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Colorado - Mon. 10/21/24 |
A Free Business Publication from Alpine Bank
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ALTERRA, A-BASIN DEAL STILL UNDER DOJ INVESTIGATION
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Alterra Mountain Co., a ski industry giant that owns the Ikon Pass and resorts around the world, including Colorado’s Winter Park Resort and Steamboat Ski Resort, announced earlier this year it had struck a deal to purchase Arapahoe Basin from Toronto-based Dream Unlimited Corp. The acquisition of A-Basin would be Alterra's 19th resort purchase. It now appears the deal will not be completed by the start of the 2024-25 ski season as it is still under investigation by the U.S. Dept. of Justice. The investigation is a normal practice in the acquisition process. In 1997, the Justice Dept. stopped Broomfield-based Vail Resorts, which today is Alterra’s biggest direct competitor, from buying A-Basin. The DOJ and Colorado's Attorney General at the time opposed the deal, arguing that a lack of competition among ski areas for Front Range skier visits would result in “fewer and smaller discounts on lift tickets.”
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OPEN INSURANCE TIME, COSTS UP SLIGHTLY
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Open enrollment for Medicare, the federal coverage program for individuals over 65 or younger individuals with a disability, began on Oct. 15 and will end on Dec. 7. Open enrollment begins on Nov. 1 for Colorado’s individual and small group health insurance plans. More information on the 2025 plans, premiums and financial assistance will be available Oct. 22 on Connect for Health Colorado, the state’s marketplace for health insurance. Coloradans enrolling in individual health insurance plans in 2025 will see an average increase of 5.6 percent. Small-group employers, defined as those with 99 or fewer employees, will have an average increase of around 7 percent. These final rate increases represent lower increases than in previous years.
In 2025, on average, insurance premiums would be around 24 percent higher without this program. These savings are even higher in Colorado’s rural counties, saving around 41 percent in Eagle County, 44 percent in Garfield County, 43 percent in Grand and Pitkin counties, and 40 percent in Routt and Summit counties. In 2025, the individual premium increases are expected to increase by an average of 4.5 percent in Summit County, 3.4 percent in Eagle County, 2.5 percent in Routt County, 7 percent in Grand County, 7.4 percent in Garfield County, and 7.4 percent in Pitkin County. For small employers, the average increase will be 8.7 in Summit, 9.2 percent in Eagle, 7.9 percent in Grand, 8.1 percent in Garfield, 10.2 percent in Routt and 7.1 percent in Pitkin.
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COORS HAS A NEW FACILITY TO ENTER ITS 151ST YEAR
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As Coors is celebrating its 150th anniversary in Golden, Molson Coors held a celebration to toast its “G150” expansion and modernization of the Coors facility on Tuesday. The G150 is a 200,000-square-foot addition to the original Coors site and the label is “G” for Golden and “150” for the company’s 150th anniversary. The change in operations over the 150 years is obvious in the new facility, where high-tech has replaced human labor with its fermenting and storage tanks equipped with self-opening valves and self-cleaning tanks removing the manual labor demands of the older facility. The new facility is operational, but not yet at full capacity, which is expected by 2025. The tech-centered facility will cut the aging process from six weeks to three weeks and save some 80 million gallons of water annually through improved cleaning practices and less wasted beer.
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PRESERVING COLORADO’S CLASSIC CELERY
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For nearly a century, Italian families grew Colorado Pascal celery on small family farms in Arvada. It was reported that U.S. Senator Lawrence Phipps, who represented Colorado from 1919 to 1931, shipped a box of the celery to President Calvin Coolidge for Christmas. Colorado’s 25th governor, William H. Adams, declared the week of Dec. 7-12 as Colorado Pascal Celery Week to boost the market. The local agricultural association provided special commemorative bags for celery shipped to eastern states. Families in Arvada continued to grow celery until World War II hit. The war took a heavy toll on farmers in the area and California began to grow a variety that was less labor intensive than the Colorado Pascal, which was in-ground blanched to suspend chlorophyll. The Spano family in Arvada is one of the few continuing to grow pascal celery and they begin planting seedlings indoors before transferring outside after the last frost. The process is still labor intensive.
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HOW A CITY RECREATES ITSELF: LARIMER STREET - FROM FOUNDING TO RESTORATION
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Denver got its start on Larimer Street between 14th and 15th in the late 1800s. Named Larimer Square for the pioneering General William Larimer, it was the city’s first block, its first commercial district, home to its first residence and first city hall, and was the city’s first designated historic district. It fell into disrepair and older Denverites can remember Larimer Street as skid row. In 1965, Larimer Square Associates began restoring it as a historical and commercial center. The initiative was started by John and Dana Crawford. Then, by 1971, Larimer Square was the first historic district to be designated by Denver’s Landmark Commission in 1971 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. In lower downtown Denver, the block features 24 buildings, some dating back to the late 1800s. Asana Partners purchased Larimer Square in 2020 for $92.49 million, and they gave the area a major facelift, including a pedestrian-friendly street.
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DENVER’S RAMBLE HOTEL MAKES FODOR’S BEST HOTELS LIST
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Of the more than 100,000 hotels in the U.S. and Canada, Fodor’s Travel selected 17 as the best. One Colorado hotel made the list. The Ramble Hotel in Denver was featured in the roundup. Located in Denver's River North district, the "luxurious-feeling, hip boutique hotel" is adorned with vaulted ceilings, tall windows with rich, velvety, dark blue curtains, elegant furniture, chandeliers, and exposed brick facades, according to Fodor's Travel. The 50-room hotel features guest rooms adorned with wide-planked, high-quality wooden flooring, real metal keys and collaborations with Denver-based artists. Guests will also enjoy priority access to the on-site cocktail outpost Death & Co., a renowned NYC cocktail institution, and the other dining establishments throughout the hotel.
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ANOTHER GREAT WEEK FOR STOCKS, DOW AND S&P 500 CLOSE AT RECORD HIGHS
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Both the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged to new record highs Friday, and, with the Nasdaq Composite, the three major indexes ended the week with gains for the sixth straight week. The S&P 500 advanced 0.40 percent to close at 5,864.67. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 36.86 points, or 0.09 percent, to end at 43,275.91. The Nasdaq Composite, led by a post-earnings jump in Netflix, ended the day up 0.63 percent at 18,489.55. The six weeks of advances marked the longest streak of weekly gains in 2024 for both the Dow and S&P 500.
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DRO PUTS OUT A CALL TO ARTISTS IN THE FOUR CORNERS FOR “CULTURAL PIECES”
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Officials of the Durango-La Plata County Airport Friday issued a call to artists of the Four Corners, including southwest Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, to provide murals or other works to be displayed in the airport’s new baggage claim area during the first phase of the DRO expansion project. DRO Aviation Director Tony Vicari said the airport is working with the Durango Creative District to create a selection committee to choose the art pieces to be displayed. The committee will likely include a representative from DRO, the creative district, the city of Durango, La Plata County and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. Vicari said the aim is to find art pieces that best represent and resonate with the “overall cultural vibrancy” of Southwest Colorado and the Four Corners, including neighboring states served by DRO. Only three selections will be made.
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COLORADO RESORTS: STRONG SUMMER, VAIL LEADING IN WINTER BOOKINGS
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DestiMetrics, which provides data on 17 Western U.S. resorts for Inntopia, reported that summer occupancies were very strong, showing a 2.7 percent increase through Sept. 30 over the corresponding period in 2023. There also was a 2.9 percent increase in the daily rate of bookings. However, as of Sept. 30, there was a 20 percent decline in bookings for arrival in November, December and January, compared to the corresponding dates a year ago. Notably, there was only a 1 percent decline in Vail Valley bookings for that early winter period, compared to the same period in 2023.
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VAIL VALLEY REAL ESTATE STILL STRONG
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Real estate sales typically fall off in September after the summer selling season. That was true in the Vail Valley, but even with the fall off, sales and prices remain strong. LIV Sotheby’s International Realty’s Colorado Market Report shows that for September, 89 homes sold in the Vail Valley, down from 97 homes that closed in August. Local home prices cooled slightly, with a median sale price in July of $1,600,000, a dip from $1,675,000 the previous month. The total sales volume for the month was $236,056,581, a 13 percent drop from the $269,800,571 in August. In September 2023, there were 93 sales with a median sales price of $1,890,000.
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CONE ZONE REPORT: U.S. 40 STEAMBOAT TO KREMMLING WILL HAVE DELAYS
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The Colorado Dept. of Transportation advises motorists that there will be delays on U.S. Hwy. 40 this week from Steamboat Springs to Kremmling to allow crews to complete a culvert replacement project. Operations will take place between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday, Oct. 21 through Friday, Oct. 25. Work will take place at mile point 167, approximately one mile east of County Road 282. There will be a temporary traffic signal in place and motorists can expect up to 20-minute delays, full stops and 24/7 one-lane alternating traffic. Motorists are encouraged to check COtrip.org for the most current construction impacts.
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KROENKE PROPOSAL TO REMAKE 64 ACRES AROUND THE BALL CENTER
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The Pepsi Center hosted a Celine Dion concert on Oct. 1, 1999, it was the first event at the arena, now called the Ball Center, and was dedicated to the victims and survivors of the Columbine High School mass shooting in Littleton. Since then, the Pepsi/Ball arena has had almost 3,000 events, with 48 million tickets sold. Now, owner Stan Kroenke’s Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche franchises, has a massive makeover plan for redeveloping the 70 acres surrounding Ball Arena.
On Monday, the Denver City Council will consider the rezoning proposal for the area, along with community benefits agreements. The proposed makeover includes apartments, condos, offices, shopping, parks and other amenities. The Kroenke group also formed a community benefits agreement last week with the Ball Arena Community Benefits Agreement Committee (BACBAC), which was established 15 months ago. The committee, which is intended to govern the proposed Ball Arena redevelopment, is made up of 12 Denver-area organizations, including the Denver Housing Authority, Downtown Denver Partnership, Auraria Higher Education Campus and La Alma/Lincoln Park Neighborhood.
The community benefits agreement requires city council approval. It stipulates the redevelopment must include 1,080 affordable housing units, a percentage of new permanent jobs for low-income Denver residents, and it will provide a $16 million investment fund for arts programming, job training, business development, tenant rental and down-payment assistance, Indigenous community support and support for families displaced by the original construction of the Auraria higher education campus.
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IT’S ALMOST SKI SEASON, HERE ARE THE BIGGEST AREAS
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Colorado ski areas, ranked by skiable acres:
- Vail Mountain: 5,317 skiable acres
- Steamboat Ski & Resort Corp.: 3,741
- Snowmass: 3,342
- Keystone Resort: 3,149
- Winter Park Resort: 3,081
- Breckenridge Ski Resort: 2,908
- Copper Mountain Resort: 2,538
- Beaver Creek Resort: 2,082
- Telluride Ski Resort: 2,000
- Silverton Mountain: 1,819
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MARKET UPDATE - 10/18/2024 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 10/17/2024)
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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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