What a Ride: Surprise Colorado Pick for Top Ten Coveted Family-Owned Workplaces

When you think of the most prestigious family-owned businesses in town, names like Anschutz, Coors and Kroenke may come to mind. But for potential employees, which family-owned businesses are the most desirable? A new survey asked more than 3,000 job seekers nationwide, and the local results may surprise you.

Three Colorado firms made the national list: Lakeside Amusement Park in Lakeside, Polidori Sausage in Denver, and Watkins Stained Glass Studio in Englewood. None are household names outside the region, but each has endured for generations.

Colorado’s big winner is a wild card: Lakeside Amusement Park, which ranks ninth. It was founded back in 1908, and has been in the hands of the Krasner family since 1935. Lakeside’s neon signs and swooshing rides have outlasted dozens of similar populist amusement parks across the country, leaving it one of the last “White City” parks in America. Working here may not be glamorous — and employment is definitely seasonal — but it’s a rite of passage woven into Denver history. “There’s lots and lots and lots of people who come through who’ve worked for me who now have kids,” says Brenda Fishman, granddaughter of Ben Krasner, the first in the family to run the park. “And you get to know them.”

Polidori Sausage, which ranked at Number 92, started as a north Denver butcher shop founded by Italian immigrants Anna and Rocco Polidori. The company is marking its 100th birthday this year, and the family name is still stamped on sausages produced for restaurants and grocery stores across the state. In a city where “artisanal” often means fleeting, Polidori represents the rare brand that has stayed family-run while scaling up for a century. “Sausage is my life,” says Steve Polidori, a member of the fourth generation to run the place.

Number 102, Watkins Stained Glass Studio, is a less familiar name but even more venerable. The family business traces its glassmaking tradition back to eighteenth-century England; its Colorado footprint was established in 1868. Since then, Watkins has installed and restored windows in churches, hotels and historic homes — including the Molly Brown House Museum — across the state. It’s painstaking work that leaves a visible, lasting mark, a rarity in most careers.

The survey of most sought-after family-owned employers, conducted by financial media company MarketBeat, placed those three alongside such national names as The Breakers in Palm Beach, Zippy’s in Honolulu and Guittard Chocolate in California. In the announcement, MarketBeat founder Matt Paulson notes that family businesses “combine tradition with innovation” and offer employees a sense of belonging beyond profits.

That may sound like marketing copy, but the point remains: The three celebrated Colorado companies have survived wars, recessions and Denver’s boom-and-bust cycles without selling out or closing down. Now, if Lakeside could just get the Cyclone running again…