Monday, December 12, 2005
MINERALS MEAN MONEY
The total value of minerals produced in the state is estimated to reach $10.3 billion this year, up 22% from the record level in 2004 of $8.5 billion. The total for 2006 is projected at almost $12 billion. The combined total of royalties from mining on federal land, state severance taxes, Colorado State Land Board mineral royalties and rentals, and county property taxes on mineral properties was $384.5 million in 2004, a 53% increase from 2003 and will be even higher this year.
-Rocky Mountain News, 12.10.05

NO HOUSING IN ASPEN
The Aspen Skiing Co. has about 1,000 new employees this year and only 200 beds to accommodate them, and all 1,267 of the city of Aspen’s and Pitkin County’s rental units have been leased. At tonight’s Aspen City Council meeting, several foreign workers will recount their problems in finding housing, with a proposal to grant a temporary use permit to the Holland House for employee-housing this winter.
-Aspen Daily News, 12.12.05

AG: NOT GREAT, NOT BAD
Total revenue from Colorado agriculture in 2005 is projected to be $6.35 billion, down slightly from the $5.43 billion in 2004. Net farm income is expected to be more than $1 billion, down slightly from the record $1.3 billion last year.
-Denver Business Journal, 12.09.05

CORRAL WEST: BUY OUT
Sage Capital Partners, a Los Angeles-based private equity company, will announce this week it has acquired a controlling interest in Cheyenne-based Corral West Ranchwear. Corral West, successor to Denver’s Miller Stockman, has 95 Western clothing stores, 15 in Colorado.
-Denver Post, 12.11.05

DENVER: $85M TO CLEAN GATES
The city of Denver will provide $85 million in public financing to clean up the polluted former Gates Rubber Co. site and rebuild it into a retail and residential district. The project is the biggest redevelopment since Stapleton and is expected to cost $1 billion and take 10 to 15 years to buildout.
-Denver Post, 12.12.05

SEMINARY SITE SOLD
Continuum Partners, developer of Belmar in Lakewood and a $500 million development at Interstate 25 and Belleview Avenue, has acquired the 11.4-acre former Denver Seminary site at University Boulevard and Hampton Avenue in Englewood for about $12.4 million.
-Denver Post, 12.10.05

GREEN MTN. RESERVOIR DEAL
Western Slope water users and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation reached an agreement over how slowly water from Green Mountain Reservoir would be released to prevent landslides near the town of Heeney. The agreement calls for conservation measures, finding alternative sources of stored water, and sharing any shortages should the bureau need to slow the release of water from the reservoir.
-Summit Daily, 12.10.05

$139,000 IN FIRE GRANT
The Mesa County Department of Emergency Management has received $139,000 from the federal government in the form of 37 sets of self-contained breathing apparatus equipment and other equipment. The equipment was split between the Lands End, Plateau Valley and De Beque Fire Protection Districts.
-GJ Daily Sentinel, 12.12.05

FOUR SEASONS START-UP
The first Four Seasons Resort in the state, the Four Season Resort and Residences in Vail will break ground today. The $200 million project, on a 2.7-acre site just southwest of the main Vail turnabout, will have 120 hotel rooms, 16 private residences and 19 fractional units, and is expected to open in June 2008.
-Denver Post, 12.12.05

KUMMER: ANOTHER PLAN
Brush Creek developer Fred Kummer has submitted sketch plans to Eagle County for the Upper and Lower Ranch projects, consisting of 114 single-family lots on 1,034 acres of land. The Ranch project would average nine homes per acre and have about 360 acres of dedicated open space. The project is slated to go to the county planning commission and commissioners in January.
-Vail Daily, 12.10.05

JUDGE: WOLF CREEK TRIAL
A federal magistrate in Durango has ruled a lawsuit brought by the owners of Wolf Creek Ski Area against Wolf Creek developers should go to trial. The ruling is the latest in the rounds of claims and counterclaims in a partnership formed in the 1980s between Texas billionaire Billie Joe “Red” McCombs and Kingsbury Pitcher, ski resort owner. The recommended action now goes to a U.S. District Judge in Denver.
-Durango Herald, 12.10.05

ROADLESS MEETING: BIG TURNOUT
The second of seven public meetings by the 13-member Roadless Area Task Force brought a turnout of 400 Friday at Tamarron to express positions on roadless areas in the San Juan National Forest. Eleven counties border the San Juan National Forest and generated some $107 million in income from hunting and fishing in 2002.
-Durango Herald, 12.11.05

CALIFORNIA ENERGY = POLLUTION
“Clearing California’s Coal Shadow on the American West,” a report released by the national interest group Environmental Defense, documents that the six coal-fired electric plants that provide power for California are producing “a staggering amount of pollution” in the Four Corners area. Four of the six plants are in New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.
-Durango Herald, 12.11.05

FRISCO ELECTION TUESDAY
Frisco residents will have a four-part ballot in the town’s special election Tuesday. The first issue is whether voters want a Home Depot at the 9.4-acre parcel in town; the second describes how sales tax revenues from the proposed project would be used; the third addresses how the revenue from the sale of the land would be used; and the fourth, describes the minimum community benefits to which Home Depot has committed.
-Summit Daily, 12.11.05

STEAMBOAT GRAND: AUCTION
The remaining condominium units at the Steamboat Grand Resort Hotel, some 130 units, some whole-ownership units and some interval units, will be offered at auction March 18. Of the units to be auctioned, 100 will be sold to the highest bidders, regardless of price.
-Steamboat Pilot, 12.11.05

BUSINESSPERSON OF THE YEAR
The Rocky Mountain News named Ralph Peterson, CEO of CH2M Hill, as its 2005 Businessperson of the Year. Peterson has been with CH2M Hill for 40 years and has been CEO of the company since 1991. CH2M Hill, a global engineering and construction firm, is Colorado’s biggest private company and ranks No. 8 among engineering and construction firms on FORTUNE’s list of the 1,000 biggest American companies. The 61-year-old Peterson, the son of a Missouri railroad conductor, has led the company up the ranks of the FORTUNE 1,000, increasing 67 positions since 2004 to No. 607.
-Rocky Mountain News, 12.10.05

CEO OF THE YEAR
Jeff Potter, president and chief executive officer of Frontier Airlines, was named the first ColoradoBiz CEO of the Year. Potter started with the “old” Frontier cleaning jetairliners on the graveyard shift in Spokane. He dropped out of college to take a ticket agent-job with Frontier and has been in the airline business ever since. Frontier now flies to 48 cities in 29 states and seven destinations in Mexico.
-ColoradoBiz, December 2005

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