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Colorado - Thu. 03/20/25 |
A Free Business Publication from Alpine Bank
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DOUGLAS COUNTY LOOKING TO DEVELOP 500-ACRE SPORTS COMPLEX
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On Tuesday, officials in Douglas County revealed their plans for a huge sports complex covering some 500 acres in the Sterling Ranch community that would have a 239,000-square-foot indoor sports complex, a 160,000-square-foot sports dome with a removable roof, four baseball fields and a parking garage. There also would be 17,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space as well as a botanic garden. Called the “Zebulon Regional Sports Complex,” it would be located at Waterton and Moore roads. The proposed project is now part of Douglas County’s Parks, Trails, Historic Resources and Open Space Fund master plan — a voter-approved .17 percent sales tax supporting recreational development. The fund would largely support Zebulon’s development, but the price tag has yet to be determined.
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AMONG ALL THE CHANGES AT DIA, UPGRADES TO AIRLINE LOUNGES
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In keeping with a trend across the country, in which luxury airport lounges are becoming a major focus of airports, airlines are expanding and upgrading their lounges at Denver International Airport. Delta Airlines will build a bigger Sky Club facility on Concourse A, which will include a premier bar. It is due to open this fall. American Airlines is upgrading its Admirals Club Lounge on Concourse C, including a children’s playroom and dining booths. United Airlines’ United Club on Concourse B is expanding, with wellness rooms for meditation and prayer, five messaging Vestaboards and a new bar featuring local craft beers on tap. Entry to airline lounges typically comes from amassing frequent flier points, purchasing first-class tickets, or holding exclusive credit cards. There is a new American Centurion Lounge on Concourse C for premium American Express card holders and a Capital One Lounge on Concourse A.
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UNDER CANVAS UNDERTAKING $50 MILLION EXPANSION
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Under Canvas Inc., the luxury camping firm owned by Denver private equity firm KSL Capital Partners, plans to open two more sites for the coming 2025 camping season as part of a $50 million expansion. Under Canvas will open an 80-acre glamping site May 15 in California’s Yosemite National Park about 10 minutes from the west entrance to the park at the Big Oak Flat Information Station. The site will be accessible through a stop on the Yosemite Area Regional Transportation system.
On May 29, Under Canvas plans to open a 120-acre campsite along the Columbia River Gorge in Washington's White Salmon River Valley, located about an hour from Portland. The two new locations bring the company’s total destinations to 13 campsites primarily in U.S. national parks and national monuments. Other locations include Yellowstone National Park, Glacier National Park, Mount Rushmore, Great Smoky Mountains, the Grand Canyon, Moab, Utah and Acadia National Park in Maine. Under Canvas is also the owner of Utah-based Ulum resorts, which debuted a location in Moab, Utah in Spring 2023.
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NO SURPRISE, DENVER GOES DANCING: BALL ARENA SOLD OUT FOR NCAA PLAYOFF GAMES
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Once again, the Big Dance at Ball Arena is sold out. NCAA men’s basketball first- and second-round games at Ball Arena this weekend sold out for the second time in three years, officials at the Mountain West Conference, the hosting body for the tourney in Denver, said Tuesday. Denver is hosting a pod in the NCAA East region and one in the South region. First-round games are slated for Thursday and second-round tilts for Saturday that feature: Wisconsin, Montana, BYU, VCU, Texas A&M, Yale, Michigan and UC San Diego. It’s the 11th Big Dance in Denver since the bracket expanded to 64 teams in 1985, and the sixth time since 1999 the metro has been home to the first two rounds of March Madness.
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FRONTIER AIRLINES JABS AT SOUTHWEST BY ANNOUNCING “NO FEE FOR CHECKED BAGS”
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Just days after Southwest Airlines announced it was giving up its long-standing policy of not charging for checked bags, Frontier Airlines jumped right in. Southwest Airlines has long been the only major U.S. carrier that allowed two free checked bags for all passengers. However, starting May 28, 2025, that policy will change, marking a significant shift for travelers who relied on Southwest for baggage savings. On Tuesday, Frontier Airlines said customers can receive a bundle that includes a seat assignment and a carry-on bag without an upcharge if they book Tuesday through March 24 for travel through Aug. 18. The promotion applies for nonstop trips booked on Frontier’s website or app. For flights departing May 28 through Aug. 18, Frontier said it would include a free checked bag, if booked with promo code FREEBAG.
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THE FED HOLDS STEADY, MARKETS SHOW RELIEF WITH ALL INDEXES RISING
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The Federal Reserve in its March meeting Wednesday held steady its benchmark federal-funds rate at around 4.3 percent at its policy meeting as it assesses the impact of the policies of the Trump administration on trade, immigration, spending and taxes. “We think it’s a good time for us to await for further clarity,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a news conference Wednesday. Investors were heartened that Powell didn’t signal a more aggressive stance toward potential tariff-related price hikes. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.9 percent, or about 380 points. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite rose more than 1 percent each.
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WARREN BUFFETT IS A MASTER OF MARCH MADNESS, TO THE TUNE OF $1 MILLION
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People across the country are filling out brackets and entering all types of contests surrounding the NCAA Basketball Tournament. By far it is the sporting event that generates the most wagering in the U.S. The amount projected to be legally wagered this year is $3.1 billion, but that pales in comparison with the amount wagered informally in office pools, among friends, or at neighborhood bars. In 2024, the total projected wager on March Madness, including bracket pools and other informal bets, was around $15.5 billion.
Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, has been running a March Madness bracket challenge for employees for years, and this year it’s a little easier to win. Employees of the conglomerate can win $1 million if they correctly pick winners of 30 out of the tournament’s 32 first-round games, which are played today and Friday. Last year, it took a perfect first-round bracket, picking all 32 winners to be awarded $1 million. Back in 2016, Buffett offered a prize of $1 million a year for the employee’s lifetime if they had a perfect bracket for the first two rounds, but no employee won the grand prize. An employee can still score that mega-payout this year by holding onto a perfect bracket for the first 48 games.
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MANNA, THE STREET DOG COALITION HOST FREE VET CLINICS IN DURANGO
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Last week, Manna Soup Kitchen and the Street Dog Coalition held a clinic offering free vaccinations and veterinary services for pets at the parking lot at the Manna Soup Kitchen, 1100 Avenida Del Sol in downtown Durango. It was the second year Manna and the Street Dog Coalition have offered the clinics. In addition to checkups, vaccinations and antibiotics for dogs and cats, pet owners were also able to pick up vouchers to have their pets spayed and neutered at the Durango Humane Society. There will be three more clinics this year: Friday, June 6, 2025; Friday, Sept. 5, 2025; and Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. The clinics are from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Manna Soup Kitchen. The Street Dog Coalition was founded in Fort Collins in 2015, and now operates programs in more than 60 cities across the U.S. The coalition is funded from donations and there are in-kind contributions from companies like Merck and Hill’s.
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ICONIC YELLOW AND ORANGE FLIGHT FOR LIFE HELICOPTERS TO HAVE NEW LOOK
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The Flight for Life brand, with its iconic yellow and orange aircraft, has been synonymous with air medical transport for more than 50 years. That is about to change as the new owner and operator of the brand, CommonSpirit Health, announced a new design Monday. Flight for Life has seven ambulances, three airplanes and six helicopters providing medical air transport. There is one helicopter based at Mercy Hospital in Durango and a plane based at the Durango-La Plata County Airport. Today, the aircraft are branded with the Flight for Life name and some bear the name of their home location. The new branding will boldly feature the CommonSpirit name on the fuselage, along with the Flight for Life name in smaller text over a paint job that fades from pink at the nose of the aircraft to a purple at the tail.
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VAIL VALLEY FOUNDATION HOPES TO BREAK GROUND ON CHILDCARE CENTER IN JULY
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Monday, representatives of the Vail Valley Foundation provided the Eagle County commissioners with an update on the planned early childhood center in Avon. The fundraising for childcare and other purposes is about halfway to its $72 million target and included in the planned projects is a $13 million childcare center in Avon. The land for that center is located on town-owned property in Avon’s Traer Creek area, halfway between City Market and Walmart. The town is providing the 3.5-acre parcel for the center on a 49-year lease, with a pair of 10-year extensions built into the contract. The proposed center will sit on property once envisioned for a school site, but the Eagle County School District has agreed it won’t use the property. The center, which has passed review with the Village at Avon’s design review board, will be roughly 13,000 square feet and can accommodate 165 children up to age 5. Groundbreaking is expected in July.
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WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO? THE JAPANESE DRINKING WHISKY NOT SAKE?
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It is known as “the” liquor of Japan…sake. The rice-based liquor is fundamental to the culture and the Japanese have been drinking sake since the eighth century. It was believed that sake warded off ghosts. Today, however, sake sales are struggling, with some measures indicating sake consumption has fallen by more than 75 percent since the 1970s, and 30 percent in the past decade. Although beer is responsible for some of the change, the primary reason for the change in drinking patterns in Japan is due to whisky. (The Japanese use the Scottish spelling.)
Between 2015 and 2020, domestic whisky sales increased 50 percent. Japanese drinkers spent USD$3.5 billion on whisky in 2023. Whisky is now deeply entrenched in the drinking culture of Japan. It can be traced back to Masataka Taketsuru, revered as the godfather of Japanese whisky, who traveled to Scotland in 1919 to serve an apprenticeship before returning to help found Japan’s first distilleries. The spirit has had its ups and downs since then, but consumption really took off when people began adding soda and ice. That is a true asset for neighborhood taverns, or izakaya, during the hot and humid summer months.
Many traditional sake brewers are now pivoting to whisky, attracted not only by strong domestic demand but the high prices premium varieties can command overseas. A bottle of Suntory’s Yamazaki whisky, aged for 55 years, can command close to $1 million. Yoichiro Nishi, an eighth-generation sake and shochu producer, opened Ontake Distillery in 2019. Nishi is one of many newcomers to the industry. In 2016, there were 10 whisky distilleries in Japan. Today there are nearly 130.
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NEW ZEALAND’S FISH OF THE YEAR IS THE “WORLD’S UGLIEST ANIMAL”
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The Mountain to Sea Conservation Trust in New Zealand holds an annual competition to name a Fish of the Year, in its efforts to raise awareness for the country’s freshwater and marine life. This year’s victor?
The blobfish
- The blobfish took the coveted title by garnering about 1,300 out of the more than 5,000 votes cast
- The blobfish is better known for being the “World’s Ugliest Animal,” pulling down that honor as the mascot for the Ugly Animal Preservation Society in 2013
- The blobfish actually resembles a normal fish when in its deep-water habitat, living at depths of 2,000-4,000 feet, but when caught and rapidly brought to the surface its body deforms into its better-known mushy shape
- In second place was the orange roughy, which appeared on the way to a victory before a few local radio hosts began promoting the blobfish
- The radio personalities said of the blobfish, "He has been bullied his whole life and we thought, 'Stuff this, it's time for the blobfish to have his moment in the sun', and what a glorious moment it is!"
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MARKET UPDATE - 03/19/2025 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 03/13/2025)
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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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