Business

Each year around this time, Forbes magazine reveals the identities of the wealthiest Americans — and since 2014, we’ve highlighed the five richest Coloradans according to their position on what’s popularly known as the Forbes 400. But while the same quintet appears on this year’s roster as was the case three years ago, there’s been a notable shift in position that’s lifted Fort Collins’s Pat Stryker into a tie with President Donald Trump. As of today, October 24, though, Stryker is worth more.

Though many questions remain, we know this: States have engaged in nothing short of an arms race to get the new Amazon headquarters, and Colorado is no exception. But our readers have mixed feelings about the behemoth online retailer possibly coming to Colorado (and Denver), especially after an ApartmentList.com study…

Initiative 300 would require that buildings in Denver larger than 25,000 square feet install “green roofs,” which incorporate vegetation or solar panels to mitigate climate change and pollution.

Today, October 19, marks the deadline for cities to submit proposals to Amazon focusing on why they should be home to the company’s second headquarters, shorthanded as HQ2, and the presentation from Denver, which is considered one of the favorites, is in. Plenty of locals have been worried about the impact on traffic, infrastructure and more should the Mile High City win the race, which is predicted to result in more than 100,000 new jobs between Amazon employees and ancillary workers, and a new study that predicts significantly higher rent and housing costs here in the wake of HQ2 adds more reasons for concern.

At least two advertisers have asked that their commercials no longer run during KOA’s radio broadcasts of Denver Broncos games because they’re upset by National Anthem-related demonstrations prior to the kickoff of NFL games.

One of the most powerful figures in Denver radio has fallen. Amy Griesheimer is out as vice president and general manager for KS-107.5, Alice and three other stations owned by the national media conglomerate Entercom, with observers speculating that the move was made because of ratings and revenue shortfalls in an industry that continues to struggle with the fallout from technological changes and shifting listener habits.

Once upon a time, ratings were pretty much the only way of judging commercial success for local television news. But that’s no longer the case. Witness a new report by TV Spy, a broadcasting-industry website, which grades Denver TV outlets and personalities by social-media engagement. Using that measure, 9News is the clear number one, while Kyle Clark, anchor of Newt With Kyle Clark, tops the talent chart in part because of the ways he uses Facebook, Twitter and Instagram beyond simply establishing and extending his brand, as he explains to us in the following Q&A.

I feel the commercialization of Christmas is currently way more out of hand than when Linus van Pelt first dropped Biblical verses on the American public, and you, Walmart, are making things worse. As exhibit A, I offer my visit this past weekend to one of your branches in Northglenn, where I discovered that a huge portion of the store is already devoted to Christmas.

What’s in a name? Plenty, according to the RiNo Art District, which was created more than a dozen years ago to celebrate the gritty warehouse area along the Platte River that has since become the hottest neighborhood in Denver.

Around the country, Boulder has a reputation as a youthful, wealthy, lily-white, politically progressive utopia. But the truth turns out to be considerably more complicated. According to “Boulder County Trends,” a fascinating new report from the Community Foundation Boulder County that’s accessible below, the population in the area is growing older and more diverse in ways that are complicating the interactions of the well-off and their less financially secure neighbors. Moreover, the county’s ideology doesn’t always translate into fairness or charity in quite the ways most locals likely imagine.

The Colorado Department of Transportation has announced it is partnering with a nonprofit focused on traffic mitigation on ways to lessen single-occupancy commuter traffic during the Interstate 70 expansion project in northeast Denver.

Last month, as we’ve reported, rent prices in Denver finally started heading down after years of increases that contributed to the difficult many had making a living in Denver despite the strong economy. As a result, there are finally some good rent deals in the metro area, as exemplified by the available spaces below.

Denver International Airport is trying to put more local flavor in its concessions. But shouldn’t the airport ask the locals before they lift neighborhood names?

If the bond issue passes in November 2017, Mayor Michael Hancock’s transportation team will be able to take their plans for Denver traffic mitigation and prodding people out of their cars to the next level.

As we’ve reported, metro Denver rent prices have been moderating of late, but as recently as August, rents were up on a month-to-month basis almost everywhere in the area. However, that’s finally changed. In September, rent prices were either unchanged or down from the previous month in ten different communities in and around the Mile High City.

After Hyperloop One announced that the Rocky Mountain Hyperloop project was among the winners of the Elon Musk-affiliated transportation company’s Global Challenge to “identify the strongest new Hyperloop routes in the world,” and revealed a new public-private partnership with the Colorado Department of Transportation to launch a feasibility study, questions arose about how quickly this dream could become a reality in these parts. CDOT’s Amy Ford says four years is a goal, albeit one that can only be achieved if a lot of things go right.

Today, September 29, Denver mayor Michael Hancock formally unveiled a draft document of Denver’s new proposed five-year housing plan. “Housing an Inclusive Denver,” accessible below, aims to address the have-nots as well as the haves in the go-go economy of today’s Mile High City. Despite the apparent good times, Hancock acknowledged that “people are being squeezed out.”

A new study ranking the most expensive Zip Codes in Colorado shows that the vast majority of them are in the vicinity of Denver and Boulder. Only three Zip Codes out of the top fifty fall outside that area, and all of them can be found along the Interstate 25 urban corridor.

Thanks to Denver’s red-hot housing market, Mile High City home values are currently higher than they were at their pre-recession peak, although perhaps not by as much as some frustrated home buyers might have expected. But while Colorado as a whole has experienced a similar boom, there are plenty of places in the state where homes are worth considerably less than they were a decade and a half ago.

Housing and workers rights activists with the organization 9to5 Colorado disrupted a law firm self-described as “Colorado’s #1 Evictor” on Thursday, September 20 with mock eviction notices of their own.

Today, The Green Solution is one of Colorado’s largest marijuana dispensary chains, and it’s expanded into four other states so far, with big plans for future growth. But co-founder and CEO Kyle Speidell, who recently spoke to us about the launch of Blazin’ Hit Radio, the ambitious new online home of former KS 107.5 favorites Larry and Kathie J, who are hosting a welcome-back party for listeners on Friday, September 22 (details below), notes that TGS is, at its heart, a family affair. Indeed, he and his three brothers have helped develop the operation over the past seven years into what seems poised to become a signature cannabis business from coast to coast.

Given the horrific damage wreaked upon Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico by recent hurricanes, those of us who reside in Colorado may think we’re relatively safe from Mother Nature at her most extreme compared to most places in the country. But a new study suggests that we’re living in a dream world. The figures show that five counties in Colorado, mostly along the urban corridor, are at very high risk of housing damage from natural hazards, with Denver listed as the sixth most imperiled major city in the country by this standard.