DENVER — Included is a roundup of new hotels in the pipeline for Denver, the top luxury home sales of 2019, a look at DIA's new baggage systems in the works, and more.
See this week's top stories below.
Hospitality and food
You might not think that Denver’s rising labor costs and the increasing variety of meatless options on local menus — two trends that largely will define the area restaurant scene in 2020 — are not related. But you would be wrong.
As more restaurants cram into the Mile High City at the same time that rents are rising, foot traffic is down and the labor crunch is combining with local laws to escalate personnel costs, eatery owners are looking for any way possible to save money.
Real estate
With record-breaking sales in both the luxury home and condo categories, there was no shortage of news from Denver's high-end market in 2019. Overall home prices in the Denver metro remain on the rise, while inventory is low. 2019 marked the eighth consecutive year of home-price increases, and the median home price reached $420,000.
Four Colorado master-planned communities, including two in the Denver metro, were among the 50 top-selling communities in the nation in 2019, according to a report from Bethesda, Maryland-based RCLCO Real Estate Advisors. Denver's Stapleton community ranked 15th on the list, with 604 home sales in 2019. Windsor's RainDance community followed at No. 42 with an estimated 398 sales.
5) Deals & Dealmakers: New apartments breaking ground at site once proposed for Amazon's HQ2 (DBJ subscriber content)
Colorado-based developer McWhinney will soon begin construction on 313 apartment homes in a 1,100-acre mixed-use community in Broomfield. Dubbed Park 40, the apartment project will be part of Baseline, a new planned community bounded by Colorado Highway 7, Interstate 25 and Northwest Parkway.
Cannabis
The national vaping crisis that's caused thousands of hospitalizations and dozens of deaths has had a significant impact on Colorado's cannabis retailers and manufacturers, according to a study released Thursday by Boulder market intelligence firm BDS Analytics. Colorado saw cannabis vape sales plummet by 23% from August 2019, the month the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the nation's first vape-related death, to September 2019. But that 23% drop in Colorado sales isn't as crippling as it may sound. Vape products have steadily increased their market share since the state was the first to implement a regulated recreational cannabis market in 2014.
Transportation/travel
7) DIA's 2 new baggage systems are on track to be completed in 2021 (DBJ subscriber content; photos available to all readers)
While Denver International Airport’s Great Hall and concourse expansion projects have been making headlines lately, two other projects that are part of DIA’s $3.5 billion five-year capital improvement program are almost complete. By the end of 2021, DIA will have two new baggage system projects completed. An area between the fifth and sixth floors of the Great Hall known as Level 5.5 will soon be used to move bags from the check-in counters at airlines to security.
Jobs
Zahn Dental, a Henry Schein Inc. (Nasdaq: HSIC) company, is closing a Colorado plant and laying off 54 employees. The dental supply company is closing its Custom Milling Center facility at 4680 Table Mountain Drive in Golden. The entire facility will be closed due to the reorganization and relocation of certain business processes, according to a letter the company wrote to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment as part of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, Act.
Energy
Colorado voters could be asked again to limit where oil and gas wells can be drilled when they go to the polls this fall. Anti-fracking groups behind an unsuccessful 2018 ballot initiative are trying again, citing unhappiness with the pace of state regulators' ongoing oil and gas industry reforms.
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