ANOTHER “GOOD-BYE” TO A DENVER LEGEND: CARL’S BONNIE BRAE TAVERN CLOSING

Carl and Sue Dire opened the Bonnie Brae Tavern at 740 S. University Blvd. in Denver in 1934. It was a family-run operation for 88 years. Ricky Dire, the last of the Dires to own the restaurant, with his cousin Michael said its last day will be June 25. The Dire family sold the property at the end of May for $4.5 million. The sale included the 740 S. University Blvd. building, home to the tavern and a dry cleaner, as well as the Wish Gifts building at 750 S. University Blvd. and the surrounding parking spaces. The new owner is Alpine Investments, led by Churchill Bunn, and Revesco Properties, led by Rhys Duggan, who plan to build apartments on the site. Monday, June 6, was the tavern’s 88th anniversary. The business didn’t mark the occasion; it’s closed on Mondays.

INTERIOR SAYS NO MORE PLASTIC BOTTLES, SINGLE-USE PRODUCTS

Secretary Deb Haaland announced, on Wednesday, that federally-managed lands, including national parks, will phase out use of plastic bottles and single-use products, with complete elimination of those items by 2032. In her announcement of the policy, Haaland said, “As the steward of the nation’s public lands, including national parks and national wildlife refuges, and as the agency responsible for the conservation and management of fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats, we are uniquely positioned to do better for our Earth.” The move will shift to materials made of paper, cloth, glass or metals which would be far better for the environment, according to the announcement from the Dept. of the Interior.

SPIRIT POSTPONES SHAREHOLDER MEETING TO DISCUSS COMPETING BIDS

Spirit Airlines Inc. has postponed its scheduled stockholder meeting from Friday to June 30. The postponement comes as Spirit is weighing competing bids for mergers between Frontier Group Holdings and JetBlue Airways Corp. Spirit said it still recommends that shareholders adopt the merger with Frontier which was agreed to in February in a deal valued at $2.9 billion. In May, JetBlue launched a hostile takeover bid after Spirit rejected JetBlue’s first competing bid of $3.6 billion.

ASPEN TO POLL VOTERS ON STR TAX

In a work session this week, the Aspen City Council agreed to poll voters in July about which questions to place on the November ballot. The poll would ask voters whether they would support a tax on short-term vacation rentals and how the proceeds should be spent. Council members were generally supportive of a 13 percent STR tax to be paid by guests of STRs, with the revenue going toward worker housing, the environment and capital infrastructure. However, before placing an issue on the November ballot, the council would like to receive input from the public on the identified uses for the new tax, and what the preferred tax rate is.

WILL THE MONSOONS BE BACK THIS SUMMER?

Mark Miller, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, discussed the prospects for summer monsoonal rains Tuesday during a meeting in Grand Junction hosted by the NWS to discuss planning and preparation for possible flooding with area emergency planners and the Colorado Dept. of Transportation. Miller said the current La Niña conditions generally produce above-normal monsoonal rainfall in Arizona, New Mexico and western Colorado. The NWS in Grand Junction has been trying to issue flash flood watches for Glenwood Canyon in time for CDOT to position personnel in preparation for carrying out safety closures of the highway should a flash flood warning be issued. The weather service’s goal is to issue warnings at least 30 minutes ahead of storms.

DURANGO HAS NEW SUSTAINABILITY PLAN

Durango City Council Tuesday adopted a new sustainability plan to guide greenhouse gas reduction efforts and resource conservation strategies as the city braces for projected impacts of climate change between 2020 and 2050. The new plan replaces the sustainability plan adopted in 2015 and will track the city's progress across five sectors: water; energy; transportation and development patterns; consumption and waste; and natural systems and ecology. Durango will launch a green business certification and grant program. The new program will provide grants of $1,000 to $5,000 to community members and organizations that create sustainability programs. More information is available at durangogov.org/sustainability.

TOWN OF VAIL RECEIVES RESULTS OF BIANNUAL SURVEY

Chris Cares, the founder and managing director of market research firm RRC Associates, presented the Vail Town Council with results from the biannual town survey. Almost 1,500 residents, property owners, business owners and employees responded to the biannual survey this spring and there were nearly 11,000 pages of written responses and comments. The impacts of the COVID pandemic were apparent, but overall, the satisfaction with the town's handling of COVID-19 precautions and information was high. There were a number of questions dealing with housing and the responses were mixed, with a large percentage (31 percent) responding that they had no opinion or didn’t know enough about what the town was doing for housing. Respondents gave overwhelming support to the need for the town to work with Vail Resorts in the areas of workforce housing, parking and guest experience.

STEAMBOAT OFFICIALLY ADOPTS STR LICENSING AND ZONES

The Steamboat Springs City Council Tuesday unanimously approved ordinances that will implement regulations on short-term rentals. Licensing requirements and the overlay zone map will be implemented to the city’s development code within the coming week. The ordinances go into effect next week and following that, STR-rental owners will have a six-month grace period to apply for one of the new licenses or apply for legal nonconforming status. People who wish to rent out residential property for less than 30 days at a time will now have to procure a short-term rental license every 12 months.

EU WILL REQUIRE COMMON CHARGER FOR ALL NEW SMARTPHONES, TABLETS, LAPTOPS

The European Union reached an agreement that will require all new smartphones, tablets and laptops to use a common charger by 2026. Consumers know well the frustration of multiple chargers…some for Apple devices, others for Android cell phones and still others for portable speakers or hand-held gaming systems. By 2024, all new mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, hand-held video game devices, headphones, portable speakers, keyboards, mice, earbuds and other portable devices will need USB-C charging ports, the European Commission announced. By 2026, the law will apply to laptops.
Companies will also be required to sell devices without a charger to reduce the number of chargers in circulation. The European Commission, the executive body of the 27-nation bloc, said discarded and unused chargers produce 11,000 tons of waste each year. The new EU regulation is an unprecedented move by a government regulator to enforce product design decisions. The new law had been opposed by companies, including Apple, which said it would prevent new charging technologies from being developed. Thierry Breton, the European commissioner who helped negotiate the deal, said, “A common charger is common sense for the many electronic devices in our daily lives."

THE WORLD'S BIGGEST DEALS FOR SPORTS FRANCHISES

The past two months have seen the two biggest deals ever made for the sale of sports franchises, with the pending sale of the Denver Broncos announced yesterday. In the last week of May it was announced that a consortium headed by Todd Boehly completed the deal for the takeover of the Premier League football club Chelsea for £4.25 billion, or about USD$5.3 billion. The deal for the Denver Broncos is reported to be worth $4.65 billion. With those numbers, here are the biggest deals for sports franchises:

1. Chelsea: $5.3 billion, May 2022
2. Denver Broncos: $4.65 billion, June 2022
3. New York Mets: $2.4 billion, Sept. 2020
4. Carolina Panthers: $2.3 billion, 2018
5. Houston Rockets: $2.2 billion, 2017
6. Los Angeles Clippers: $2.0 billion, 2014
7. Los Angeles Dodgers: $2.0 billion, 2012
8. Manchester United: $1.5 billion, 2005
9. Buffalo Bills: $1.4 billion, 2014
10. Miami Marlins: $1.2 billion, 2017