Denver had smallest 2008 home-price decline of 20 U.S. cities

Standard & Poor's reported that 2008 home prices in the Denver area had the smallest decline of 20 major U.S. cities.

Source: Denver Business Journal
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http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2009/02/23/daily22.html

Denver a top spot for moviemakers

Denver is one of America’s 25 best cities for independent moviemakers to live, according to a survey by MovieMaker magazine.

The magazine based its ranking on such factors as employment opportunities, reasonable costs of living, strong quality of life, affordable home prices and financial incentives for making movies. It said it took into account the number of local film schools, festivals, movie-related vendors and local movie theaters as well as the size of the local talent pool.

Source: Denver Business Journal
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http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2009/02/23/daily26.html

Forbes magazine ranks Denver 6th in the 10 best US housing markets

Source: Forbes Magazine
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http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/24/housing-cities-ten-lifestyle-real-estate_home_prices_slide_6.html

New development project in Gunbarrel

A local developer has plans to build a 100-room Hampton Inn and Suites at a former lumberyard in Gunbarrel. He predicted the economy will be on its way back by spring 2010 - the same time he expects to complete construction.

Once the project is completed, the entryway to Gunbarrel will see a striking transformation: from local lumberyard and warehouse to a new hotel and retail center with contemporary, new urban architecture.

Source: Boulder County Business Report
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http://www.bcbr.com/article.asp?id=98754

Could Sportaccord Conference land Denver the Winter Olympics?

The Denver Metro Sports Commission will be the local coordinator of the 2009 Sportaccord international meeting of sports organizers, to be held March 23-27 at the Hyatt Regency in Denver. About 100 international sports federations will be attending, as well as sport celebrities such as Andre Agassi.

Representatives of the four finalist cities for the 2016 Olympics will make presentations: Chicago, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro and Madrid.

Source: Denver Business Journal
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http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2009/02/16/daily54.html

Housing Tax Credit approved

A tax credit of up to $8,000 is now available for qualified home buyers purchasing a principal residence between January 1, 2009 and December 1, 2009. The new credit does not have to be repaid.

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http://www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com/

Colorado shows California its love with new marketing campaign

The Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation (Metro Denver EDC) new “COlovesCA” marketing campaign seeks to convince companies in California to look to the Mile High City if they plan to expand.

The campaign included the creation of the website http://www.colovesca.com/, as well as newspaper ads, Valentine-style mailings to corporate executives, and even a plane towing an 80-foot-long “Colorado Loves CA” banner over Los Angeles.
Video: http://www.metrodenver.org/media-videos/co-loves-ca.html

The thinking behind the effort is that Colorado has lower taxes and lower living costs than the Golden State, as well as high quality of life and an educated workforce.

Denver boosters are hoping for more stories like that of San Francisco-based brokerage Charles Schwab Corp.’s recent announcement that it will bring 500 new jobs to Colorado by 2011, even as it reduces its total workforce.

Source: Denver Business Journal

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http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2009/02/09/daily75.html

Metro Denver had two of the country’s largest commercial real estate deals in 2008

Metro Denver had two of the country’s largest commercial real estate deals in 2008 — the sales of downtown Denver’s World Trade Center office buildings and the Denver Pavilions shopping mall.

Investors were attracted to the Denver area last year because this market’s economic fundamentals, particularly employment, were relatively strong compared to the rest to the nation, brokers said.

Source: Denver Business Journal

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http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2009/02/16/story5.html

Xcel Energy's 'SmartGridCity' in Boulder featured in The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal featured Xcel Energy's SmartGridCity initiative in Boulder - a $100 million advanced, smart grid system - that when fully implemented over the next few years - will provide customers with a portfolio of smart grid technologies designed to provide environmental, financial, and operational benefits.

This will be the first high-tech 'smart grid' in the U.S.

Source: The Wall Street Journal
SmartGridCity interactive graphics:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123378462447149239.html#articleTabs%3Dinteractive

Metro Denver Inventory of Homes for Sale Going Down

Metro Denver is seeing its inventory of for-sale homes go down, while most other U.S. markets are seeing their inventory increase. Single-family homes and condos — on the market for sale - declined 19.4 % in January, to 19,748 from 24,489 a year earlier.

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Source: Denver Business Journal
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http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2009/02/02/daily73.html

Boulder Smart Grid City Project

People in Boulder are cutting their energy use and saving money thanks to new meters being installed throughout the city as part of Xcel Energy Inc.’s “Smart Grid City” project.

The $100 million project has gotten national attention. There’s about $4.5 billion in the proposed federal stimulus package for upgrading transmission lines and utility meter systems, in order to smarten up a grid system that hasn’t changed much since the days of Thomas Alva Edison, the inventor of the light bulb who died in 1931.

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Source: Boulder County Business Report
Link: http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2009/02/09/story10.html

186,251 Creative Jobs in Colorado

The Colorado Council on the Arts found that 186,251 jobs in Colorado are associated with creative enterprises and creative occupations. The findings were in its "Colorado: State-of-the-Art, Key Findings from The State of Colorado's Creative Economy" study.

Colorado's creative enterprises employed more than 122,000 individuals in about 8,000 establishments. This accounts for 3.9 % of the state's estimated 3.2 million jobs, making it Colorado's fifth largest employment sector, according to the study.

Only New York, California, Massachusetts and Vermont have a higher concentration of creative talent. Colorado also ranks second in concentration of architects, seventh in concentration of writers, designers, entertainers and performers, and eight in concentration of photographers.

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Source: Boulder County Business Report
Link: http://www.bcbr.com/article.asp?id=98532

Solar Rebate Program

The Center for ReSource Conservation, Boulder County and the city of Boulder have been selected by the Governor's Energy Office and the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association to administer its Solar Domestic Hot Water Rebate Program.

The program is designed to provide rebates for solar technologies to residents and businesses in Colorado. It was created by the Governor's Energy.Rebates for home and business owners will be issued for systems installed after Feb. 2 - the official launch date.There are two tiers of rebates. Tier 1 is a $1,500 rebate, and Tier 2 is a $750 rebate. Both are based on solar tank sizes and the amount of energy, measured in BTU, used per day.

For more information, go to www.conservationcenter.org/e_solarhotwaterrebate.htm

Denver Biz Journal & CBS4 Team Up on "Beating the Recession"

The Denver Business Journal and KCNC-TV (CBS4) have teamed up to present "Beating the Recession," a series of reports on local businesses and consumers dealing with the economic crisis. Here is a video on this new partnership:
http://www.cbs4denver.com/video/?id=52868@kcnc.dayport.com

“We know times are tough for a lot of people. But there are still businesses out that are successful, and growing, during this economically challenging time. We’re making sure we’re reporting on those businesses, too, and not just the ones experiencing layoffs,” said Neil Westergaard, editor of the Denver Business Journal.

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Source: Denver Business Journal
Link: http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2009/02/02/daily50.html?ana=e_du_pap

Eight Colorado Hotels named in Travel & Leisure’s World's-Best List

Eight Colorado hotels — including the Hotel Teatro and Hotel Monaco in Denver — have been named to Travel + Leisure magazine’s 2009 “T+L 500,” its list of the world’s 500 best hotels.

Source: Denver Business Journal
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http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2009/02/02/daily28.html?surround=etf