Business

What are the most and least expensive places to rent in Denver right now, no matter what size apartment you’d like? Find the answers here.

Readers debate whether living in Denver is worth the price of high rent.

Attorney Brian Vicente sees reason for optimism about MMJ.

Marijuana is legal in Colorado for both medical and recreational purposes according to the state’s constitution.

One of the most frequent questions we at Westword hear is: “Where do my marijuana tax dollars go?” Now, a new animated video created by Marijuana Industry Group, whose executive director, Kristi Kelly, has become the face of the cannabis business in Colorado, gets closer to the truth of the matter than anything has in a long, long time. See it here.

A new analysis of rent growth in the United States reveals that prices in Denver went up 48.3 percent from 2010 through the end of last year. The increase is the fourth highest in the United States during that period, behind only three cities in California’s Bay Area.

Great Hall Partners will hold an open house for would-be concessionaires from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday, April 16.

Although “Ditch the Ditch” protesters haven’t given up on stopping the sprawling and controversial Central 70 project, the Colorado Department of Transportation is moving full steam ahead, with a goal of getting underway in earnest this summer. To help prepare metro-area drivers in general, and especially commuters who travel along Interstate 70 east of I-25 on a daily basis, for what CDOT insists will be coming soon, we reached out to Rebecca White, Central 70’s communications director, who offers a preview of a process that’s expected to take well into the next decade to complete.

In 2016, Colorado voters passed Amendment 70, which established an incremental increase in the state’s minimum wage culminating in a $12-per-hour rate by 2020. But a proposal just introduced in the Colorado general assembly has the potential of giving that amount an additional boost in some locations. The legislation, accessible below, would empower towns, cities or counties in Colorado to set their own minimum wage based on how expensive it is to make ends meet there.

Catering workers at United Airlines, including a preponderance of Pacific Islander employees at the Denver International Airport, are trying to unionize to get better pay and insurance and keep the flight benefit they use annually to visit home.

Denver Public Schools announced Thursday that it has partnered with Landed, a startup based in California, and the Zoma Foundation to launch a down-payment assistance program that will provide up to half of a 20 percent down payment on a home, or up to $70,000 per household, to about 100 teachers the first year.

Investors approached Denver with $24 million for a community land trust. Now the backers behind the Elevation Land Trust are in discussions with other municipalities that seem more eager to become partners.

As of late last year, rent prices finally seemed to be moderating in Denver and its neighboring burgs 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 the latest data suggests that bargain hunters’ hopes have been squashed again, with rents across the metro area again heading upward, with many of the places analyzed notching double-digit bumps over this time in 2017.

According to a new report from California-based CoreLogic, homes in the Denver area are generally overvalued, meaning the price buyers are being asked to pay is simply too high. But while that’s bad news for house hunters right now, it could result in improvements down the line in the Mile High City and beyond.

In recent years, high costs have made home ownership seem like an impossible dream for plenty of people in Denver and other parts of Colorado despite the strong economy. And in the first quarter of 2018, the situation seems to be getting worse instead of better. According to a new study, the average wage earner in ten of eleven Colorado counties analyzed, including six in Denver metro, can’t afford a median-priced home in the area.

In July 2016, the Marijuana Industry Group, among the most powerful cannabis business organizations in Colorado and the country as a whole, seemed on the verge of collapse after the mysterious departure of Michael Elliott, its executive director. Less than two years later, MIG is back to being a powerhouse advocate for marijuana enterprises in the state, and much of the credit goes to current executive director Kristi Kelly, who’s helped change the tone of an outfit that was once vilified by boutique shops in the state.

A new unit for sale in the Four Seasons building, at 1133 14th Street, is going for $10,750,000 and is being touted as “DENVER’S BEST CITY PENTHOUSE!” Take a photo tour here.

After the Denver Post announced that it would be laying off thirty people, or around 30 percent of the newsroom staff, the Denver Newspaper Guild, which represents 25 of those getting pink slips, put out an open call for a wealthy benefactor to buy the publication from Alden Global Capital, the hedge fund that’s been stripping it down like a stolen car for years. Billionaire Phil Anschutz seems to fit this bill, and he has a notable interest in newspapers, having purchased the Colorado Springs Gazette in 2012. But a story shared by Denver City Councilman Kevin Flynn suggests that Anschutz may prefer to let the Post die in order to replace it with a resurrected version of the Rocky Mountain News, which was shuttered in February 2009.

Bitcoin and other forms of cryptocurrency are ultra-trendy among investors, speculators and others who dream of making a quick fortune. But they’re also becoming increasingly mainstream, especially among the super-rich, as illustrated by what appears to be a first for the luxury home market in Aspen. One seller with a spectacular property in the exclusive Starwood development has announced that interested buyers can pay for it using this form of exchange, a digital asset that’s secured using cryptography.

The Denver Post announced thirty layoffs, or nearly one-third of its newsroom staff, on March 14. Just shy of two weeks later, we still don’t know the identities of all those who’ll be leaving, and that information won’t be made official for two more thanks to a complicated system that allows some laid-off workers to “bump” individuals who haven’t been notified that their positions could be in danger. But at present, no daily reporters are being targeted, with the layoffs focusing on what Denver Newspaper Guild administrative officer Tony Mulligan refers to as “the second set of eyeballs.”

The city is passing up on the opportunity to create 200 affordable-housing units within walking distance of Union Station despite an executive order issued by Mayor Michael Hancock in 2016 that says that affordable housing is a priority and that any land the city sells should be considered for that purpose.

A nonprofit created by the Metropolitan Football Stadium District, a political subdivision of the state, and the Broncos has been exploring creating a mixed-use neighborhood destination on the property, which is currently occupied by surface parking lots that are only used during games and special events.