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Colorado - Wed. 03/26/25 |
A Free Business Publication from Alpine Bank
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MAJOR EXPANSION DEBUTING AT FAMED COLORADO HOT SPRINGS RESORT
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The Springs Resort, in Pagosa Springs, is going through "a transformative expansion" — doubling the heated pools along the terrace overlooking the San Juan River. The expansion, debuting in April, includes 78 more hotel rooms, a two-level spa, new immersive experiences and a health-oriented restaurant set to open in May. The expansion is situated downriver from the property visitors have come to know, famed for housing what's believed to be the world's deepest geothermal spring, the so-called Mother Spring. A room grants 24-hour access to the pools, but one does not need an overnight reservation to soak.
The expansion was announced with 25 more pools, including both family-friendly and adults-only areas. Among additions is an activity pool to host aqua yoga, floating meditation and sound bathing. The Grotto is billed as a "secluded" soak; Cold Rush as an "invigorating" soak harnessing the San Juan River; and Contrast Falls as a "contrast experience," blending hot water with the river.
The expansion comes at a time of major investments across Colorado's hot springs:
- Steamboat Springs' Old Town Hot Springs is aiming to open new pools this year, with other upgrades part of a $10 million capital campaign.
- Recent years have also seen expansions to Glenwood Hot Springs Resort and nearby Iron Mountain Hot Springs.
- Durango Hot Springs has seen a major redevelopment, as has Desert Reef Hot Springs near Florence.
- Last year, a new destination opened in Buena Vista: Charlotte Hot Springs.
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DENVER SUBURB OF 2,600 RESIDENTS DUBBED 'BEST PLACE TO LIVE' IN COLORADO
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A tiny pocket of Denver, that's home to only about 2,600 residents was recently dubbed one of the 'best places to live' in America by Niche.com. In their 2025 ranking, the Denver suburb of Holly Hills was named the best place to live in Colorado and the 47th-best place to live nationwide among 50,055 American places included in the report. Each year, Niche.com publishes their list of the best places to live in the U.S., focusing on a wide range of factors related to life from crime rates to cost of living to public schools to local job opportunities, and more.
The enclave is a sort of island amid Denver County, considered to be located in and managed by Arapahoe County. Holly Hills is located by James A. Bible Park, just northeast of Cherry Hills Village on the metro area's southeast side. According to Niche.com, the median home value of Holly Hills is $637,100, with 85 percent of the local population owning the place they live. Niche.com's 'best place to live' nationwide was Colonial Village, which is a neighborhood in Arlington, Virginia. A second Colorado spot didn't make Niche.com's 'best places to live' ranking until the 310th spot – Cherry Creek, also a suburb in southeast Denver.
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DENVER COUNCIL UPS 911 FEES, SETS NEWEST HOLIDAY
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This year, Denverites will get a new city holiday and a bump in their monthly phone bill. Denver City Council voted unanimously Monday night to establish Indigenous Peoples’ Day as a paid city holiday and to increase monthly fees for the city’s 911 emergency telephone charge. Beginning Monday, Oct. 13, Indigenous Peoples' Day will become an official paid holiday for the City and County of Denver, recurring each second Monday in October thereafter. According to the city's website, eligible city employees currently receive 11 paid holidays, plus one personal holiday. Council members also approved a fee hike to improve the city’s emergency 911 response time and shore up the 911 Trust. The fee hike, from $1.20 to $2.12 per month, would begin June 1 and apply to all residents who have a phone, whether landline or mobile, associated with a billing address in the city.
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FIRE DESTROYS PART OF LONGMONT'S HISTORIC SUGAR MILL FACTORY
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Firefighters continued to douse hot spots Tuesday after a two-story building in the old sugar factory complex on Sugar Mill Road near Longmont became fully engulfed in flames. Mountain View Fire Rescue and Longmont Fire Dept. responded to the fire just after midnight, but due to the building’s instability and hazardous conditions, they could not send firefighters inside the building to fight the flames. The 120-year-old property is no stranger to fire, it has seen four other fires since 2016. Crews poured water on the structure, which was believed to be unoccupied, from above to limit the spread of the fire. The fire’s exact cause was undetermined but likely human caused. Further investigation will be tricky because of the structural dangers near the area where the fire likely started. The property, built in 1905, has been abandoned since 1977 and shut off to the public, though the Great Western Sugar Company still uses the silos for sugar storage.
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NEW ON-DEMAND RIDE SERVICE TO LAUNCH IN GLENWOOD SPRINGS THIS MAY
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Starting May 1, the city of Glenwood Springs will launch Ride Glenwood on Demand, a microtransit program allowing riders to request a shared ride using a smartphone app or by phone. The service will run citywide, including West and South Glenwood, and will be available to both residents and visitors. The service will operate Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Each ride will cost $1 per person. Riders can pay through the app or in cash. Those without a smartphone will be able to call a vehicle by phone. The app will function under a regional platform called Ride Roaring Fork, which ties into similar services in nearby towns like Carbondale and Aspen. Glenwood’s system will operate as its own local option within the app. The service will start with four vehicles, including two that are ADA accessible. The program will track ridership patterns to help the city evaluate and adjust the system over time.
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GJEP DROVE $91 MILLION IN ECONOMIC IMPACT IN 2024
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According to its annual report, Grand Junction Economic Partnership helped oversee nine business relocations and expansions that brought 299 new jobs to Mesa County. Not only were new jobs created, but GJEP reports that the annual wage was on average more than $62,000 and an additional 147 jobs are expected to be created in the coming years. In total, GJEP’s activities provided more than $91 million in economic impact in 2024, which is a significant increase over the past two years in which it had an estimated economic impact of $52 million in 2023 and $10.5 million in 2022.
GJEP’s annual report also identifies more than 100 prospects for future business expansion or relocations. There are 131 active prospects in its pipeline, in industries including outdoor, aviation and aerospace, general manufacturing, professional services, construction and technology. In late February, Morgan Mining announced that it would be expanding into Grand Junction and would bring close to 900 jobs to the area in the next eight years.
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REGION RANKED SECOND HIGHEST FOR BEAR CONFLICTS LAST YEAR
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Bears will begin to emerge from hibernation any day. On the heels of a conflict-ridden summer, it’s time to ensure that attractants – trash, livestock and fruit trees chief among them – are secure, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials. Bears will be feeding on spring vegetation, insects and, later in the season, berries. But they’ll go for trash and livestock too, officials warn. CPW Area 15, composed of Montezuma, La Plata, Archuleta and San Juan counties, along with most of Dolores County and parts of Mineral and Hinsdale counties, saw more bear conflict in 2024 than any other region save for Area 8, composed primarily of Pitkin and Eagle counties.
Typically, reports of bear activity peak in Colorado midsummer. There were 133 trash-related incidents reported to the Durango office last year, well over half the total conflicts reported. Officials relocated 17 bears from La Plata County last year and euthanized 14, beating out Pitkin County for most relocation statewide. Fewer than 2 percent of reports led to euthanizations across Colorado. CPW is asking anyone who spots a bear or is involved in a bear conflict to call the Durango office at 970-247-0855. CPW is once again soliciting applications for its Human-Bear Conflict Reduction Community Grant Program. Bear Smart Durango previously secured a $90,000 award through the program to reduce human-bear conflict in the Durango area. Applications close May 31.
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XTERRA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP RETURNING TO U.S. IN 2026
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After spending the last four years in Italy, the XTERRA World Championships will return to U.S. soil for its 30th-anniversary. After the 2025 iteration is held in Molveno this fall, the world’s most prestigious off-road triathlon race will move to Ruidoso, New Mexico for 2026, 2027 and 2028. XTERRA Worlds was held in Hawaii from its inception in 1996 until 2021. It moved to Molveno, Italy in 2022, where it has been held for the last three years and will be once again Sept. 25-28.
The third XTERRA Youth World Championships will come to Ruidoso as well. Youth A athletes (ages 14-15) will contest a 400-meter swim, 8-kilometer bike and 2-kilometer run, while Youth B (16-17) and Junior (18-19) jump up to a 750-meter swim, 15-kilometer bike and 5-kilometer run. The world championship long distance course begins with a 1.5-kilometer swim in Grindstone Lake before the 30-kilometer bike leg kicks off with a lap around the lake. After a 5.5-kilometer climb to the summit of Grindstone Mesa, riders will receive well-earned views of Sierra Blanca Peak above and Mescalero Lake below. Ruidoso, a village set in the Sierra Blanca mountain range near Ski Apache Resort with a population of just under 8,000 residents, sits at an elevation of 6,739 feet.
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ROUTT COUNTY 31st ANNUAL ECONOMIC SUMMIT SET FOR MAY 9 AT CMC
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Registration is open for Routt County’s 31st annual Economic Summit, scheduled for 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Friday, May 9 at Colorado Mountain College in Steamboat Springs. Organized by the Steamboat Springs Chamber, Routt County Economic Development Partnership and CMC, this event brings together diverse stakeholders to explore the local and regional economic landscape. Justin Farrell, Yale professor and writer on nature and American culture, will headline the event with insights from his book, “Billionaire Wilderness.” This year’s summit features new sessions on transportation, economic resilience and perspectives from the city of Aspen. Additional highlights include a legislative update and a panel on banking and lending. Tickets are currently priced at $90 for Chamber members and $140 for non-members before fees, with a price increase scheduled for May 3. To register, visit tinyurl.com/yt64vnvc. To view the full agenda and speaker list, visit tinyurl.com/5t4mpjd.
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SILVERTHORNE'S NEW FIRE STATION NOW HAS AN OFFICIAL OPENING DATE
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The finish line is in sight for Summit Fire & EMS as it works on wrapping up years’ worth of work for a new Silverthorne fire station, which officials say is mere months away from being operational. Public information officer Steve Lipsher said the agency will be unveiling the station officially with a grand opening on June 4, but the station could be serving Silverthorne residents even sooner. Now equipped with signage designating it as Summit Fire & EMS Station 10, the next steps before a grand opening include final inspections and furnishing the space. The station will house an ambulance, a fire engine and a brand-new wildfire engine.
The wildfire engine, known as a type six engine, is a four-wheel pickup truck with a water tank that can navigate U.S. Forest Service roads to swiftly respond to a wildfire. Nearly all Summit Fire firefighters have what’s known as a “red card,” or an Interagency Incident Qualification Card, certifying them for wildland fire operations. The station will respond to events in Silverthorne and north of the town all the way to the Grand County line, including U.S. Forest Service lands. Lipsher said there’s a northern part of the county that, as a whole, isn’t technically in the district, but certain households have opted into the district. For more information, visit SummitFire.org/silverthorne-fire-station-updates.
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TEN BEST PLACES TO INVEST IN SHORT-TERM RENTALS IN THE U.S.
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Starting a short-term rental business in buzzy destinations like Destin, Florida or Vail, Colorado has a lot of appeal, but a new report says that some of the small and mid-sized cities across America might be the better place to start. In January, AirDNA released a report that ranks the best places to invest in short-term rentals and it found that small cities and rural areas saw a 16 percent increase in short-term rental listings, while mid-sized cities grew by 10.3 percent. To rank the cities, AirDNA analyzed over 540,000 properties currently for sale as of Jan. 1, 2025, and calculated the potential rental income for each property relative to its listing price. Some of the other factors considered included growth in revenue per short-term rental listing in the past year and the number of nights rentals were booked.
The 10 best places to invest in short-term rentals:
- Peoria, Ill.
- Fairbanks, Ala.
- Akron, Ohio
- Columbus, Ga.
- Crescent City, Calif.
- Shreveport, La.
- Page, Ariz.
- Rockford, Ill.
- Dayton, Ohio
- Frankfort, Ky.
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MARKET UPDATE - 03/25/2025 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 03/20/2025)
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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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