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Colorado - Thu. 04/24/25 |
A Free Business Publication from Alpine Bank
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WOW! BRITISH COMPANY BRINGING INDOOR ADVENTURE SHOWCASE FACILITY TO DENVER
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What if you could go ice climbing, scuba diving, surfing and spelunking without leaving Denver. That is what a British company is proposing, URWLD has signed agreements with the developers of Fox Park, the development in Globeville, to open a 165,000-square-foot venue that will have some 12 to 15 adventure sports and experiences available to the public. There will be a man-made mountain inside the building for mountaineering, canyoneering and caving. There will be an ice wall comprised of some 305 tons of ice. Surfing will use a deep-water system and a full wave, in addition to a climbing wall and zip line. URWLD will also have meeting space, food and beverage options.
This is a first for URWLD, but the company has plans to expand to other sites around the world. URWLD anticipates attracting 1.2 million visitors, with an average spending level of $50 per visit. As part of the Fox Park development, URWLD will be located in the World Trade Center Complex, which will also have a 250-room Virgin Hotel, 12-story office building and a 14-acre park. At full build-out Fox Park will encompass 41 acres. Work on the World Trade Center complex is expected to begin by the end of this year, with opening in late 2027 or early 2028.
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BRINGING BACK THE BUFFALO (BISON) TO WYOMING
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Jason Baldes is a member of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe and the executive director of the Wind River Buffalo Initiative. For the past decade, Baldes has worked to re-establish buffalo herds on the Wind River Reservation, including many times hauling buffalo from Colorado in a trailer. The Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes share the same land space and now, the Eastern Shoshone have 118 buffalo, and the Northern Arapaho have 97. The Eastern Shoshone this month voted to classify buffalo as wildlife instead of livestock as a way to treat them more like elk or deer rather than like cattle. The Northern Arapaho are expected to vote on the distinction as well.
The vote indicates a growing interest in both restoring buffalo on the landscape and challenging the relationship between animal and product. “Buffalo as wildlife allows the animals to exist on the landscape,” Baldes said, “Rather than livestock based on economic and Western paradigms.” Today, in North America there are roughly 20,000 wild plains bison, like the ones Baldes works to put on the Wind River. But most reside in privately owned operations, where many are raised for the growing bison meat industry.
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XCEL PROPOSES $2 BILLION WILDFIRE MITIGATION PROGRAM TO THE PUC
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Xcel Energy last week put forth a proposal to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission for a $2 billion Wildlife Mitigation Program. It was formulated with 11 organizations, municipalities and companies and as part of the arrangement, Xcel will direct an undisclosed amount of money specifically for the city of Boulder to prioritize the undergrounding of multiple power lines and make “system resiliency” modifications to other Boulder-area power lines. Xcel also agreed to collaborate with the city on “enhanced vegetation management.”
The company's plan is a statewide effort to increase safety, improve response to wildfires caused by power lines, and provide enhanced computer systems and mapping for emergency managers statewide. This includes making an inventory of all power poles, their age, height and condition, as well as an inventory of transmission lines, and including the data in a centralized database that will be available to emergency managers. Other commitments include replacing 198 miles of smaller power lines and keeping stakeholders updated on plans for rebuilding major transmission lines, anticipated to be completed during 2025-2027. Under the plan, ratepayers would eventually cover all the costs of the proposed program. The PUC will hold hearings on the proposal before making a final decision.
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JEPPESEN SANDERSON SOLD BY BOEING AS PART OF A $10.55 BILLION DEAL
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Jeppesen Sanderson, which provides aviation and flight planning services, was founded in 1934 by aviation pioneer Elrey Borge Jeppesen in Salt Lake City and it moved to Denver in 1941. Elrey Jeppesen is memorialized in a statue at Denver International Airport, and the terminal at DIA is named for Jeppesen. Boeing purchased Jeppesen Sanderson in 2000 and Boeing has now reached a deal to sell several of its businesses under its Digital Aviation Solutions umbrella to Chicago-based Thoma Bravo in a deal valued at $10.55 billion. In addition to Jeppesen Sanderson, other businesses sold included ForeFlight, AerData and OzRunways. Boeing announced company-wide layoffs last October, which included 63 jobs at Jeppesen. It has offices in Denver’s Central Park, Arapahoe County next to Centennial Airport, and at Schriever Space Force Base and other locations in Colorado Springs.
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CITY OF GLENWOOD SPRINGS HOSTS HOUSING SYMPOSIUM
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Tonight, Thursday, April 24, the city of Glenwood Springs is inviting the community to an event called “Opening the Toolbox: A Housing Solutions Symposium.” It will be held at the Glenwood Springs Library in downtown Glenwood Springs from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The city’s press release states that renters, business owners, and potential homebuyers are encouraged to attend. There will be presentations on eligibility for various housing programs offered by the city and other housing partners. There will be question-and-answer sessions with representatives from the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority, Habitat for Humanity, West Mountain Regional Housing Coalition, and the city’s Workforce Housing Fund Advisory Board. It will also be an opportunity to sign up for a free HUD-certified homebuyer education class that is a prerequisite for prospective homebuyers to qualify for financial assistance.
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RUEDI RESERVOIR WILL NOT OPEN UNTIL MAY 17 DUE TO PARKING LOT IMPROVEMENTS
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The U.S. Forest Service issued a news release Wednesday to inform the public that the Ruedi Reservoir boat ramp will not open for the summer season until May 17. The normal opening date of May 1 was pushed back due to a large maintenance, clean-up and repainting project in the parking area and boat ramp. The work will include removing vegetation, sealing the lot, and repainting the lane strips for better ingress and egress. If the work is completed early, the lot and ramp will open early. For the latest status, visit fs.usda.gov/whiteriver. The USFS also provided the reminder that boat inspections are required to help prevent the spread of zebra and quagga mussels into Ruedi Reservoir. The 2025 hours for mandatory boat inspections at the Ruedi Boat Ramp are:
- May 17 - June 27, 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- June 28 - Sept. 1, 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
- Sept. 2 - Sept. 28, 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- Sept. 29 - Oct. 12, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- Oct. 13 - Oct. 31, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
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PARTICIPATE IN THE CITY NATURE CHALLENGE THIS WEEKEND
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One of the world’s largest community science events will take place this weekend. It is the City Nature Challenge. The City Nature Challenge begins at 12:01 a.m. on Friday and concludes at 11:59 p.m. on Monday, April 28. The challenge encourages community scientists at all levels to explore their local environment while using free mobile apps like iNaturalist to record their findings. Identification of photographed species will be crowdsourced through an online process April 29-May 4, with results announced May 5.
The challenge was launched by the California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles in 2016. After being limited to California in year one, it has grown. Last year, more than 83,500 community scientists amassed 2.4 million observations from 690 cities in 51 countries. Since its inception, the challenge has collected more than 7.13 million urban biodiversity observations of more than 94,000 species from more than 364,000 people. Even with that level of participation, CNC organizers say that during the first 9 years of the City Nature Challenge, no Western Slope community has ever participated. For more information, go to citynaturechallenge.org.
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YEARS IN THE MAKING, ASPEN AIRPORT WILL NOW ALLOW AIR TANKERS TO REFILL
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After working for two years on an agreement, the city of Aspen, Pitkin County, and the Aspen Fire Protection District signed an agreement to allow wildfire-fighting planes to rely on the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport hydrant system this season. The agreement offers single engine air trainers quicker response times refilling at the local airport rather than in Rifle, Grand Junction, or on the Front Range. The tankers would be used in the initial suppression of a wildfire “when rapid response is most vital,” typically 24 to 48 hours after ignition. Most can carry between 500 and 850 gallons of water or fire retardant at a time.
The Aspen Fire Dept. will purchase the necessary equipment and coordinate the required training, while the Aspen Water Dept. will provide the water for the site. The Sardy Field Fire Dept., the airport’s firefighting agency, will supply staff trained to marshal and refill air tankers. In the event of a large fire, “super scoopers,” which gather water directly from Ruedi Reservoir, will be brought in following the initial response.
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CANADIANS FACING HIGH COST OF HOUSING, TOO
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As Canadians head to the polls for April 28 national elections, the primary concern in the election is the high cost of housing, which many Canadians say is a full-blown crisis. Canada’s urban centers and, increasingly, its suburbs are now on lists of the most expensive places in the world to find a home. In Toronto, the standard price for a single-family home is around 1.4 million Canadian dollars, about USD$1million, compared with 970,000 dollars, or $700,000, in 2020. In Vancouver, the standard price is even higher, roughly 2 million dollars ($1.5 million) compared to 1.4 million ($1 million) five years ago.
The average rent in Vancouver is about 2,500 Canadian dollars per month, or $1,800, requiring a low six-figure salary to be considered affordable. The housing crunch in Vancouver has caused explosive growth in a small, rural town about 60 miles east on Canadian Hwy. 1, along the Fraser River, Chilliwack. Its relatively low real estate prices have helped turn Chilliwack into a boom town. Its population has risen in the past five years by 10,000 people to about 108,000.
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ANOTHER TUNNEL IN EUROPE: CONNECTING DENMARK AND GERMANY
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As Eurostar is launching increased rail service under the English Channel from England to France, a record-breaking tunnel is being built under the Baltic Sea between Denmark and Germany, which will slash travel times and improve Scandinavia's links with the rest of Europe. The tunnel will link the German island of Fehmarn and the Danish island of Lolland, under the Fehmarn Belt, which is a strait connecting the Bay of Kiel and the Bay of Mecklenbury in the western part of the Baltic Sea.
The Fehmarn Belt tunnel will be the world's longest prefabricated road and rail tunnel, covering 18 kilometers or about 11 miles. Each section, called "elements," is fabricated at a facility on Lolland island. There are 90 elements, each 712 feet long and 138 feet wide made of steel reinforced cast concrete, which are placed on the seafloor and joined together, like Lego bricks. Once completed, the journey between Rødbyhavn in southern Denmark and Puttgarten in northern Germany will take just 10 minutes by car or seven minutes by train, replacing a 45-minute ferry voyage. Bypassing western Denmark, the new rail route will also halve travel times between Copenhagen and Hamburg from five to 2.5 hours and provide a "greener" shortcut for freight and passengers.
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WORLD’S BEST WHISKIES 2025
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Each March, the London Spirits Competition is a rigorous competitive event that looks to recognize, reward, and help promote spirits brands that have successfully been created to identify with and target a specific spirits drinker. The competition judges spirits in three key areas: their quality; their value for money and what they look like. All the winners are available at the link below. A selection of winners:
- Whisky of the Year - Best Spirit of the Year by Quality and Spirit of the Year: W. L. Weller Antique 107, produced by Sazerac in the U.S.
- Straight Bourbon of the Year - Spirit of the Year USA: Lancaster Ale Cask Rare Bourbon, produced by Lancaster Craft Spirits Distillery in the U.S.
- Cognac of the Year - Cognac Producer of the Year, Spirit of the Year France: Courvoisier XO Royal, produced by Campari Group in France
- Single Malt Scotch Whiskey of the Year: Distillery Gem Glen Moray 15 YO, produced by Glen Clyde Whisky Ltd, in the United Kingdom
- Rum of the Year - Spirit of the Year Cuba: Havana Club Gran Reserva 15 Años, produced by Pernod Ricard in Cuba
- Vodka of the Year - Vodka Producer of the Year: Xaoma Gold, produced by Kokshetau Mineral Waters Jsc in Kazakhstan
- Rye Whiskey of the Year: Templeton Rye Whiskey Single Barrel 10yr produced by Templeton Distillery in the U.S.
- Gin of the Year, Spirit of the Year United Kingdom: Ramsbury Gin, produced by Ramsbury Brewing & Distilling Co. Ltd in the United Kingdom
- Tequila of the Year: Tequila Gran Orendain Reposado, produced by Tequila Orendain De Jalisco in Mexico
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MARKET UPDATE - 04/23/2025 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 04/17/2025)
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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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