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Colorado - Mon. 08/24/26 |
A Free Business Publication from Alpine Bank
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FIRST 2-YEAR PLAN FOR COLORADO RIVER: UPPER BASIN STATES HAVE NO CHANGES
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The U.S. Dept. of Interior Friday released its first two-year plan for the Colorado River as part of its 10-year operating plan framework for managing water releases and water supplies for the seven states, Mexico and tribes included in the Colorado River Compact. For the first two-year period, Colorado and other Upper Basin states, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, will face no mandatory cuts. The Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada will see their collective supply cut by 1.25 million acre-feet in each of the next two years. The two-year plans will determine how much water is released from the river’s two major reservoirs and how deep cuts to water supplies will be for the three states downstream of those water storage banks.
The Dept. of the Interior on Friday also finalized the 10-year framework, which was first announced earlier this summer. The finalized document, called a record of decision, formally ends a planning process that began in 2022 to replace previous operating plans that expire this year. Lake Powell and Lake Mead sit at record lows not seen since the nation’s two largest reservoirs began filling decades ago. On Wednesday, Lake Mead was 27 percent full, and Lake Powell was at 21 percent of its capacity.
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WILLIAM HOOD NAMED NEXT CHIEF JUSTICE OF COLORADO SUPREME COURT
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On Friday, the Colorado Supreme Court selected Justice William Hood to be the next Chief Justice. Hood will replace Chief Justice Monica Márquez, whose term expires in August 2027. Hood has been a member of the court since 2014. The chief justice serves a three-year rotating term. The incoming chief justice completes a one-year onboarding process, mentoring under the current chief justice to learn the basics of the job.
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UNITED AIRLINES COMPLETES FIRST PHASE OF EXPANSION OF ITS PILOT TRAINING CENTER
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Last Thursday, officials of United Airlines, including CEO Scott Kirby, and Matthew Bromberg, the CEO and President of airline trainer manufacturer CAE, joined U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper for a celebration of the completion of the first phase of a major expansion at its Denver Flight Training Center, adding 40 new CAE training devices since 2022, including full-motion and fixed flight training simulators. The event drew a packed room inside one of the site’s buildings at 7500 E. 35th Ave., with towering flight simulators on either side of the crowd. The expansion brings the center to eight buildings and nearly 700,000 square feet of training space, roughly the size of 12 football fields. It now has 86 CAE training devices, including 52 full-motion flight simulators and 34 fixed training devices.
The center can train up to 860 pilots a day. United has nearly 18,000 pilots, and all of them complete required simulator training at the Denver facility. Newly hired pilots also train there. The 22-acre facility can conduct more than 32,000 training sessions a year and operates 24 hours a day, 362 days a year. The airline expects to break ground in 2027 on a second training facility on two parcels of undeveloped land near Denver International Airport. The new facility is expected to open around 2030 and will operate along with the current center.
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NEVER-ENDING DIA EXPANSION NOT OVER QUITE YET, NORTH TERMINAL NEXT
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Travelers through Denver International Airport know very well the disruption, blockades and changes caused by the $2.1 billion Great Hall construction which began in 2018. Certainly, there were sighs of relief when it was announced the Great Hall renovation will be completed by the end of 2027. However, very quietly this month the Denver City Council approved a $135 million initial contract for the DIA North Terminal Expansion Program, which will ramp up with the ending of the Great Hall renovation. The project on the north end of Jeppesen Terminal will expand what is known as Ansbacher Hall and the A Bridge connector areas.
It will include expansion of security screening checkpoints on the east and west sections of Level 6 and bring expansion for Customs and Border Protection processing, the Federal Inspection Services (FIS), and its baggage claim area for international arrivals. Michael Sheehan, senior vice president for special projects at DIA said, “Our international connection is something that's really grown for DEN and putting the facilities in place to grow that infrastructure is what the North Terminal really does. It enables that future growth for the airport.”
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U.S. CANADA TRADE TALKS BREAK DOWN: U.S. IMPLEMENTS TARIFFS, CANADA RETALIATES
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After a week of trade talks and negotiations between representatives of the United States and Canada, the talks fell apart on Friday night and spawned a trade war, with the U.S. implementing tariffs impacting about $20 billion in Canadian exports Saturday, including: wine, furniture, dairy products, cement, clothing, fishing rods, and hockey equipment. In a Saturday press conference in Ottawa, Ontario, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that the U.S. demands had gone too far and as a result Carney said Canada would put its own retaliatory tariffs into effect on Sept. 8, and those duties will target sectors such as steel, dairy, agricultural equipment, and pulp and paper, among others. He said additional details on those new measures would be released in the coming days, previously noting that the retaliatory measures would be “dollar for dollar.”
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TEMPORARY BEEF IMPORTS WITHOUT HIGHER TARIFFS TO REDUCE PRICES
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President Donald Trump Friday announced that for the next 90 days, the U.S. will allow up to 300,000 metric tons of ground beef to be imported into the U.S. without paying higher tariffs. The move is being made to ease the increase in beef prices for Americans. President Trump said, “We have a commitment that this beef will be sold at 25 percent below current market prices.” The announcement brought immediate reaction from U.S. cattle and rancher groups with those groups saying that increased imports will harm ranchers and make herd-rebuilding much more difficult. U.S. cattle herd numbers are at the lowest levels since the 1950s, with about 86.2 million cattle and calves. It is this shortage that has driven beef prices to record highs.
Despite high prices, consumer demand for beef hasn’t cooled. Americans are expected to consume about 29 billion pounds of beef this year, according to government data. Trump’s planned expansion of imports would equal about 2 percent of all beef consumed in the U.S. Beef-industry officials have said the only surefire way to lower beef prices is for ranchers to rebuild herds, a process that takes about two years. Ranchers sold off their herds after years of drought and poor financial conditions following the Covid-19 pandemic.
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LOS ANGELES SUMMER OLYMPICS 2 YEARS AWAY, BUT HALF THE TICKETS ALREADY SOLD
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Organizers of the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028 announced Friday that already more than 6 million tickets have been sold, or more than half the LA28 inventory. The announcement came following the closing of the second sales phase on Thursday. The next sales opportunity comes in 2027 and here is how to get tickets: On a to-be-determined date in 2027, organizers will release some (not all) of the remaining tickets. Fans will log into an online portal, likely enter a digital queue, and get access to whatever tickets remain available when they get through the queue. The rest of the tickets will then be released in batches over the coming months leading into the Games.
Also sometime in 2027, LA28 will launch a “verified resale network” - which will be a modified version of the secondary market that exists for most sporting events in the U.S. For the three "verified" platforms, an official LA28 site, plus Ticketmaster and Sports Illustrated Tickets, every ticket purchased will come with a guarantee of delivery. Complete information on the LA Games is available at la28.org.
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BOULDER COUNCIL OKs BOUTIQUE HOTEL ON DOWNTOWN PARKING LOT
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The Boulder City Council Thursday voted 7-1 to approve the purchase agreement between the city’s Central Area General Improvement District and Denver hotel developer Midnight Auteur for about $5.8 million. The agreement will allow the construction of a 110-room boutique hotel on what is now the parking lot for the First Congregational United Church of Christ at the northwest corner of Broadway and Spruce Street. It was a controversial decision in that it will force the church’s congregants, many of whom are aging, to park in a more distance parking garage and the church also provides space for many service providers. The agreement approval does not mean the sale is finalized, and the agreement contains six “Community Benefit Covenants” which include providing affordable commercial space, public space and events, arts and culture as well as preserving alley access for the First Congregational Church.
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WATER LEVELS AT RUEDI RESERVOIR DROP MORE, NO HYDROELECTRIC GENERATION
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An update to the Aspen City Council last week documented the continued declining water levels at Ruedi Reservoir after the increased releases into the Fryingpan River to ease the water shortage at Lake Powell. Earlier this month, the facility operators at the reservoir’s hydroelectric generating unit encountered difficulties in synchronizing and operations. The hydroelectric generation unit was shut down Aug. 4, with the objective to have the facility fully prepared for operations when reservoir conditions recover and hydroelectric generation can safely resume. To replace the approximately 9.9 million kilowatt-hours of hydropower lost, the city expects to pay about $710,000 for replacement power through the Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska. The city of Aspen is also considering the creation of a second turbine unit at the Ruedi Hydroelectric Facility that would generate power under lower reservoir levels.
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COLORADO LABOR FORCE: PRIVATE SECTOR HAS STRONG SHOWING IN JULY
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Colorado added a net of 5,800 non-farm payroll jobs in July, according to the Colorado Dept. of Labor and Employment:
- Private employers added 6,500 jobs
- Government employment decline by 700 jobs
- The total nonfarm payroll employment reached 2.97 million
- The state’s unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.9 percent
- During the past year, Colorado added 12,100 payroll jobs
- Private-sector employment increased by 16,700 jobs
- Government employment declined by 4,600
- Average hourly earnings for the state’s private-sector workers increased from $38.91 to $39.63 over the past year
- The national average was $37.62
- The average workweek in Colorado remained at 33.4 hours
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IT’S POSSIBLE COLORADO’S SUMMER CONCERT SEASON WAS AFFECTED BY ECONOMY
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The Littleton-based Red Rocks Credit Union commissioned a survey by Pollfish to assess the impacts of the economy on summer activities.
The survey polled 300 Coloradans online from June 2-4 and the results showed:
- Nearly a third of Coloradans had planned to skip concerts, festivals and other events because of cost.
- In early June, another 24 percent of respondents were undecided about attending events
- Transportation (64 percent) and ticket prices (59 percent) were the highest barriers
When it came to decisions on what respondents would choose when budgets are tight:
- 26 percent said they choose Outdoor Recreation and Adventure
- 18 percent Dining and Social Outings
- 14 percent Travel or Vacations
- 10 percent Concerts and Festivals
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POSSIBLE SALE OF LA LAKERS IS VALUED AT DOUBLE THAT OF DENVER NUGGETS
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The pending sale of the Los Angeles Lakers is valued at $12.5 billion.
Here are the top 5 National Basketball League franchises, with real-time value from CNBC:
- Golden State Warriors: $13 billion
- New York Knicks: $12.7 billion
- Los Angeles Lakers: $12.5 billion
- Los Angeles Clippers: $8.3 billion
- Chicago Bulls: $8.1 billion
- 18. Denver Nuggets: $5.6 billion
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MARKET UPDATE - 08/21/2026 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 08/20/2026)
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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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