Business

A half-century ago this month, in March 1968, Cinderella City opened in Englewood, and it was much more than a mere mall. An ad from the early days maintained that “Once Upon a Time…Is Now at Cinderella City,” where “Your Shopping Dreams Come True,” and for a generation of Denverites, as well as folks who traveled from all over the region to behold its marvels in person, these pitch lines were on the money. Those glory days ended with the edifice’s late 1990s demolition — but they’re set to make a virtual return. Denver designer Josh Goldstein is currently working on what he calls a “fully-detailed digital recreation of Cinderella City Mall for a Virtual Reality experience” he hopes to complete by the end of the attraction’s fiftieth anniversary year.

Our Souls at Night, a 2017 Netflix film starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, was shot in Colorado, with communities such as Florence, Colorado Springs and Denver benefiting from the dollars spent by the production, which was lured here in part by a $1.5 million in incentives made available through the Colorado Film Commission. But right now, the commission’s funding looks likely to be limited to $750,000, the same amount to which its $3 million budget was slashed last year. That’s too low an amount to attract major Hollywood films, and as evidence, Donald Zuckerman, the state’s film commissioner, reveals that Redford wanted to make his next movie here but decided against it when he learned no economic incentives were available.

At a meeting this afternoon, on March 14, Denver Post editor Lee Ann Colacioppo announced layoffs for thirty employees, constituting nearly one-third of the newsroom staff. It’s the largest example of downsizing at the Post in recent memory and leaves the broadsheet with fewer than 25 percent of newsroomers employed during its peak. Less than a decade ago, around 300 journalists were on the job.

The owner of Elitch’s has a 25-year plan to develop the property.

Last July, as we’ve reported, Joseph Hopper and twelve others associated with Hoppz’ Cropz stores in Colorado Springs were indicted for alleged illegal distribution of marijuana (nearly 200 pounds’ worth) in a variation on the sort of “free” pot giveaway schemes that date back to the days before and just after the launch of legal recreational cannabis sales in the state. Now, Rob Corry, Hopper’s attorney, has filed a motion to dismiss the charges based on a technicality — specifically that Colorado Attorney General Cynthia H. Coffman isn’t licensed to practice law in the state under the name listed in the document. And he’s right.

According to the latest report from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors, single family home prices in Denver now average more than $500,000, the highest number ever recorded for such residences in the Mile High City. But this benchmark wasn’t achieved by way of a sudden spike. The climb to this sum has been inexorable over the past year, with occasional clues that the market had plateaued proving false.

An informational public forum on March 10 will discuss the future of the Park Hill Golf Course.

Today, February 21, as we’ve reported, Denver’s National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws branch is taking part in a lobbying day at the Colorado State Capitol during which lawmakers will get the chance to learn about a major element in the group’s attempt to fix drug-testing laws that put cannabis users at risk of being fired for lawful use. Specifically, they’ll be able to try out Alert Meter, which tests for impairment rather than relying on blood or fluid draws that Denver NORML sees as undependable and unfair.

Sunshine Home Share Colorado is a nonprofit that connects the 55-year-and-older set who have extra space in their homes with renters. And if it doesn’t find government funding or private donors soon, it will close.

As we’ve reported, many workers in Denver and beyond are finding it hard to make a living despite Colorado’s sustained economic boom. A new report provides insight about this apparent paradox by turning the spotlight on Coloradans struggling to make ends meet thanks in part to high housing costs, expensive child care and wages that have barely increased in real dollars during the past two decades.

The Hancock administration decided in January to fold the office of HOPE under the Office of Economic Development. That came along with a job posting for a new “Chief Housing Officer” that will oversee HOPE, a $20 million budget and up to twenty employees dedicated to housing issues. The job posting closed yesterday, February 12, the same day HOPE head Erik Soliván resigned.

One of Denver’s poorest neighborhoods is about to undergo a renaissance that could see it become a cultural and entertainment hub in the heart of the city over the next decade.

The changes would require that developers that want to build above a certain height in the area pay five times the city’s affordable housing fee per square footage, build a certain number of affordable housing units if it’s a residential building, or implement in any commercial development services that go toward the community, like daycare or space for artists.

Over the past couple of years, we’ve written about the proliferation in Denver of slot homes, two multi-unit buildings on a single lot that can be separated by a gap of only a few feet. Such structures are at the heart of Denver Cruisers founder Brad Evans’s campaign against fugly homes in the Mile High City, and one reader likened them to 1950s prison complexes. Denver city councilman Rafael Espinoza, who spoke to us in 2016 about the need for new rules related to garden court buildings, a variation on slot homes, was instrumental in the creation of a draft amendment to deal with the slot home phenomenon, and at a council committee meeting this morning, he’ll argue in favor of placing a moratorium on their construction.

The city’s main response to the housing crunch is a five-year plan called “Housing an Inclusive Denver,” which utilizes a $15 million a year fund that was approved by City Council in 2016. But now that amount of funding, and the urgency with which it’s being deployed, is being heavily criticized.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission wants to ban Zen magnets, but owner Shihan Qu has powerful forces on his side.

We recently shared information with you about the ten Denver neighborhoods where rent prices rose the fastest in 2017. Now, we offer the other side of the coin — the ten neighborhoods in Denver proper where rent fell by the largest percentage.

If we pay people to recycle cans, why not pay them to take public transportation?

Amazon has named Denver one of twenty finalists as a possible location for its second headquarters, HQ2, a facility that’s expected to create 50,000 new jobs and result in a $5 billion investment for the winner. But while entrepreneur and Republican candidate for governor Victor Mitchell says he thinks HQ2 would be good for the state, unlike plenty of naysayers, he’s launched an online ad campaign and petition calling on officials such as Governor John Hickenlooper not to get suckered into an expensive bidding war to secure this prize.

Rent prices have been moderating in Denver during recent months, following a long period in which rental costs continued to go up and up and up in the Mile High City’s red-hot housing market. But as we noted in a recent post revealing that median rent in Denver proper is currently lower than in eleven other metro communities, costs differ widely from place to place within the city. And new statistics about the Denver neighborhoods with the most rapid rent growth bear that out.

On the eve of his first anniversary as commander-in-chief, Donald Trump is already the worst president in U.S. history according to University of Colorado Boulder history professor Thomas Zeiler, among a team of CU historians who shared their picks for the ten poorest U.S. presidents of all time with us for a post published just prior to Trump’s inauguration last year. But Trump supporters have a very different and infinitely more positive view of the Donald’s performance, including Steve Barlock, who led the now-president’s 2016 campaign effort in Denver and is currently running as a Republican for governor of Colorado.

A proposed bill would remove the cap on out-of-state and international marijuana-industry investors. While some say the bill is necessary to keep Colorado an attractive place to do business, others are concerned about big money.