entertainment, Friday’s headliner will be Death Cab for Cutie plus Goth Babe and Japanese Breakfast. Saturday’s lineup includes My Morning Jacket and The Flaming Lips. The lineup on Sunday includes Cage the Elephant and two local bands, N3ptune and The Mañanas. A full schedule of events can be found on the Outside Days website. Tickets are available at outsidedays.outsideonline.com.
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TILMAN FERTITTA AGREES TO BUY CAESARS FOR $5.7 BILLION
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Billionaire Tilman Fertitta has reached an agreement to buy Caesars Entertainment for about $5.7 billion. Fertitta’s company, Fertitta Entertainment, will pay Caesars shareholders $31 a share and assume about $11.9 billion of the casino company’s outstanding debt. Shares of Caesars were up roughly 1.4 percent in early trading Thursday. Fertitta was in talks to buy Caesars for around $7 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported in March, fending off a competing offer from billionaire investor Carl Icahn’s firm. Fertitta will add Caesars’ more than 50 resorts to a portfolio that includes the Golden Nugget casino chain and other hospitality and gaming businesses, as well as the restaurant company Landry’s and the NBA’s Houston Rockets.
The companies said the deal will be funded through Fertitta equity, assumed Caesars debt, and debt financing from a group of 10 banks. Caesars shares had been down roughly 40 percent over the past year before the Financial Times reported in late February that the company was attracting takeover interest from Fertitta and a group that included management. Caesars shares closed up nearly 19 percent the day of the report.
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BILLIONAIRE BILL KOCH PUTS ASPEN MEGAMANSION UP FOR AUCTION
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After failing to find a buyer on the open market, billionaire Bill Koch is taking his sprawling Aspen ranch to auction. Koch and his wife, Bridget Rooney Koch, initially put the 52-acre property up for sale in January 2025 for $125 million, then cut the price to $99 million at the end of the year. Known as Elk Mountain Lodge, the estate was an event venue when Koch, 86, bought the property in 2007 for $26.5 million. He later added another 31 acres to the property. The estate spans 52 acres in Aspen’s Castle Creek Valley. Koch had previously listed the entire 80-plus-acre compound in 2015 for $100 million before lowering the price to $80 million in 2016—offering the 52-acre lot for $60 million and the rest for $20 million. He sold off the 31-acre parcel in 2020 for $14.5 million. The expansive ranch is now set to sell at an online auction in July with no reserve. Concierge Auctions will handle the sale.
Located just 11 miles from downtown Aspen in Castle Creek Valley, the compound was built in 1990 and offers more than 25,200 square feet of living space and 15 bedrooms across eight separate structures. At the heart of the estate is a 16,631-square-foot main house, with eight bedrooms and 10 bathrooms. In addition to guest accommodations, there’s also a fitness center in one of the cabins. Koch, the son of Fred C. Koch, the founder of Koch Industries, has a net worth of $2 billion, according to Forbes. He also founded the fossil fuel company Oxbow Carbon and is known to be an avid sailor, winning the America’s Cup in 1992 with the yacht America. He’s the brother of Charles Koch and the late David and Frederick Koch.
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ASPEN/PITKIN COUNTY AIRPORT ANNOUNCES 2027 CLOSURE DATES
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The Aspen/Pitkin County Airport has announced that it will be closed starting at 11 p.m., Sunday, April 4, 2027, through 7 p.m., Friday, Nov. 19, 2027, in order to undergo voter-approved infrastructure improvements. The airport modernization program is aimed at enhancing safety, access, efficiency and long-term operational reliability. The closure will allow the existing runway to be completely reconstructed to meet current FAA standards. Construction of the new commercial passenger terminal and Fixed Based Operator facility will also begin in April 2027. The new terminal is expected to be completed in 2029, with commercial operations resuming when the runway reopens in late 2027 out of the existing terminal. Aspen/Pitkin County Airport will host a community town hall at the Limelight Aspen on Tuesday, July 14, with updates on the project and an opportunity for public engagement. For updates and more information, visit aspenairport.com/modernization.
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U.S. HWY. 550 TO FULLY CLOSE MONDAY BETWEEN SILVERTON & MOLAS PASS
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U.S. Hwy. 550 will close from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday between Molas Pass and Silverton. Vehicles traveling northbound between Durango and Silverton will be stopped at mile marker 64 on Molas Pass, and southbound vehicles traveling from Silverton will be stopped at mile marker 70 in Silverton. The closure will allow crews to perform chip seal operations between mile markers 64 and 70. Road conditions and travel information can be found at COtrip.org. For travel alerts, visit maps.cotrip.org/list/events. For information on road closures, road work, weather conditions and crashes, visit bit.ly/3PQimq5. An alternative, westerly route between Durango and Ridgway is recommended to motorists during the closure.
The detour route, which will add about an hour of additional driving time between Durango and Ridgway, is as follows:
- U.S. Hwy. 160 from Durango to Mancos
- Colorado State Hwy. 184 from Mancos to Dolores
- Colorado State Hwy. 145 from Dolores to Placerville
- Colorado State Hwy. 62 from Placerville to Ridgway
- For drivers continuing farther south to Silverton: Hwy. 550 from Ridgway to Silverton
To ensure maximum safety after chip seal operations are complete, CDOT recommends motorists slow down, increase distance between vehicles, follow work zone signage and flagging personnel, and use general caution on the recently treated segment of the highway.
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HOW DO FEDS CALCULATE FIRE DANGER?
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The fire danger signs posted along highways across Southwest Colorado read low, moderate, high, very high or extreme. Each rating is the results of a complex measurement system that provides precise indications for fire danger daily. What determines if the highway sign changes from “moderate” to “high,” or vice versa, is called the Durango Zone Fire Business Calculator, a regional forecasting tool run by the San Juan National Forest that uses dozens of observed weather points to localize the answer. San Juan National Forest spokesperson Lorena Williams said the calculator is maintained by the agency, but many local fire districts and federal partners rely on it. The calculator determines local danger and is updated regularly. Current fire danger across forest elevations is rated very high, meaning fires start easily, spread rapidly, and quickly increase in intensity. These fires are difficult to control and can become large and last for a long time.
It is in comparison to, for example, “extreme,” which means fires of all kinds start easily and burn intensely. “Low” means fuels do not ignite as easily and need a stronger heat source, such as lightning. The calculator has a dedicated staff member called the fire planner, who develops, maintains and manages it. “San Juan National Forest is quite large ‒ about 1.8 million acres ‒ and we have to generalize a lot more with our fire danger using this calculator than, say, Cortez Fire might,” Williams said. In areas with elevation change, fire danger patterns vary and that is typical for springtime. Fire officials in mid-May observed lower elevations nearing peak green-up – when grasses and vegetation are lush enough to slow a fire spreading. However, conditions have now progressed: some higher-elevation spots remain fully green, while in lower forest areas, officials have implemented a Stage 1 fire ban, in response to grasses rapidly drying out.
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NEW WILDFLOWER FESTIVAL THIS SUMMER
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Breckenridge hosts its first Wildflower Week, July 2-12, welcoming visitors for a series of guided hikes, flora-inspired art classes, live music and more. That is slightly earlier than this year’s Crested Butte Wildflower Festival, July 10-19. Crested Butte has been hosting that series for 40 years. The Summit County town is leaning into its identity as a wildflower destination after launching a resource called the “wildflower watch” last year, intended to keep Coloradans up to date on what’s popping up across its meadows and mountains. Breckenridge is about 80 miles from Denver, while Crested Butte is between 200 and 220. The tourism office worked with Breckenridge Open Space and Trails to coordinate guided hikes through the most colorful areas, such as Horseshoe Bowl at Breckenridge Ski Resort, Black Powder Pass and Cucumber Gulch Wildlife Preserve. Hikes vary in terms of skill level and are free to attend, though they require registration in advance.
Art enthusiasts can use wildflowers as inspiration for projects at Breck Create, which will host classes for making mosaics, stained glass bolo ties, watercolor paintings, glass blowing and more. For the 21-plus crowd, Breckenridge Distillery has cocktail classes and specialty wildflower-themed drinks. And folks looking to give back can join the community weed pull on July 11 to help the native wildflowers thrive. With back-to-back wildflower celebrations, Coloradans have ample opportunities to get outside and smell the wild roses. For more information, visit gobreck.com.
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AMERICANS FALLING BEHIND ON THEIR $1.25 TRILLION CREDIT-CARD BILL
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Many Americans have been pushed to their financial limit by the one-two punch of inflation and the highest interest rates in decades.
- In the first quarter of this year, the percentage of credit-card balances that were at least 90 days delinquent rose to 13.12 percent, according to data released in May by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. That’s the highest level in 15 years, and the most since the period following the 2008 financial crisis.
- America’s total credit-card balance stood at $1.25 trillion in the first quarter, up from $1.18 trillion in that quarter last year. That’s the highest first-quarter balance since the New York Fed began recording the measurement in 1999.
- Average interest rates on cards rose to 21 percent in February, from 14.6 percent in February 2022, according to a survey of credit-card issuing banks by the Federal Reserve.
- Last year, 5.6 percent of credit-card holders were 60 days or more behind on their payments, surpassing prepandemic levels, according to data compiled by Breno Braga, an economist with the Urban Institute.
- Americans straining to pay off their debt have flooded credit-counseling agencies. The National Foundation for Credit Counseling, a network of nonprofits that helps people reduce credit-card debt, said it had 24 percent more clients in January than a year earlier. Its average number of monthly clients was 60 percent higher this year than in 2018.
- Americans carry, on average, about $6,500 to $6,700 in credit-card debt, according to credit-reporting agencies.
- The percentage of cardholders with balances of more than $10,000 has risen in communities across different income levels since 2018.
- Last year, 17 percent of cardholders in low-income communities held balances greater than that amount, 20 percent in medium-income communities and 25 percent in higher-income communities.
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MARKET UPDATE - 05/28/2026 Close
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(Courtesy of Alpine Bank Wealth Management*)
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Canadian dollar (per U.S. dollar)
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Mexican peso (per U.S. dollar)
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30-year fixed mortgage rate (Freddie Mac 05/28/2026)
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*Not FDIC insured. May lose value. Not guaranteed by the bank.
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Alpine Bank is an independent, employee-owned organization with headquarters in Glenwood Springs and banking offices across Colorado's Western Slope, mountains and Front Range. Alpine Bank serves customers with retail, business, wealth management*, mortgage and electronic banking services. Learn more at alpinebank.com.
*Alpine Bank Wealth Management services are not FDIC insured, may lose value and are not guaranteed by the bank.
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