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"EXTRA, EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT!" | |
| December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 | |
| December 2008 | |
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Northern Colorado: Some Good News Source: “Economist: Colorado to perform better than U.S.” by Renee McGraw, Denver Business Journal, 11/20/2008; “Economist Optimistic For Colorado During Recession” by Mike Hooker, cbs4denver.com, 12/1/2008; “Northern Colorado real estate market expected to rebound” by Shelley Widhalm, Reporter-Herald, 11/21/2008; “Real Estate Outlook: Housing in Recovery” by Kenneth Harney, Realty Times, 11/18/2008 | |
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Northern Colorado Tops on “Best Places to Raise Your Kids” Source: Northern Colorado Business Report, “NoCo tops for families” by Staff, 11/12/2008 | |
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Loveland Home Match Program Source: Coloradoan, “Effort aims to find affordable housing” by Douglas Crowl, 11/22/2008 | |
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UNC Comes to Loveland’s Centerra Development Source: Reporter-Herald, “UNC to add campus in east Loveland’s Centerra” by Shelley Widhalm, 11/14/2008 | |
| November 2008 | |
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Downtown Loveland in Spotlight
Source: Northern Colorado Business Report, “Downtown Loveland forum set” by Staff, 11/7/2008 | |
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Southwest Weld County Communities Band Together Source: Source: Northern Colorado Business Report, “Trying times lead to Tri-Towns combined effort” by Jessica Centers, 11/7/2008 | |
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Greeley Downtown Development Authority Measures Pass Source: Greeley Tribune, "Greeley Downtown Development Authority measures barely pass" by Nate A. Miller, 11/5/2008 | |
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Technology Park proposed for North Fort Collins Developer Mike Jensen of Urban Development Partners, also a Realtor® with Keller Williams, has proposed a technology park, known as Inverness Innovation Park, that would likely house the Rocky Mountain Innovation Initiative and other as yet unsigned technology companies. Source: Coloradoan, “Park to help with innovation,” 11/3/2008 | |
| October 2008 | |
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Notes from the 12th Annual Real Estate Conference
Source: Coloradoan, "Leaders discuss growth" by Cari Merrill, 10/17/08 | |
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CREW Organizes Commercial Bus Tour of Northern Colorado
Source: Coloradoan, “Tour touts regional development” by Cari Merrill, 10/9/08 | |
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Colorado No. 15 among states for move-ins
Source: Denver Business Journal, “Colorado No. 15 among states for move-ins,” 9/23/2008 | |
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Vestas Blade Manufacturing Company Hiring
Source: The Greeley Tribune, “Vestas fans hiring spree” by Bill Jackson, 9/20/2008 | |
Specializing in RESIDENTIAL ACREAGE, Horse Boarding & Training FacilitiesFARM AND RANCH, development land in Northern Colorado
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“There’s good news in midst of all the gloom,” Coloradoan, 11/17/2008
BusinessWeek magazine recently released their “Best Places to Raise Your Kids 2009” report and two Northern Colorado communities took top spots in the state. Fort Collins was ranked as the number one place to raise kids while Loveland was a runner-up. The analysis, conducted by OnBoard Informatics, focused on towns with at least 50,000 residents and a median income of $40,000 to $100,000. Additional ranking factors included school performance; number of schools; household expenditures; crime rates; air quality; job growth; family income; museums, parks, theaters, and other amenities; and diversity. BusinessWeek is a business magazine published by McGraw-Hill. You can visit their website at 
Home Match, a program aimed at providing low-and-middle-income residents home ownership opportunities by purchasing foreclosed homes, may receive federal funding in 2009 and expand services to all of Larimer County. The program currently runs through the City of Loveland’s Housing Authority agency. The Housing Authority assists with purchasing a foreclosed home at auction, after taking repair costs into account, while the prospective buyer goes through loan pre-approval, a homebuyers education course and credit fixing. For more information about the program, you can visit the Housing Authority website at 
The University of Northern Colorado (UNC) based in Greeley, will soon open a campus in the Loveland Centerra complex. The new campus will serve as a central location for offering classes to residents in Northern Colorado. They will start off in January by offering evening and weekend classes in nursing and teacher education. 
Northern Colorado business and community leaders are turning their attention to Downtown Loveland. The downtown area has seen many changes in recent years, such as the Lincoln Hotel redevelopment, and funds are currently being raised to refurbish the historic Loveland Feed and Grain. Two key ingredients to urban renewal success are planning and funding. In response, the Northern Colorado Community Foundation sponsored a sold-out event in November entitled “Destination Downtown Loveland.” The event brought together representatives from the local business community, Colorado State University, the Downtown Boulder Business Improvement District and the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority to discuss the future of Loveland’s downtown district. 
Southwest Weld County communities have joined forces to attract employers and industry to the area. The communities include but are not limited to Frederick, Firestone, Decano and Erie. What is the incentive? Standing together, members of these communities offer a larger, more diverse and skilled employee base. The Southwest Weld Economic Development forum is a manifestation of the combined effort. The group is currently aggregating data that will be used in targeted marketing campaigns for potential employers. The group will also focus on retaining current employers in the region. For more information, you can visit the Upstate Colorado website at 
In early November, two measures passed that will support the mission and the vision of the Greeley Downtown Development Authority (DDA). The first measure establishes a mill levy to help fund the DDA and the second measure allows the city to approve bond issues up to $50 million for the DDA without requiring an election. Some of the DDA renovations include the Weldorado Building, 9th Street Plaza, the Kress Building and the Shaw Building. You can visit the Downtown Development Authority website at 
Over 150 real estate professionals and developers recently gathered for the 12th Annual Regional Real Estate Conference held at the Fort Collins Hilton Garden Inn Center. The central focus: What will our region’s landscape look like in 2050? By that time it is estimated that Weld and Larimer County will house an additional 500,00 residents. This growth presents unique challenges, such as shared resources and in-fill management between Greeley, Loveland and Fort Collins. Ideas such as distributing sales tax revenue across the region to support the growth were brought to the table. Regardless of which ideas are implemented, it was agreed upon that communication amongst the northern Colorado communities, leadership and effective use of technology are key to sustainable growth. 
The Northern Colorado chapter of Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) recently organized a bus tour of commercial projects in Northern Colorado. The tour took approximately 80 commercial real estate brokers and developers from outside the area to 15 new projects within the I25/USHwy34/Harmony corridor. CREW was founded in 2006 and has 50 members. The mission of the organization is to advance the success of women in commercial real estate. You can visit their website at: www.CrewNorthernColorado.com. 
Mayflower Transit recently conducted an annual relocation study and Colorado came in at number 15 among states for in-bound moves. Specifically, 55.3% of moves were people coming into the state with 44.7% leaving. Kentucky came in first with 62.5% in-bound moves. 
During a recent job fair at The Ranch in Loveland, Vestas, the world’s leading supplier of wind powered solutions, answered questions from potential employees and provided an overview of the company’s plans in the next 6-8 months. The company is looking to hire an additional 400 people for the Windsor manufacturing facility between January-April of 2009. Some of their new employees will be sent to Denmark and Germany for training prior to the holidays. At full production, the Windsor plant will produce more than 2,000 blades a year and employ over 800 people. At the Ranch, the company also detailed plans for opening manufacturing facilities in Brighton and Pueblo. For employment information, you can visit www.sosstaffing.com.