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Restaurants with great wine lists and the 'best year ever': This week's top 9 stories from the DBJ

The Denver Business Journal has your top headlines from a busy week.
Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

DENVER — Here's a weekly roundup of Denver Business Journal's top business stories served up for 9News readers. Included here are a roundup of the top multifamily deals of the year, news on an Amazon package-delivery drone, and stories about how Denver stacks up for young professionals and million-dollar businesses. See this week's top stories below: 

Real estate

Credit: Provided by LIV Sotheby's International Realty
This home at 8 Churchill Drive in Cherry Hills Village is listed for $8.25 million.

1) See inside this 21,000-SF Italian villa in Denver's suburbs listed for $8.25M (Photos) 

Cherry Hills Village is home to many mansions, but one designed to replicate an eighteenth-century Italian villa hit the market last month for $8.25 million. The nearly 21,000-square-foot mansion is located on 2.5 acres of land overlooking the 11th hole of the Cherry Hills Country Club and features a two-story library, a pub, theater, wine cave, 10 imported fireplaces, a gourmet kitchen and garage space for up to 16 cars.

Credit: Provided by Carter Crawford
Union Denver, a 579-unit apartment complex, was included in one of the biggest multifamily deals in state history.

2) Multifamily madness: Top deals of 2019 could lead to Denver's 'best year' ever (Photos) 

This year is shaping up to be one of the hottest for multifamily sales across metro Denver.

Through the first two quarters, there have been 34 deals across Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties that involved multifamily buildings with 50 or more units, according to research by CBRE. Those 34 deals totaled 7,514 units with an average price per unit of $258,513.

Technology: 

Credit: Amazon Patent Filing
Packages could be lowered from a moving drone by a wire, cable or string.

3) How will Amazon deliver packages by drone in tricky places? A new patent offers a clue. 

Amazon has secured a patent for a delivery system that "forcefully propels packages" from a moving drone. Basically, a drone could launch a package using a spring or metal arm. Why shoot packages? It's an attempt to solve the tricky physics problem of how a package behaves in free fall after leaving a moving aircraft. 

4) These Colorado companies made the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing list for 2019 

Just three Colorado companies — two fewer than last year — made the cut for the top 100 of America’s 5,000 fastest-growing private companies. The annual Inc. 5000 list for 2019 included many Colorado companies, but just one software company and two consumer products groups are at the very top of the list. The list ranks the percentage revenue growth for private companies, from 2015 to 2018.

Jobs/economy: 

Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

5) Denver leapfrogs Portland, Seattle and San Francisco on list of top cities for young professionals 

Where do the young professionals who make up a third of the working population get the most bang for their buck? With few exceptions, millennials should eschew the coasts and head for the middle of the country if they want to enjoy a high salary-to-cost-of-living ratio and good quality of life, according to an analysis by financial advisory firm SmartAsset. Denver's ranking moved up 22 spots in just one year.

6) Denver is adding million-dollar businesses faster than most U.S. cities 

The number of million-dollar companies in Denver is growing at a faster rate than in New York, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Seattle. Denver is No. 13 in a new LendingTree analysis of U.S. cities analyzing the largest gain in businesses with at least $1 million in revenue from 2014 to 2016.

Food/restaurants: 

7) Looking for a Denver restaurant with a great wine list? OpenTable suggests these (Photos) 

Whether you're out for a business dinner or a special occasion, there are plenty of options in Denver to sample fine wines. Denver Business Journal consulted with OpenTable to see which restaurants its users say have "notable" wine lists — part of the Diner's Choice feature offered on a monthly basis by the reviews and ratings site. 

Education:

8) Ranked: Metro Denver's top 25 elementary schools (new for 2020) 

As Colorado seeks to lure businesses to the state and companies seek to lure talent to the Denver metro, the quality of local schools becomes an important factor, along with affordability, safety and outdoor recreation. Denver Business Journal consulted Niche for its rankings of the top 25 elementary schools in metro Denver, both public and private. 

Patent law: 

Credit: Kathleen Lavine, DBJ
“The USPTO being in Colorado played a huge role because I don’t know the availability and flexibility I would have had to connect via video conferencing to defend my patent.” — Sirena Rolfe, who received a patent for this lightweight, water-resistant nylon hood. (

9) Five-year scorecard: A look at successes and challenges of Denver's U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (DBJ subscriber content) 

Five years ago, the Denver satellite location of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office opened, with goals to boost innovation in Colorado and increase the ability of the patent office to recruit and retain patent evaluators. Our story looks at the extent those goals have been achieved, and what more is needed for Colorado to make the office more accessible to inventors and the public.

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