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Colorado - Mon. 10/19/26 |
A Free Business Publication from Alpine Bank
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COLORADO’S JOB NUMBERS UP IN SEPT., BUT UNEMPLOYMENT RATE INCHES UP
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The Colorado Dept. of Labor and Employment Friday released its monthly jobs report which showed the state’s employers added 2,400 jobs from August to September. However, Colorado had 131,900 unemployed residents, up by 3,800 from August. As a result, the state’s unemployment rate increased from 4.0 percent in August to 4.1 percent in September. The state’s jobless rate topped 4 percent in August for the first time since June 2025 and throughout most of 2026, Colorado’s unemployment rate remained flat at 3.9 percent. Since September 2025, Colorado has added 11,200 jobs. The private sector increased by 17,000 and government decreased by 5,800 jobs. The biggest job gains in the private sector over the last year have been in education and health services; leisure and hospitality; construction; and professional and business services. Jobs declined in financial activities, information; trade, transportation and utilities; other services; and manufacturing.
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DOWNTOWN DENVER PARTNERSHIP: “REINVENTING” DOWNTOWN DENVER
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The Downtown Denver Partnership released a study Thursday that documented the fact that downtown Denver had made progress in recovering from the pandemic downturn, and that to sustain economic recovery will require diversifying beyond just traditional office work and office workers. The study, “The Next Era of Downtown Denver: Reinventing Downtown for the Way We Live Now,” by Richard Florida, a city planning expert and distinguished university professor at Vanderbilt University, argues that building on the activity already drawing people downtown could help Denver become a “national model” for the future of American downtowns. Downtown still has significant office vacancies, with some 12.2 million square feet of vacant office space.
Florida said the city will need a range of strategies, including converting offices to other uses, reinvesting in existing buildings and redeveloping properties for housing, parks, entertainment, and other uses to draw people in throughout the day and week. Denver’s sports, arts, outdoor recreation and higher education sectors have been economic assets, the report stated, with $10 billion in investment around major sports venues, $3 billion in the arts, and about $66 billion in Colorado’s outdoor recreation economy. Housing is also expected to play a central role in downtown’s future. More people live downtown today than before the pandemic, more than 1,600 residential units are under construction, and the Downtown Area Plan calls for doubling the downtown residential population from roughly 35,000 to 70,000 by 2045.
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COLORADO CONVENTION CENTER DRIVES HOTEL BUSINESS: SLOWING FOR 2027
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The Colorado Convention Center has been riding a high for the past two years, but now Denver’s convention industry is preparing for a slowdown. The CCC posted record-setting results in 2025. Its attendance hit a 10-year high. It also achieved its highest total annual number of room nights, a hospitality metric that counts hotel rooms occupied for a single night. Visit Denver is following up that success with a 2026 that the organization expects to be its second-best year ever in terms of room nights. Between the Colorado Convention Center and the hotels that contract with Visit Denver for booking, the tourism group says its work attracting conventions, meetings and other events has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in economic impact each year, first breaking the $1 billion mark in 2025.
Denver has more conventions booked for 2027 than it did at the same point last year. The challenge, according to Visit Denver, is that next year’s meetings are generally smaller and require fewer hotel room nights than the blockbuster conventions that helped drive the record-setting performance of 2025 and 2026. The projected decline comes as Denver’s hospitality industry digests years of new hotel construction. Even as convention business has broken records since the pandemic, industry experts say the rapid expansion of Denver’s hotel inventory has diluted the impact. Since 2019, the Denver metro has added 92 hotels and 6,728 rooms, representing 12.9 percent growth. In downtown Denver, 14 hotels and 1,789 rooms have been added since 2019.
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MORNING SUN GLARE DETOURS COMING ON I-70 AT FLOYD HILL
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The Colorado Dept. of Transportation said Friday that sun-glare safety detours will return to eastbound Interstate 70 at Floyd Hill. CDOT officials said there will be a practice run for highway workers and Colorado State Patrol officers set for around 7 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 21. When detours occur, drivers traveling on eastbound I-70 should prepare for delays of up to an hour, according to the release. The practice run is scheduled in advance of the seasonal detours beginning Nov. 1. The low eastward sun angle can create blinding glare for drivers, particularly when combined with roadway moisture from rain, melting snow or liquid pretreatment materials, steep grades and sharp turns or sudden obstacles such as wildlife crossing the highway.
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WITH INCREASED TRAFFIC FROM CLOSING OF ASPEN AIRPORT, CDOT DELAYS WORK ON I-70
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The $100 million Interstate 70 Glenwood Canyon phase 8 project to repair I-70 through Glenwood Canyon, scheduled for 2027, has been delayed a year, and now will start in 2028. The delay for a year is to avoid overlapping with the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport Modernization Project that will close the airport for seven months in 2027. CDOT leadership made the recommendation to delay the project with support from the Boards of County Commissioners in neighboring Pitkin and Eagle counties. The Colorado Transportation Commission unanimously approved the recommendation last Thursday.
The I-70 Glenwood Canyon phase 8 project includes repairs to the road’s decades-old infrastructure as well as continued resilience work to mitigate the effects of mudslides after the 2021 Grizzly Creek Fire. The project plans to lay a new concrete surface on highway lanes and inside the No Name and Highway Lake Tunnels, add guardrails to create smoother, safer roads and upgrade aging bridge decks, supporting walls and highway structures through the canyon. It also plans to add weather stations at three locations in the canyon to give drivers and maintenance crews better insights into real-time road conditions.
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TRAVEL TO GET ORTHOPEDIC SURGERY – VAIL? ASPEN? - NO MEEKER
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When considering the top services in Colorado for orthopedic surgery, the Steadman Clinic in Vail immediately comes to mind, or perhaps Aspen Valley Health, because of their background with top athletes, skiers, etc. There is another location on the Western Slope that attracts people from around the U.S. and internationally for its surgical care and excellence…Meeker. Meeker is certainly better known as a travel location for hunters, but the Colorado Advanced Orthopedics clinic at the Pioneers Medical Center in Meeker had drawn guests from at least 38 states, Thailand and Germany over the past 10 years. CAO Orthopedic Surgeon Kevin Borchard, a Meeker native, formed the Colorado Advanced Orthopedics clinic in 2015. While Borchard operated solo for the first few years, and found recruiting full-time surgeons to the small, remote town of 2,600 very difficult, he began hiring "itinerant" surgeons to come to Pioneers Medical Center.
Gradually, full-time orthopedic surgeons came and stayed and now, CAO now employs eight additional orthopedic surgeons (specializing in the hands, knees, hips and more) two sports medicine doctors and two athletic trainers. A key factor in attracting "medical tourists" is the sophistication of its surgery. First, of course, is having surgeons with extensive credentials and then the clinic employs a Stryker surgical robotics platform, Mako SmartRobotics, a computer-assisted system used mainly for orthopedic joint replacements and spine procedures. The precision of the robotic system minimizes bleeding and soft-tissue injury, reducing pain and improving range of motion. It all has resulted in a powerful word-of-mouth recruitment.
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CRAIG POWER PLANT MUST STAY OPEN AT HIGH COST, LITTLE USE
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The owners of the Craig Unit 1 power plant in Craig, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, Platte River Power Authority and Xcel Energy, had been scheduled to shut the aging, coal-fired plant down on Jan. 1, 2026. However, on Dec. 31, 2025, Energy Secretary Chris Wright ordered the plant to remain open, citing a national power emergency, even though Unit 1 was broken at the time. Since that time, Secretary Wright has renewed the emergency order three times. In the latest renewal on Sept. 25, Sec. Wright cited reports that energy demand in Colorado is expected to grow 8.5 percent over the next decade, to 36 gigawatts by 2034. The order also says wind and solar energy are too variable and not ready to replace coal as reliable energy sources, and that the Rocky Mountain region is at risk of energy shortfalls because of aging infrastructure.
Mark Stutz, a spokesman for Tri-State Generation, which operates the plant, said the “unit has been called upon three times since April 1” by the Southwest Power Pool, which determines how much energy needs to be generated and transmitted between multiple states. Craig Unit 1 ran a total of two to three weeks, Stutz said, but he declined to provide day-to-day operational details, saying its market performance was confidential. Repairing and running the aging Craig Unit 1 has been an expensive endeavor.
Unit 1 opened in 1980 and was built to produce up to 427 megawatts of power. It is one of three coal plants on site in Craig; Units 2 and 3 continue to run under normal conditions, but Unit 2 is scheduled to close on Sept. 30, 2028, and Unit 3 is scheduled to retire on Jan. 1, 2028. Xcel Energy, which owns 10 percent of Unit 1, said in a July court filing that it had spent more than $4 million to comply with the federal order. Since Xcel would be responsible for 10 percent of the expenses, experts estimate it costs at least $40 million to fix the plant and keep it running for the first six months of the year.
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U.S. DEBT HITS $1.9 TRILLION IN FY26, UP 12% OVER A YEAR EARLIER
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The U.S. Treasury Friday announced that the U.S. finished the 2026 fiscal year with a budget deficit of $1.992 trillion. That was about 12 percent higher than the $1.775 trillion deficit in the prior fiscal year. It’s the third-highest annual deficit in U.S. history, behind only 2020 and 2021, when the federal government was doling out trillions of dollars in financial stimulus amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The 2026 fiscal year saw record sums for both receipts and outlays, according to a Treasury Dept. official. With the official recording of the FY 26 deficit figure, the U.S. recorded its 25th straight fiscal year operating at a deficit. The government last recorded a surplus, defined as meaning its revenues were larger than debts, in 2001.
Social Security amounted to the biggest slice of government spending at nearly $1.7 trillion for the full fiscal year, up modestly from the roughly $1.6 trillion spent in 2025. Medicare was the second biggest contributor, costing almost $1.1 trillion for the fiscal year. By comparison, the government-run healthcare program required slightly under $1 trillion in fiscal 2025. In the 2026 fiscal year, the U.S. shelled out more than $1.3 trillion in interest on the national public debt. The total owed exceeded $40 trillion earlier this year and has more than doubled over the last decade.
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COLORADO GIVES DAY COMING, WITH EARLY GIVING STARTING NOV. 1
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Colorado Day, the state’s largest 24-hour online giving movement, designed to support more than 5,000 local 501(c)(3) nonprofits across the state, returns for its 17th year on Dec. 8, with more than $1 million in donation incentives, according to an announcement from the Colorado Gives Foundation. Since 2010, Coloradans have donated $581 million through Colorado Gives Day. Donors who give $100 or more on Colorado Gives Day to a single nonprofit will be entered into an hourly drawing for a round-trip domestic flight provided by Southwest Airlines. To incentivize Coloradans to get involved, Colorado Gives Foundation announced it will match the first $100 of any new monthly gift established as part of a $250,000 matching opportunity. The foundation is also joining other sponsors in providing a $1 million-plus incentive fund, which boosts every donation made. For more information on how to donate beginning Nov. 1, visit ColoradoGives.org.
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DURANGO'S PLAN TO UPGRADE & REDESIGN MAIN AVE.: COST ESTIMATES ARE IN
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Downtown’s Next Step – the city of Durango’s proposal to redesign Main Avenue with walkability and pedestrian safety in mind – has two cost estimates: one for the utility updates, and another for both utilities and streetscaping. The utility improvements would cost roughly $7.3 million, while the utility and streetscape improvements would cost about $18.2 million. Neither estimate can fully account for unplanned construction costs, but that prediction is harder to estimate for the utility-only option, said Evan Tyler, a capital improvements project manager. “There are certain dependencies that will have to be addressed before we can go to construction with the utilities,” he said. “So, there will be a small cost in the grand scheme of things. We’re talking on the order of $200,000, $100,000.”
The project, if moved to construction, would work in phases over about four years. Construction would be in block sections, most likely, so the whole of Main Avenue would not be under construction all at once.
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- Durango Herald, 10.13.26
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STEAMBOAT SPRINGS RESIDENT RECOGNIZED WITH BOETTCHER FOUNDATION AWARD
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Steamboat Springs resident Norm Weaver has received the Boettcher Foundation’s 2026 Impact Award, an organizational alumni award that recognizes individuals who have demonstrated significant leadership contributions and have a heart for service. Weaver, for over two decades, has advanced energy efficiency, renewable energy and better building practices across the state. He earned his master’s degree from Stanford University in the 1970s while the world was grappling with a growing energy crisis, including petroleum shortages and skyrocketing oil prices. Weaver has worked in various consulting roles and at leading research institutions like the Solar Energy Research Institute, now known as the National Laboratory of the Rockies. While working for Fort Collins Utilities, he developed programs that helped install over 6,000 kilowatts of solar capacity.
Now in retirement, Weaver continues to address climate challenges through his work with the Routt Climate Action Collaborative, having been recognized as the Western Resilience Center’s 2025 Volunteer of the Year. But Weaver’s greatest sense of fulfillment, he told the foundation, comes from mentorship, from interacting with college architecture and engineering teams at the national laboratory’s solar decathlon in Washington, D.C. to guiding interns tackling climate action in Northwest Colorado. Weaver, who was awarded $4,000, will contribute the funds to Western Resilience to provide leadership training for junior staff as a way to support young workers in the environmental field.
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- Steamboat Today, 10.14.26
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YOU'VE HEARD OF FASHION WEEK. THIS IS DOG WEEK.
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Some 100,000 pooches call Paris home, and it is regarded as one of the world’s friendlier places for dogs. In September, between Paris Design Week and Paris Fashion Week, the first edition of Paris Dog Week brought dozens of canines and their owners to pool parties, tarot readings, runway shows and wellness events. At Eataly’s flagship location in the Marais, the drag queen Le Filip, a winner of “Drag Race France,” hosted bingo with her whippet Azur, as four-legged guests wolfed down pizza pour chiens, or pizza for dogs. In Room 526 at the 25hours Hotel Terminus Nord, a crowd of women socialized with their dogs, who played with Paris-Dog-Week-branded balls. All of the humans were wearing pajamas, and so were some of the dogs. The global pet care market was valued at around $181 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow to around $283 billion by 2033. In France, the number of pet dogs grew from about 1.3 million in 2020 to about 9.6 million in 2026.
Dog week arrived in Paris at a time when the city’s canines have been a focus of local politics. This spring, Paris Condition Canine, a group of 13 local associations that’s seeking to improve conditions for dogs, sent a manifesto to mayoral candidates pushing its agenda. The group’s aims include simplifying rules about dogs on public transit and creating more off-leash spaces in every neighborhood. Many mayoral candidates campaigned on dog-inclusive measures, including Emmanuel Grégoire, the socialist who was elected to the office in March (he floated subsidized vet visits for low-income residents). The week ended in style with a fashion show, “Le Grand Dogwalk,” held in the courtyard of the dog-friendly Hôtel Alfred Sommier, a 19th-century former mansion where rooms now start at about $695 a night.
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- Wall Street Journal, 10.14.26
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ORPHANED CUBS ABOUND IN COLORADO
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Colorado Parks and Wildlife is rescuing more abandoned black bear cubs this year after environmental conditions strained food sources that bears rely on to fatten up before winter. Each year orphaned cubs are brought to one of two CPW-licensed wildlife rehabilitation centers where the bears are fed natural foods such as fish and berries, as well as donated peaches from Colorado orchards. Once they've reached 60-70 pounds and start to display denning behavior, the bears are released back into the wild.
- By late September, CPW's Frisco Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Del Norte had taken in 41 cubs -- significantly more than the 29 rescued bears brought to the center last year. In a typical year, the center cares for roughly 20 bears.
- The other CPW-licensed wildlife rehabilitation center is the nonprofit Pauline Schneegas Wildlife Foundation, in Silt. This year it took in more than 30 bear cubs versus the three cubs it cared for last year. The center, which is not funded by CPW, averages five to 10 cubs yearly.
- So far, 2026 has seen 3.6 times the five-year average of bear incidents. As of Aug. 31, there were 8,672 reports of bear-related sightings and incidents, compared to 3,680 reports through August 2025.
- Ninety-eight bears were relocated in 2026, compared to 33 bears relocated through August 2025.
- Bears have been euthanized at greater frequency this year -- 294 compared to 83 bears euthanized through August 2025.
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MARKET UPDATE - 10/16/2026 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 10/15/2026)
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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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