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Colorado - Thu. 09/10/26 |
A Free Business Publication from Alpine Bank
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COLORADO’S LARGEST LUMBER MILL FORCED TO CLOSE
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There is a paradox when it comes to timber in Colorado. Colorado ranks sixth in the U.S. for acres of forest. It ranks in the bottom half of states for lumber production. Colorado imports nearly 90 percent of the wood used for consumer and commercial projects. Now, Colorado’s largest lumber mill, Montrose Forest Products, is closing. The Neiman family owns mills across the Rocky Mountains and is based in Hulett, Wyoming and it purchased the Montrose facility in 2012 and had invested more than $60 million in upgrades. Jim Neiman, president of Neiman Enterprises, said, “For months, we searched for a buyer who could continue operating the mill in Montrose, but we were unable to secure one.”
Layoffs will begin Sept. 8 and continue through early November as operations wind down once the timber supply runs out. The Montrose mill has 90 employees and the mill’s operations contributed another 84 indirect jobs. Montrose Forest Products contributed an estimated $157 million to the local economy last year, with $73 million tied to payrolls, according to a study from the Montrose Economic Development Corporation. There were another 232 jobs, with a payroll of $23.7 million, for the logging that supplied the mill.
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CDOT READY TO LAUNCH $800M I-270 MAKEOVER
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The Colorado Dept. of Transportation and the Federal High Administration published a Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS), Record of Decision (ROD) & State Environmental Reports Tuesday on the proposed five-year overall of the I-270 corridor. It will allow the $806 million project to rebuild the highway between Interstate 25 and Interstate 70 in Adams County to proceed with work expected to begin this fall. Construction will include two general-purpose lanes and one new express lane in each direction along with replacing 12 bridges, rebuilding the Vasquez Boulevard interchange, adding a pedestrian overpass bridge and improving on- and off-ramps at Interstate 76, according to CDOT officials.
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WILDERNESS SOCIETY, WILDERNESS WORKSHOP FILE SUIT OVER BLM COLORADO LEASES
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Two environmental organizations, the Wilderness Workshop and The Wilderness Society, filed suit in the U.S. District Court of Colorado alleging the Bureau of Land Management violated federal law when it leased more than 134,000 acres of public lands in Colorado for oil and gas drilling earlier this year. In their suit, the groups state the BLM’s June 2026 lease sale would “allow the development of oil and gas wells in habitat critical to some of the United States’ largest, and last remaining, migrations of pronghorn antelope, mule deer and elk.” The agency’s failure to withhold sensitive wildlife areas from development violates its own rules and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, the lawsuit argues.
Plaintiffs want the court to vacate the lease sales and a Trump administration memorandum the agency has used to ramp up oil and gas leasing in Colorado and other western states. The sale was the largest the BLM has held in Colorado in 15 years, with a total of 170 parcels spanning nearly 156,000 acres of land put up for auction which was more than the available acreage in the previous six lease sales combined, according to the group Taxpayers for Common Sense. A majority of the 134,000 acres sold were located in northwestern Colorado, and a “large majority” of the parcels lie in areas designated as big game habit and migration corridors.
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THIRD TROPICAL STORM IN 3 WEEKS HAMMERS HAWAII, BATTERING KAUAI
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Hurricane Lowell became the third storm in three weeks to cause damage in Hawaii, as El Niño accelerates the hurricane season in the Pacific while the Atlantic Basin has yet to have one. Hurricane Lowell has had a “devastating” impact on Hawaii after sweeping past the state’s islands, leaving at least one person dead, damaging homes and knocking out power to tens of thousands, according to Gov. Josh Green. Lowell’s center tracked less than 50 miles from the island of Niihau in Kauai County as a Category 2 storm, making it the strongest hurricane to impact the main Hawaiian Islands since Category 4 Iniki in 1992.
Wind gusts over 80 mph knocked out power for around 90 percent of homes and businesses in Kauai County, which also includes the island of Kauai, according to PowerOutage.com. The county’s provider said on Tuesday morning there is “no estimated time of restoration” and outages could be long-lasting. More than 30,000 customers also lost power on Oahu from tropical-storm-force wind gusts.
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IT IS TARANTULA TIME IN SOUTHEAST COLORADO WITH A TARANTULA FEST
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The Comanche National Grassland covers more than 443,000 acres in southeast Colorado. It is one of the largest grasslands in the U.S., and it is very well-suited for tarantulas because the female large burrowing spiders can spend their lifetimes in one burrow that will not be plowed over. September is mating time and once males reach maturity they leave their location in search of a mate. That means there are many males crossing county roads in La Junta County as well as Colorado 109 and U.S. Highway 350. The trek of the tarantulas brings many visitors and now has even brought about the Tarantula Festival, now in its fourth year. It will be in La Junta, Sept. 25-26, this year. The festival has bus tours, presentations from expert speakers, vendors, a drone show and other activities. Complete information and schedule at visitlajunta.net/tarantula-fest.
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MORE PEOPLE WENT TO THE MOVIES THIS SUMMER, RECORD BOX-OFFICE SALES
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The 2026 summer season ran from May 1 to Sept. 7, and the domestic box office revenues reached $4.76 billion in ticket sales, which is a summer season record. The previous record was $4.75 billion in 2013, but that season was one week shorter. Labor Day weekend, the end of the summer movie season, was as late as it can be this year, making the season seven days longer. The 2026 season was boosted by Sony’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and Universal’s “The Odyssey,” which together contributed more than $1.5 billion to the summer tally, or more than 30 percent.
The summer 2026 box office ended nearly 10 percent ahead of 2019, according to data from Rentrak, the year before Covid shutdowns hamstrung ticket sales and before streaming took a bite out of moviegoing in earnest. The year-to-date total for 2026 is now only 7.5 percent below the pre-pandemic 2019 YTD total, and 2026 is on track to top $10 billion for the first time in seven years. The movie industry has changed substantially since 2019, with far fewer screens, fewer people going out to movies and fewer movies. However, higher admission prices have masked these declines.
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GARFIELD COUNTY AGREES TO FUND THE HOGBACK ROUTE FOR ONE MORE YEAR
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The Garfield County commissioners Tuesday agreed to provide $200,000 to fund the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority’s Hogback Route for 2027. The Hogback Route provides service to New Castle and Rifle. The commissioners made it clear, however, that the funding is a one-year commitment. The service provides about 200,000 passenger trips annually, with more than half originating in Rifle, Silt or unincorporated Garfield County. Without a new funding agreement, Hogback service west of New Castle is scheduled to end Nov. 23. The Hogback route costs about $900,000 annually to operate and generates about $70,000 per year in fares.
Rifle, Silt and Garfield County are not members of RFTA. RFTA’s voting members are Pitkin and Eagle counties and Aspen, Snowmass Village, Basalt, Carbondale, Glenwood Springs and New Castle, which support the authority through dedicated local tax revenue. Garfield County contributed $250,000 toward the route in 2026 after providing $500,000 in 2025 and, at one point, about $750,000 annually. RFTA CEO Kurt Ravenschlag said in July that RFTA cannot indefinitely use revenue from its member jurisdictions to subsidize service in communities outside the authority.
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LIV GOLF FILES CHAPTER 11 BANKRUPTCY, BIG NAME PLAYERS OWED MILLIONS
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LIV Golf, the global professional golf league, funded by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which was an alternative to the long-standing PGA Tour, submitted a Chapter 11 filing in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey on Tuesday. LIV’s decision to file for bankruptcy rather than liquidate the company signals that it seeks to restructure and transition to a new business model. LIV said its reorganization will happen alongside BC Partners Advisors’ credit division, marking the first time the league revealed the identity of the “lead investor” it announced in August. The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia announced in April it was pulling its funding from LIV Golf. LIV managed to compete for top golfers by paying a guaranteed contract and in the bankruptcy filing there are large unsecured payments due to several players.
The payments are only for past-due third quarter payments, not future payments based on multi-year contracts, but nonetheless are in the millions of dollars. Leading that list of unsecured payments are Jon Rahm, due $7.4 million; Bryson DeChambeau, due $5.7 million; Dustin Johnson, due $5.4 million; and Cameron Smith, due $4.8 million. One of the most powerful tools in Chapter 11 bankruptcy is the debtor’s ability to cancel contracts. Now that LIV has filed for bankruptcy, it can go through its player roster, contract by contract, and decide which deals still make financial sense. Then, LIV can offer players a choice: renegotiate with the league by swapping guaranteed cash for equity in LIV 2.0 or face flat-out rejection. A reorganized version of the company is expected to be majority-owned by the players.
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CHINA LOOKING TO TOURISM TO BOOST ITS GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT
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China’s economic growth is slowing considerably. China's economic growth slowed sharply between the start of April and end of June as weak domestic demand and the Iran war's impact on oil prices overshadowed the country's strong exports. Official gross domestic product (GDP) figures released in July showed China's economy grew in the second quarter by 4.3 percent, below Beijing's annual target, and after a 5 percent rise in the first quarter. In March, Beijing cut the growth target to a range of 4.5 percent -5 percent, its lowest economic expansion goal since 1991, a move some analysts say has given Beijing space to acknowledge pre-existing economic weakness. One area the Chinese government is planning on to boost the GDP is tourism. China’s latest five-year plan, released this year, calls for making the nation a “tourism powerhouse.” Tourism is a non-threatening, non-political export revenue source.
Morgan Stanley expects China’s tourism and travel revenue which includes all travel: domestic and foreign visitors as well as business travelers, to make up 6.7 percent of the country’s gross domestic product by 2030, compared with 4.8 percent in 2024. If so, China’s tourism revenue would rise to about $1.8 trillion in 2030 from roughly $1 trillion last year. Nearly 23 million foreigners entered China in the first half of 2026, up 20 percent from the same period a year prior, and more than three-quarters of them entered visa-free, according to China’s immigration agency. China received 35 million foreign visitors last year, roughly half as many as the U.S., and international tourists to China spent about $2,200 each, less than two-thirds of what foreign tourists spent in the U.S., according to an analysis by Trip.com, a Chinese online travel platform. Trip.com says there is plenty of room to court foreigners and turn tourism into a bigger growth driver.
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STATES THAT WILL SUFFER THE MOST FROM U.S. – CANADA CONTINUING TRADE WAR
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Canada was the United States’ second biggest trading partner last year, after Mexico. Goods, ranging from dairy to machinery to oil and gas, made up almost 80 percent of the $426 billions of goods and services that flowed from the U.S. to Canada. Some of the heaviest trade with Canada falls to U.S. states that lie along the northern border.
Here is the share of goods exported to Canada vs the rest of the world in 2026 (through July) by state:
- North Dakota: 85 percent (Canada) 15 percent (Rest of the World)
- South Dakota: 48 percent; 52 percent
- West Virginia: 48 percent; 52 percent
- Maine: 47 percent; 53 percent
- Idaho: 41 percent; 59 percent
- Montana: 39 percent; 61 percent
- Michigan: 39 percent; 61 percent
- Missouri: 34 percent; 66 percent
- Wyoming: 32 percent; 68 percent
- Iowa: 30 percent; 70 percent
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MARKET UPDATE - 09/09/2026 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 09/02/2026)
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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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