Business

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.

Neighbors of the newly completed Country Club Towers may be cursing the Denver developer who pushed through the gigantic project, but they have nothing on the residents of Churchill, Manitoba, who can thank Pat Broe for their being cut off from the rest of Canada.

Moments ago, after months of anticipation, Hyperloop One, whose high-tech tube transportation concept is central to a firm affiliated with billionaire Elon Musk, of Tesla Motors and SolarCity fame, has named the ten winners of its Hyperloop One Global Challenge, a contest intended to “identify the strongest new Hyperloop routes in the world.” And not only did the Rocky Mountain Hyperloop proposal make the grade, but Hyperloop One has announced that it will enter into a public-private partnership with the Colorado Department of Transportation to launch a feasibility study here.

As we’ve reported, rent prices in many metro Denver communities are falling on a month-to-month basis even as they continue to show a substantial increase over the same period in 2016. This same phenomenon can be seen in Zumper’s September report for the metro area, with the cost of renting a two-bedroom apartment varying by nearly $500 from community to community.

This year would have marked the fourth time in nearly twenty years that Aurora voters would have decided whether to allow the city to spend money on a motor speedway. In 1999, voters banned the city government from doing so; in the ensuing years, city officials have had one tool — a ballot initiative — to remove that ban from the city’s charter.

We know plenty of you haven’t called the Mile High City home for long. That’s why in October of last year we started our Tips for Transplants series, in which we broke down our best advice for newbies by month (because November in Denver is very different from November in…

In September 2016, we told you about attempts to convince a national grocery chain to build in Montbello, a diverse Denver neighborhood that qualifies as a food desert because it doesn’t have a single full-service supermarket. A year later, every major retailer approached by the community has declined to launch such an effort, even though Montbello was named America’s fastest growing “suburb” in a survey released earlier this year.

According to the latest Denver Metro Real Estate Trend Market Report, accessible below, the average price of a home in the area came in at $434,478 for the month of August 2017. That represents a 2.75 percent decline from the previous month but was more than 8 percent higher than the same time last year. And speaking of higher, the prices for the most expensive home and condo sold in metro Denver last month were absolutely eye-popping.

As we’ve reported, rent prices in metro Denver are finally starting to moderate, but they’re still up by a considerable amount over this time last year. The trend continues in the latest Denver rent report for September, which shows that prices are higher than they were twelve months earlier in all nine area communities analyzed. But the numbers are leveling off on a month-to-month basis, where only one of the nine experienced a rent increase of more than 1 percent since August, and costs actually fell in another metro town.

For more than a year, the Denver Broncos have been desperately trying to line up a new naming sponsor for Mile High Stadium following the bankruptcy and subsequent collapse of Sports Authority, the athletic-gear retailer that previously held the rights. Now the team says it’s likely the Sports Authority Field at Mile High moniker will still be on the facility when the 2017-2018 season kicks off September 11 against the Los Angeles Charges, and a branding authority says it could stick around for a lot longer than that.

Even though housing prices in metro Denver have been moderating in some areas thanks to an increase in inventory, home buyers in Denver still face huge challenges, including a shortage of modestly priced properties and the speed with which the ones that are listed disappear. But while the majority of lower-priced houses showcased on MetroDenverHomeListings.com at present are already under contract, we managed to find six listings near or under $200,000 that are still active at this writing.

Today, August 28, marks the debut of Blazin’ Hit Radio, the new online home of Larry and Kathie J, whose popular KS 107.5 morning show was canceled after a contract dispute earlier this year. The station is sponsored by The Green Solution, a powerful Colorado marijuana dispensary company with a growing national profile, and its signature show, which will broadcast live from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays, promises to combine an uncensored variation on the humorous antics that scored big ratings in Denver for fifteen years with a mix of hip-hop, reggae, contemporary hits and throwbacks.

A real estate pro recently argued that renting makes more sense than buying in Denver right now, particularly for newcomers to the area, because an increase in the number of available rental units is finally leading to better deals. But while August rents in many metro communities are actually down from last month, or rising at a more modest pace than during the craziest periods of the past few years, they’re still up in almost all parts of metro over this time last year for both one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments, sometimes by double-digit percentages.

Veteran journalist Peter Marcus is leaving the ambitious ColoradoPolitics.com website he helped launch last November in favor of a communications director position with Terrapin Care Station, a marijuana dispensary chain that’s spreading beyond Colorado. And in explaining the factors that led to his decision, he makes an observation that speaks to the divergent trajectories of the two professions.

Denver’s housing market has been red hot for the past few years, with buyers of more modest means often finding themselves priced out of properties thanks to bidding wars that routinely generate over-list offers. But as indicated by the presence of a “Price Reduced” sign on a home in a sought-after part of Centennial, as seen in the photo above, this situation may finally be about to change.

While the neighborhoods of Globeville and Swanson-Elyria appear more desirable than ever, many residents feel alienated and uncertain about their futures. The National Western Center has claimed many properties — including a second home owned by the Torres family, who already lost a first to road construction — and CDOT’s Central 70 project has met with fierce opposition.

A new study maintains that two-thirds of Denver renters plan to move to another city, a figure higher than the national average, with most listing high rent costs in the Mile High City as the main reason. At the same time, however, so many people from other places want to move here that the actual number of renters in Denver will likely remain steady in the near-future and could actually rise.

Just how deep into public-private partnerships is Mayor Michael Hancock’s administration willing to go?

There’s no doubt: Denver is growing. With this growth comes change, and with this change comes issues. And with these issues come super-angry Denver residents. The newest pissy nest of resentment? RiNo. The River North neighborhood is especially mad about the Brighton Boulevard construction, with its massive detours and endless…

Studio420, an Englewood marijuana club, has been ordered to shut down following an administrative hearing. The business is planning to appeal the latest negative ruling in a years-long fight with the city that dates back to a time when it was called iBake Englewood and fronted by an entrepreneur who called himself Thurlow Weed.

Proposed DIA renovation partner Ferrovial manages two refugee camps for the government of Australia, which have been denounced as “islands of despair.”

Our recent post about the most expensive neighborhoods for rent in Denver this summer included ten areas in which the average cost for a one-bedroom apartment ranged from just under $1,500 per month to almost $2,000. In contrast, the ten least expensive Denver neighborhoods in terms of rent prices all boast an average rent price of less than $1,000.