Business

Black Friday bargains don’t typically include discounts on real estate in Colorado or anywhere else. But one company is making just such an offer from Thanksgiving afternoon through Cyber Monday in Denver, where the head of the firm predicts costs will remain high for the foreseeable future.

In mid-November, Denver International Airport announced a contest to find replacements for train announcers Adele Arakawa and Alan Roach. Just one problem: Unlike Arakawa, who retired this summer, Roach still lives in Denver, despite his high-profile gig as announcer of the Minnesota Vikings.

The Colorado Public Utilities Commission has issued an $8.9 million civil penalty assessment notice against Rasier LLC, the parent company of Uber. Why? The PUC maintains that Uber has allowed “individuals with disqualifying criminal or motor vehicle offenses, or without valid licenses, to drive for the company” in the state.

In September, Hyperloop One, whose high-tech tube transportation concept is central to a firm affiliated with billionaire Elon Musk, of Tesla Motors and SolarCity fame, identified a route largely based in Colorado as one of the ten strongest in the world and entered into a public-private partnership with the Colorado Department of Transportation to launch a feasibility study here. An author who promoted a similar concept in a book published fourteen years ago, cheers this development, but he argues that if the system is built above ground, as opposed to employing tunnels, it won’t succeed and could turn into a disaster.

Richard D. Lamm, governor of Colorado from 1975 through 1987, warns of the next Amazon shoe to drop.

Broncos head coach Jeff Bezos?

The RiNo Made Pop Up Shop just popped up at the Source, offering a preview of the goods that RiNo residents and businesses will be selling at a permanent RiNo Made shop, slated to open in early 2018 right next to a new RiNo Art District Office in Zeppelin Station…

Mere months from now, Denver-area drivers traveling near the intersection of Interstate 25 and E-470 will be able to see construction getting underway on a test track for Arrivo, a hyperloop-inspired transportation system previewed in this space yesterday. Newly released images and maps shared here present visions of a future in which vehicles on a magnetic-levitation track will run alongside traditional roadways, except they’ll be moving at a speed of approximately 300 miles per hour, covering distances that currently take an hour or more to cover in mere minutes.

On November 1, the Jewish National Fund announced an event scheduled for today in honor of oil tycoon Jack Grynberg, a past Westword profile subject. The release noted that Governor John Hickenlooper would officially declare November 14 “Jack Grynberg Day,” with his chief of staff, Doug Friednash, scheduled to present the proclamation in person. But the get-together has been called off at the last minute amid uncomfortable headlines about sexual-harassment accusations made against the 85-year-old Grynberg by former employees. And now, all parties concerned, including Hickenlooper, are trying to distance themselves from potential embarrassment over association with an alleged groper in the age of Harvey Weinstein.

Today, November 14, two months to the day since Hyperloop One named the Rocky Mountain Hyperloop proposal a winner of its Global Challenge to “identify the strongest new Hyperloop routes in the world,” the Colorado Department of Transportation is announcing that Arrivo, a hyperloop-like transportation system, has agreed to build a test track in the Denver metro area. The location will be revealed at a press conference this morning.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife have euthanized close to 170 bears this year, and another 107 or so have been relocated, usually because of problematic interactions with or near human beings, including multiple break-ins of homes and cars. The problem? People moving here who don’t understand wildlife.

Inspired by Bernie Sanders, Brandon Rietheimer, who daylights as the manager of a Red Robin restaurant, pushed Denver’s Green-Roof Initiative to a surprising victory.

We recently posted about the most expensive Zip Codes in Colorado as judged by average rent prices. Now, there’s a new list of the fifty most expensive Colorado Zip Codes for home buyers, and the numbers are even more eye-popping.

In July, Denver Police and Animal Protection officers found 47 dogs at 2151 South Irving Street, 35 alive and 12 dead, stored in the freezer. Marleen Puzak, the home’s owner, was charged with 35 counts of cruelty to animals and twelve counts of felony aggravated cruelty to animals.

Outside magazine compiles an annual list of the 100 best places to work in these United States, and each roster seems to feature more Colorado businesses. The 2017 edition is no exception. An impressive 41 firms from the state are highlighted. Learn more about all of them here.

Jenn Superka is used to getting letters from realtors asking if she’d consider listing her home. But a letter she got in October had a different tone, she says. She calls the tone offensive.

On a recent edition of KWGN’s morning program Daybreak, co-host Natalie Tysdal was joined by Jason Granger, founder and CEO of Infinity Marketing Group, for a segment in which he showed off three phone apps that allow users to track the whereabouts of family or friends. But neither viewers nor staffers at the station knew at the time that Granger was arrested, convicted and served time in jail last year for stalking a former family member.

Twenty-five years ago this week, Colorado voters approved Amendment 2, whose backers portrayed it as outlawing “special rights” for gays, lesbians and bisexuals. The measure’s passage on November 3, 1992 provoked outrage nationwide, with Colorado’s branding as the “hate state” resulting in boycott calls from singer Barbra Streisand and other members of the national entertainment community. But while Amendment 2 was deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in a landmark 1996 ruling, a University of Denver professor sees its legacy in the current Masterpiece Cakeshop controversy and other cases she considers to be problematic on every level.

Monday, November 6, marks exactly five years since Colorado voters approved Amendment 64, which legalized limited recreational marijuana sales in the state. To mark the occasion, Brian Vicente, an attorney who co-authored the measure, will join other key figures in the campaign at a reception, dinner and fireside chat about the march to victory and the way the industry has developed during the half-decade since then. In advance of the celebration, whose details are featured below, Vicente offers reflections on the past and a look ahead to the future of legal marijuana in Colorado and beyond.

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

As predicted in our previous coverage, on view below, the Denver City Council approved a smoking and vaping ban on the 16th Street Malls at its October 30 meeting. The vote wasn’t exactly a squeaker, with members favoring the measure by a 9-0 margin thanks largely to an amendment offered by Councilman Paul Kashmann that followed the outlines of policies shared with us by his colleague, Albus Brooks, who sponsored the original bill.