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Colorado - Mon. 04/07/25 |
A Free Business Publication from Alpine Bank
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MORE INFORMATION ON THE SALE OF THE BOULDERADO HOTEL
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In the week following the initial announcement of the sale of the iconic Boulderado Hotel on March 31, more information has been released about the sale and the future of the property which opened on New Years Day, 1909. AJ Capital Partners, a real estate and hospitality company based in Nashville, Tennessee, paid $102 million for the property at 2115 13th Street in downtown Boulder. After the renovation of the property, which will be done in partnership with the former owners Frank and Gina Day, the 160-room property will join the Graduate by Hilton collection, which was founded by AJ Capital Partners in 2014 and acquired by Hilton in 2024. The Graduate collection of hotels number 35, are located in collegiate towns, and feature the memorabilia, images and flavor of the local universities, including Ann Arbor, Michigan; Auburn, Alabama; Athens, Georgia; Austin, Texas; and other university towns across the U.S. This will be the first Graduate hotel in Colorado.
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CDOT WILL CLOSE I-25 AT NIGHT THIS SUMMER FOR REPAVING
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The Colorado Dept. of Transportation announced that there will be nightly closures on Interstate 25 beginning this week (April 6) and continuing until January. The closure is to allow repaving and improving the surface of a five-mile stretch of the highway between Alameda Avenue and 44th Avenue in central Denver. The project will also replace 2,700 linear feet of old concrete barrier segments with new ones along sections of I-25 next to the South Platte River between the U.S. 6 on-ramp to southbound I-25 and the end of the southbound I-25 off-ramp to Alameda Avenue.
The schedule: from April 6 to late May, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., between Sundays and Thursdays, crews will replace barriers along southbound I-25 between the U.S. 6 ramp to Alameda Avenue. This will require closings of the east and westbound U.S. 6 on-ramps to southbound I-25 and the southbound I-25 off-ramp to Alameda Avenue; May to late October, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. between Sundays and Thursdays, a single lane closure will begin at 9 p.m. and then up to three lanes will be closed in each direction a few hours later on I-25 between Alameda and 44th avenues. For complete information on detours and the project, go to codot.gov/projects.
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THE WEATHER CHANNEL BRINGS ITS “WRECKER SHOWS” TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
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Aside from 24-hour weather coverage, The Weather Channel has featured action-packed series involving wreckers traveling roads across Canada like “Highway Thru Hell” and “Heavy Rescue 401,” to open roads closed by overturned tractor-trailers, or recover automobiles at the bottom of canyons or buried in mud. Now, The Weather Channel will have a docuseries that is closer to home, “Rocky Mountain Wreckers,” a 10-episode series, shot over the past two years set on Interstate 70, I-25, I-80 and I-15. The featured wreckers are the Silverthorne-based Mountain Recovery team, along with Reliable Towing of Longmont, Stauffer’s Towing & Recovery in Utah, and Big Al’s Towing in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Great Pacific Media, the company behind the 13-season “Highway Thru Hell” series, produced the upcoming “Rocky Mountain Wreckers” series. Rocky Mountain Wreckers premiers April 13, with episodes 1 and 2 airing back-to-back at 6 p.m. MT. New episodes will air every Sunday at that time.
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DIA: WORKING TOWARD COLORADO AEROTROPOLIS
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Starting as a small airfield, Denver’s Stapleton Airport became the city’s main airport in 1929. By the 1980s, it was too small and outdated to meet the needs of Denver, so the city annexed more than 50 square miles of land from Adams County to create Denver International Airport, which opened in February 1995. DIA served more than 80 million passengers in 2024, and OAG ranks it as the 10th-busiest airport in the world as of April 2025. But its size remains staggering. Only Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd International Airport owns more land than DIA.
DIA has more than 16,000 acres of non-aviation land available for commercial development, with a development plan with seven districts: 40th and Airport Commuter Rail Station, 61st and Peña Station, Second Creek Campus, 72nd and Himalaya, West Approach, East Approach and the Aeroindustrial District. These districts will feature a variety of mixed-use developments and transit-oriented designs, accommodating businesses like retail, hospitality, restaurants, entertainment, professional services, technology, agribusiness, research and development, light industrial and advanced manufacturing. The planned development was labeled as "Colorado Aerotropolis" last year by DIA officials, and includes eight partners: Adams County, DIA, Aurora, the City and County of Denver and Adams County cities Federal Heights, Thornton, Brighton and Commerce City.
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LEGISLATURE, INSURANCE INDUSTRY AGREE ON BILL ON WILDFIRE RISK REGULATION
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On Friday, the Colorado Senate passed HB 1182, “Tools to assess risk for the purpose of underwriting property insurance policies,” designed to give homeowners more credit for steps they take in wildfire mitigation and to reduce the risk of wildfire. The bill has been passed by the Colorado House and is now on the way to Gov. Polis for his signature. The bill requires insurance carriers to consider mitigation efforts when assessing a homeowner’s wildfire risk and requires insurance companies to explain to homeowners how risk is calculated and what homeowners can do to lower it and allow homeowners to appeal their risk score.
The insurance industry proposed several amendments which were incorporated into the bill, including: holding homeowners’ mitigation efforts to an industry-recognized standard, such as the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety’s Wildfire Prepared Home program. The program certifies homes that meet a set of criteria as being “wildfire-resilient” and is currently recognized by insurance carriers in California and Oregon as a way to lower premiums.
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CSP ISSUES “OUT OF SERVICE” CITATIONS FOR FIRST TIME IN WEEKLY STOP PROGRAM
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In the weekly report of its chain enforcement program on the mountain corridor of Interstate 70, the Colorado State Patrol said that seven commercial vehicles have been temporarily prohibited from continuing operations after being cited for violations. It is the first time since CSP began its weekly chain law enforcement that so many commercial vehicles have been prohibited from continuing service. The report covered the weekly operation held on April 3 with officers from the Colorado State Patrol, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Parachute Police Dept. and Vail Police Dept., making contact with 220 commercial vehicles and issuing 14 total citations to those who failed to comply with the state’s chain law. Commercial vehicles can be placed out of service for several safety violations including defective brakes, steering, lighting, or if a driver has violated their hours of service. The commercial vehicles will be allowed to operate once the violation is corrected.
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ASPEN HURRIES TO PREPARE LARGE PRESCRIBED BURN FACING DRY SPRING CONDITIONS
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The National Weather Service rates conditions in the Roaring Fork Valley as “abnormally dry,” and to reduce hazardous fuels and improve forest health, the U.S. Forest Service is preparing for a prescribed burn covering 900 acres on the south face of Red Mountain in Aspen within a few weeks, depending on weather and fuel conditions. The long-range forecast is for Aspen to be below the average precipitation this summer, but the major factor will be whether monsoon moisture arrives. The prescribed burn will be conducted over one-to-three days, with ignition operations lasting four-to-six hours a day. The burn is planned for the Sunnyside fire and eastern containment zone, and a fire line has already been dug. If weather conditions do not permit a safe ignition this spring, the operation will be postponed to 2026 or later. Updates will be posted on the White River National Forest website, Facebook page, PitkinAlert system, and the ReachWell app.
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EGE TO BEGIN SEASONAL SERVICE TO JFK IN NEW YORK IN DECEMBER WITH DELTA
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Delta Air Lines announced that it will begin nonstop seasonal service from Eagle County Regional Airport to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport beginning Dec. 20, 2025. The flight will operate on Saturdays through March 28, 2026, on a Boeing 757 aircraft, which seats about 200 people and is a larger aircraft than most planes flying in and out of EGE. The majority of aircraft using EGE are Boeing 737s or Airbus A320s, which seat about 150 passengers. In the announcement, Delta said that the December JFK-EGE flights are now loaded in its system and are available to book as of April 5.
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APPROVALS IN PLACE, WORK TO BEGIN ON MAD RABBIT TRAIL PROJECT
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The U.S. Forest Service has signed off on the proposed Mad Rabbit Trail Project, with work to begin “as soon as possible.” The project area covers some 127,124 acres in the Mad Creek, Rocky Peak, Gunn Creek, Buffalo Pass, Fish Creek, Rabbit Ears Pass and Steamboat Resort area, including roughly 49 miles of new trails. In addition to creating new trails, the project will also add restrictions designed to limit bikes to designated trails, improve winter trailheads to accommodate summer use and add seasonal human-entry restrictions in certain areas to protect local elk populations. To see the trails and restrictions, go to fs.usda.gov/project/mbr/?project=50917.
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DOE SECRETARY HAS PLAN FOR PUBLIC-PRIVATE DATA CENTER AT NREL SITE IN GOLDEN
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Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright, a former Denver oil industry executive, was back in Colorado, in Golden, last Thursday announcing his plans to build a large data center at the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Lab. Wright’s plan is to colocate Artificial Intelligence data centers, which process massive amounts of computational power and require large amounts of energy, on 16 sites owned by his federal agency. The colocation of large data centers needed for AI with the power infrastructure they require in one spot is designed to prevent data centers from overwhelming the power grid. Wright, speaking at the NREL, laid out a plan whereby a private company could lease a data center site from the DOE, or allocate computing power to pay the government, and onsite power generation would be established to handle the data centers’ electrical needs.
Wright said his agency is collecting information from data center companies and the DOE aims to have data centers colocated with federal labs and begin operations as soon as 2027. At the NREL site, the identified location for the colocated operations would be NREL's 305-acre Flatiron Campus wind technology test center in the foothills on the Boulder and Jefferson county line. The site could support a 100-megawatt data center by this year, if a private operator were so inclined, according to DOE documents. The campus' proximity to cities and universities with a highly educated workforce renders the site an attractive option, the DOE said. Slightly west of the Flatirons Campus is 11 acres owned by NREL, which would be an ideal place for a data center, according to the DOE.
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COLORADO HAS 10BEST RUNNING AND BIKE RACES
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Colorado is a hotbed for running and cycling, and readers and experts in the USA TODAY 10BEST Reader’s Choice Awards placed Colorado races in its 2025 rankings. There were no Colorado marathons that made the listings or any fun runs, but Colorado events made the top 10 lists for 5K, half-marathons, sprint triathlons and road cycling.
In 10Best 5Ks:
- No. 7: Boulderthon Heart to Heart 5K, Boulder
10Best half-marathons:
- No. 9: Slacker Half Marathon, Loveland Ski Area to Georgetown
10Best sprint triathlons:
- No. 5: Colorado Triathlon, Boulder
10Best road cycling events:
- No. 10: Triple Bypass, Evergreen
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EXCITING, NEW HOTELS SERVING NATIONAL PARKS IN THE WEST, INCLUDING COLORADO
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The national parks in the West are locations where visitors look to hike, camp and explore beautiful natural settings. Although the parks themselves have legendary lodges, such as the Ahwahnee in Yosemite, the Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone and the El Tovar Hotel at the edge of the Grand Canyon, some of the accommodations outside the parks were some version of camping or properties with limited services. That has changed with the creation of several luxurious boutique hotels. Here are some samples:
- Kosmos Stargazing Resort & Spa, Great Sand Dunes: the property is focused on the sky and astronomy, with transparent geodesic domes for rooms, and, of course, telescopes
- Hotel Yellowstone at Jackson Hole: No, not the Yellowstone Lake Hotel, which is in the national park, this is an adults-only lodge in Jackson Hole that opened last year, with scenic views of the Grand Tetons and Snake River Valley and a spa
- Trailborn Grand Canyon: an upscale, 96-room hotel in Williams, Arizona, with a classic western bar, Miss Kitty’s
- Firefall Ranch at Yosemite: located near the northwest entrance to Yosemite, this newly opened property has a mix of cottages and villas in the town of Groveland, California
- Ofland Escalante: a glamping paradise with vintage Airstreams, cabins, and casitas near the small town of Escalante at the edge of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, there is even a drive-in theater on the property
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MARKET UPDATE - 04/04/2025 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 04/03/2025)
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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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