The City of Grand Junction is taking a closer look at the planning department and affordable housing.
5
n Economic outlook
Colorado Mesa professor Nathan Perry expects ‘reasonable’ growth in Mesa County in 2025.
8
n Real Estate Market
What’s ahead for Mesa County in 2025 real estate market.
11
n Create raving fans
How business owners can create raving fans of their team members.
12
n 4th & 5th Street
Cody Kennedy, Grand Junction City Council
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District A representative, reports that 4th and 5th streets aren’t actually safer.
Key drives from
to
twice a week to
for
owned Key’s Coffee Roasting in Hotchkiss for about a year before selling the business in early December because bean prices had increased to the point he would have to raise his prices again in 2024. “When I started out I was charging $13 per pound,” he said. “Then I had to raise it to $13.50, then $14, then $14.50. Then, I started losing customers. That’s what made it so hard for me, because I’d have to raise my prices considerably, and I didn’t have an established customer base.”
Tanner
Hotchkiss
Grand Junction
roast beans
Colorado Legacy Coffee Roasters. Key
Photo by Tim Harty
Spike in coffee prices...
Much more than a hill of beans
Local coffee businesses hope they won’t have to raise their prices
t’s a little bit of a lot of things driving up the cost of the coffee beans used to make your morning cup of joe, shot of espresso or triple-shot latte.
Among the perceived culprits are: droughts in countries that are the largest growers of coffee beans; supply-chain issues tied to shipping; supply and demand, especially with growing demand in Asia; climate change; speculation in the futures markets; and the list goes on.
Whatever the reasons, coffee-bean prices increased dramatically throughout 2024, which means wholesalers and retailers paid more, and ultimately consumers paid more.
Local coffee roasters, coffee shops and grocery stores were affected, and many had to respond with price increases for their customers.
Then came December, when the price of coffee beans spiked again, this time to the highest futures market level in 47 years, breaking the record set in April 1977, according to a Dec. 10 Wall Street Journal article. Now, as prices continue to hover a little below that peak price, local coffee businesses hope they won’t have to increase their prices early in 2025.
At Colorado Legacy Coffee Roasters, 1048 Independent Ave., Unit A105, owner Roni Welsh said she raised prices twice in 2024, once in September and again in early December, for a combined increase of about a dollar per pound. The latter increase was before the 47-year high was realized on Dec. 10.
“It was astronomical,” Welsh said of the peak price, “as high as I’d ever seen it in the history of me doing business ... and we’ve been in the coffee business 30 years.”
She said she looked at her numbers for the year, and her costs increased 38 percent in 2024.
“That’s huge,” Welsh said. “I mean, 38 percent might not sound like very much to somebody who doesn’t run a business, but we run a business on below 5 percent increases and decreases. I mean, if I take a price increase, it’s usually 3 percent or lower.”
She said she never had to increase prices twice in one year until this year, and Welsh called that a “bummer” for herself as well as her customers.
“The consumers have to pay the price, or the middle people go out of business. That’s the option,” she said. “It’s like anything else, I guess. Consumers have to pay it. We can’t absorb it.”
Fortunately, Welsh said, her customers understand.
“Consumers know,” she said. “I mean, coffee is one of those commodities that gets a lot of media (attention) ... it’s a big industry, so it gets written up a lot. When coffee prices are high, our customers know. They come in, and they tell me that, ‘Yeah, I heard there’s a big drought in Brazil.’”
Colorado Legacy is primarily a roaster and much more a wholesaler for commercial accounts than a retailer.
At Kiln Coffee Bar, 326 Main St. in Grand Junction, the effect of rising coffeebean prices hits it twice, because Kiln is roaster and a coffee shop.
Jon Foster, who co-owns Kiln with his identical-twin brother, David, said coffee beans were one of several items with increased cost, necessitating price increases on coffee drinks in early October. He said Kiln tried to keep its increase to a minimum.
“I actually reached out to our provider, Cafe Imports, that we buy probably 90 percent of our coffee from, just to verify where coffee trends were at,” Jon Foster said. “We had negotiated a little bit of a discount the past year, and then all of a sudden it seemed like that discount was gone.”
He said Cafe Imports showed him a graph of the green-coffee prices, and it showed the prices spiking several times throughout the year. Foster said that put his mind at ease, knowing “at least that we were getting the best price that we could for right now.”
“But again,” he added, “it put us in a position where we felt that it was necessary to increase the prices a little bit.”
Roastiva, a Grand Junction coffee roaster at 554 25 Road, Unit 7, raised its prices in January 2024, which was before the large coffee-bean-price spikes happened. However, owner Josiah Abshear didn’t need to do another increase.
Roastiva will mark four years in business on March 1, and Abshear thinks a different approach since its inception helped Roastiva during the 2024 tumult.
See COFFEE on page 6
STORY BY TIM HARTY
Colorado Legacy Coffee Roasters owner Roni Welsh stands in front of a wall displaying one-pound bags of beans that represent the variety of roasts for sale. Colorado Legacy has operated in Grand Junction since 2003, and Welsh said she never experienced a year like 2024 for coffee-bean price spikes throughout the year. “By September, it was really pinching my cash flow, and I couldn’t hold on anymore,” she said of Colorado Legacy’s coffee-price increase in September. Photo by Tim Harty.
Identical twin brothers Jon, left, and David Foster opened Kiln Coffee Bar in downtown Grand Junction in 2017. In addition to operating the coffee shop, they roast and sell coffee beans. Photo provided by Kiln Coffee Bar.
Mesa County 1 step from being able to purchase federal land
A 32-acre parcel of land just south of Interstate 70 in Clifton sat in limbo for decades until a bill aimed at speeding up the process for Mesa County to purchase it passed both houses of Congress in late December.
The Clifton Opportunities Now for Vibrant Economic Yields Act (H.R. 2997) now awaits the signature of President Joe Biden. Once it is signed into law, the land will be available for Mesa County to purchase. Then, it opens the door for major commercial business opportunities that can bring jobs and increased sales-tax revenue to the Clifton community.
“That whole area could blow up for some business in Clifton, which Clifton needs,” Mesa County Commissioner Cody Davis said. “I’d love to get into some private hands where they can put it to good productive use and start generating sales tax to have some better interest in Clifton.”
Davis didn’t know exactly which businesses will be interested, but he suggested, “Walmart or Costco – who knows? – could come in and utilize that.”
Davis said the county had been trying for a long time to get the Bureau of Land Management to basically relinquish the land, but they have such a long process.
“It’s been at least eight years that we’ve been working on trying to get through this process,” he said. “I was talking to Jeff Small, (Rep. Lauren) Boebert’s chief of staff, and said, ‘I don’t know what to do. It’s like they keep telling us a couple years, a couple years, and it just keeps going.’ And (Small) said, ‘Well, why don’t we run a piece of legislation and get it passed?’
“So it’s literally come to kind of like an act of Congress to try to get this land into Mesa County, which is what we needed to do.”
Davis said Colorado’s U.S. senators, Michael Bennett and John HickeLooper, were hesitant to help at first and told the county they just needed to let the wheels turn and let it happen naturally.
Davis then indicated that over the past year, there was a sudden shift.
“They said, ‘We want to go ahead and pick up this piece of legislation that Boebert authored, and we’re going to run it on the Senate side.’ So they got support from both Bennett and Hickenlooper.”
Asked what the next steps are, Davis said the commissioners already are “pushing hard just on the administrative side. Like, we’re doing all the surveys we need to do.”
Davis said a purchase price has not been determined, and the county will have to get an appraisal to determine fair market value.
“I assume it will be low, given there is no access yet,” he said.
Davis said the ultimate goal is to put the sale in the hands of Industrial Development Inc.,
Davis added the county will pay for the land with money from its capital or economic development fund.
plans yet for an access road to the property, but it possibly could be from F 1/2 Road behind the Central Distributing building.
City taking closer look at planning department
Brandon Leuallen
The Business Times
During a City Council workshop on Dec.16, a discussion about potentially increasing impact fees on new residential and commercial construction raised concerns about deficiencies in the planning department and a review on expediting affordable housing.
At the workshop, City Council member Cody Kennedy highlighted issues within the planning process, saying, “Maybe there’s a way, if we’re talking about these fees, that we can have an expectation from staff to say, hey, we want to add some positions within the planning department, so that we can have more of a consistent expectation for new homes and new units coming online, that they could expect that they could get through the process in an expedited fashion.”
Mayor Abram Herman inquired about a current planning department study, asking, “Is it coming in the form of a memo? What’s happening?”
Recently hired Grand Junction City Manager Mike Bennett said he was aware of the study but not yet up to speed with it, and he asked Community Development Director Tamara Allen to provide more details.
Allen said she anticipates having a draft of some of their findings by January.
Allen later added, “As we prepared the scope, we did not anticipate bringing it to council,” and, “We certainly could do so or prepare a memo with their findings.”
Allen also explained, “The intent of the project, if you may recall, is using Prop 123 dollars to look at expediting affordable housing. We’ve really taken it as an opportunity to look at our processes that housing goes through, which are predominantly our site plan review as well as our subdivision plan review.”
WHAT IS PROP 123?
Proposition 123 is a ballot measure passed by voters in 2022, and it created the State of Colorado’s Affordable Housing Fund. It authorizes the state to retain money from existing state tax revenue to support affordable-housing investment.
Bennet emphasized the value of addressing both issues simultaneously in a January joint meeting between stakeholders involved in the current impact-fee study and city council.
“I think they’re separate, but it’s the same group of stakeholders, and the timing fortunately is aligning,” he said.
Bennet later said, “I definitely want to emphasize that it’s incredibly important, and an area we want to focus heavily on. I don’t know how to tie it directly to the fee piece, but I think it’s a natural question we are going to get, and so we need to be able to address that as an organization.”
The Business Times reached out to local developers that were contacted to be stakeholders in the process.
One developer, Ron Abeloe, said, “They were contacting stakeholders that work with
the department. They interviewed us over the phone, and that was the last we ever heard about it. I don’t know any more than that. I haven’t heard any results or any follow-up.”
Another developer, Kevin Bray, who recently wrote a letter to Grand Junction City Council about inefficiencies in the planning department, said, “We’ve had these conversations for years, and it was one of the first things we talked about on the Development Codes Rewrite Committee, was the fact that their planning process isn’t working.”
Bray added, “They were talking about doing an expedited process for affordable housing, and we were arguing for, ‘Well, why don’t you just fix it for everyone? Why would you just fix it for affordable housing? It’s broken. Fix it for everyone, and then it’ll be good for affordable housing, too.’”
Bray also said, “They call it capital-A affordable housing; it means it’s subsidized housing. I think the bigger issue is housing affordability. What we want is broad affordability and naturally occurring affordable housing.”
The Business Times contacted the City of Grand Junction to inquire about the study. Communications Director Hannah Ellis said there was no dedicated page on the city’s website for the study, describing it as an internal process.
The Business Times reviewed the contract on the City of Grand Junction’s Public Records Search page. The contract, dated Aug. 16, 2024, shows consulting firm Baker Tilly is being paid $49,990 for “Professional Services Consultant to Evaluate the Development Review Process to Provide Expedited Review for Affordable Housing.”
When asked why there was no page on the city’s website or recorded meetings for the media and the public to learn more about the process as compared to the recent impactfee study, Community Development Director Tamra Allen said, “The target audience for process improvement are those people involved in the process, different than impact fees that have broad implications to all of our taxpayers and residents with regard to how improvements to our capital infrastructure are funded.
“The process improvement work is really focused on who participates in that process and the continuous improvement throughout and the efficiency in that. The audience that understands and participates in the process is very different than one of our other types of projects going on that you’ve compared it to.”
When asked if the process can be used for market-rate housing as well, Allen said, “The intent is to look at our process as it relates to affordable housing.”
She later said, “Certainly our hope is that the lessons that we learn for the ability to expedite affordable housing will be transferable to all housing types.”
Allen said a report about the findings and recommendations will be available in early March. And she anticipates the consultants will be asked to present their findings, but she does not yet know when that will be.
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Continued from Page 2
“There’s definitely been fluctuation ever since we started,” he said. “I think we started with a pretty high price point for our coffee, because all of our coffee is organic and fair trade, and then we also do donations to nonprofits that support the communities that the plantations are in. So, our cost for coffee has always been pretty high.”
Aside from its price hike in January 2024, Abshear said Roastiva’s only other price increase came about a year after it opened. And that wasn’t all about the price Roastiva had to pay for beans.
“I have racked my head and racked my head on what else to do, but I run a really tight ship here, so I don’t have a lot of fluff that I can cut back on.”
The hope remains that coffee-bean prices will go down and level off, and there will be no need to increase prices to consumers.
Abshear recalls learning about the up-and-down nature of the coffee market about three months after opening Roastiva.
“Brazil had like the biggest freeze in their history, and so coffee prices shot up a ton,” he said. “And it came back down and stabilized a little bit.”
Abshear added, “Part of that is coffee. Part of that is I was figuring out our business model and labor and stuff.”
The “stuff” includes free delivery of coffee beans to customers’ homes.
“A majority of our business is to households,” Abshear said, “and so we have a little bit more margin than if we were doing a whole bunch of wholesale accounts where we’re giving them, you know, wholesale discounts.”
When price increases do occur, they’re preceded by creative thinking and belt tightening.
For Kiln, Foster said, “We’ve been fortunate because we have extra space, having a warehouse, to buy some things in larger bulk to try to get our prices back down to where they were. (With) coffee we can’t do that, but things like our chai, alternative milk, we’ve been able to buy on pallets in order to try to get the cost down.”
At Colorado Legacy, Welsh said she didn’t buy as many holiday items this year to sell, so she could maintain cash flow for coffee beans.
“Beans are our bread and butter. That’s where we make money,” she said. “I mean, we’re a coffee roaster. Everything else is just extra. So, I cut back on extra inventory that we don’t need, to save cash to buy more expensive coffee.
Foster said every industry and economy has ebbs and flows, so the coffee industry is no different, and he chooses to be optimistic.
He hopes for “a pullback this year on the coffee-bean prices, and we don’t need to continue to increase prices. … I don’t foresee that this year, doing any more price increases.”
Welsh’s three decades in the coffee business mean she’s seen a lot of the ebbs and flows that Foster mentioned. The thing that’s more concerning this time, though, is the increases in the coffee-bean market are the highest she has seen.
She said she has been buying on spot lately instead of on contract, because “that would mean signing contracts for months out, and I won’t lock into these prices. … I’m rolling the dice that they’re gonna come down.”
The question remains: Will they go low enough?
“Price increases have always been part of the business. They’re something none of us ever want to do,” Welsh said, “because we’re all small business owners, and we’re all consumers, and we hate doing it.”
“I just took enough to make sure that I was gonna still be here next year, you know, that it wasn’t gonna take me under. But still, it doesn’t cover the increase, at all. So, I’m still rolling the dice, I guess. I’m still hoping the prices come down, and then that increase will make up for that.”
MORE ABOUT THE COFFEE BEANS
IT ALL ADDS UP
Diving a little deeper into the reasons for the higher cost of coffee beans in 2024, national media outlets, such as the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, National Public Radio and NBC, to name a few, came up with a plethora. Among them are:
• Droughts in Brazil and Vietnam, the world’s two largest producers of coffee beans. Brazil grows arabica beans and is the No. 1 coffee grower in the world. Vietnam is No. 2 in production and the top grower of the robusta bean. A combination of drought during the growing season and heavy rains at harvest time, is really bad for beans.
• Supply-chain issues, which appear to stem primarily from low water in the Panama Canal and attacks on vessels trying to use the Suez Canal. The latter is called the Red Sea Crisis and dates back to October 2023. Without the convenience of passing from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea, and vice versa, cargo shippers are forced to use alternate routes, causing major delays.
• Supply and demand as Asia, with approximately 4.8 billion people (more than half of the world’s population), has a growing thirst for coffee.
• Climate change, which is increasingly diminishing the viability of some coffee-producing regions.
• Speculation on coffee’s futures markets. Betting on the future can lead to detrimental actions from buyers and sellers, and there’s not enough room in this information box to explain it. But if you really want to know more, go to efico.com and read Insight Into the C-Market and Its Influence on the Price of Coffee. Fair warning: Brew a pot of strong coffee first.
WON’T COMPROMISE QUALITY
When Colorado Legacy Coffee Roasters owner Roni Welsh racks her brain to figure out ways to avoid raising her prices, one thing never crosses her mind. She will not buy a lower-quality coffee bean to save money.
“I only roast current-year crop,” she said. “I don’t even use brokers that have last year’s crop. So, I don’t change the quality of my coffee based on the prices. ... I could buy lower-grade coffee, but I’m not going to do that. That’s not something that we’ve ever done, nor will we, because that changes the consistency too drastically, and that’s not fair to our customers.”
Welsh said she switched to a different packaging company to save three cents per bag, but then the price of the labels that she puts on the bags increased this year.
“The labels absorbed my three cents plus a couple more, so that didn’t help,” she said.
BLAME IT ON BRAZIL ...
One of the oft-suggested reasons for the spike in coffee-bean prices this year is drought in Brazil is expected to reduce the bean harvest about 25 percent from the original forecast.
Kiln Coffee Bar co-owner Jon Foster said drought talk about Brazil goes back further than 2024. Kiln uses a Brazilian coffee in its espresso, so Foster said he tracks that closely.
“We actually watched Brazil jump way high, and then we watched it pull back down to about what we were paying for it four or five years ago,” he said. “And so it now has increased again ... it’s right around the top of where it had exploded during those droughts.”
Even then, Foster isn’t placing all of the blame on Brazil.
“I think it’s what we’ve seen across the board,” he said. “All of our coffees have gone up in prices, not just Brazil in the past year.”
Roastiva owner Josiah Abshear can explain why other coffee growers’ prices went up. For an obvious reason a drought in Brazil shouldn’t affect his business. Yet, it does.
“Whatever happens in Brazil – which is actually kind of funny, because we don’t source any Brazil coffee – but whatever’s happening in Brazil definitely affects our prices,” he said. “Which is just because of supply and demand, and the other roasters who use a lot of Brazil are substituting for stuff.”
… OR BLAME SUMATRA
If Abshear reads the above listing of reasons for coffee bean prices rising, he’ll have an “Aha!” moment when he reads about the Red Sea Crisis.
“It was probably six months ago, it might have been a year ago now, there was a lot of conflict along one of our shipping routes from Sumatra, and they had to do this big old roundabout thing,” Abshear said.
He was making a greater point about the many variables that affect coffee prices, and one of the ways he’s learned to compensate is by adding inventory.
“We try to keep two, three months worth of inventory,” Abshear said, “rather than like when we opened, we only had a month’s worth. ... Just the general theme of increasing inventory has helped us kind of have flow through that.”
F
Roastiva owner Josiah Abshear, left, and his brother, Jon, stand next to the coffee roaster they use to roast coffee beans at 554 25 Road, Unit 7, in Grand Junction. Roastiva opened March 1, 2021. Photo courtesy of Roastiva.
Economic expert expects ‘reasonable’ growth
CMU professor sees enough positives, forecasts continued growth for Mesa County in 2025
Tim Harty The Business Times
As the data compiler and writer of the Mesa County Economic Update quarterly newsletter, Nathan Perry sees the pertinent numbers that show where Mesa County’s economy has been.
The data serve as a factual, historical record. This time of year, though, the numbers serve another purpose, an inexact, speculative one: They are used to forecast what may be coming next.
Perry, a professor of economics at Colorado Mesa University, analyzed the data, a combination of numbers from 2023 and 2024, and drew his conclusions about what Mesa County is likely to see in 2025.
He saw positive indicators, such as the recently released 2023 Gross Domestic Product increasing 2.64 percent in Mesa County. And he saw negative indicators, a rise in unemployment chief among them. And on the whole he’s of the mind Mesa County will follow the national trend and have continued growth.
His first word choice to describe that growth was “subdued,” but upon further review he changed it to “reasonable” growth.
“A lot of economists see strong growth on the horizon,” Perry said, but some indicators temper his assessment.
“I think the labor market’s going to be a little bit tighter than what we’re used to,” he said. “We’ve seen unemployment come up a little bit. Consumers are pulling back.
“Then on the demand side, I think we’re gonna see a little bit of subdued spending. But on the supply side, I think you’re going to see a lot of Trump economic policy pushing growth forward.
“So how do I frame that properly? … I do think we’re gonna see reasonable growth, and I do think Mesa County is gonna see a positive
growth year unless something nationally happens that puts us into a recession.”
Another item Perry pointed to on the positive side of the ledger is personal income per capita increased more than 4 percent, rising from $55,220 to $57,653.
“Personal income per capita has gone up pretty drastically the last 10 years in Mesa County,” he said. “If you look at the graph of it … we stagnated for a decade. Since about 2017 it’s just gone up.”
Contrarily, median household income fell, but Perry said, “I’m not too concerned about it. This is the Census; they have a small sample for Mesa County, and it’s a pretty large confidence interval, so the median-householdincome estimate in 2022 was $69,578 and that fell to $66,339. But if you look at the trend of median household income, it is still going up.”
Perry said Mesa County’s median household income in 2020 was $64,000, and 2021 stayed at that mark.
“And then everything jumped in 2022,” he said. “So it wasn’t just Mesa County, but we went from 64 to 69 and then down to 66. And so I felt like that $69,000 was a little bit of an outlier, so the $66,000 is still higher than the previous two years before that. So, I’m not super concerned about a one-year reduction just because of the sample size of that.”
Perry said there is a cause for concern in the income category, but he’s inclined to think it’s an outlier: Mesa County’s poverty rate went from 10.7 percent to 11.9 percent. Perry said this is another estimate generated by the Census on a small sample size.
“They’re showing that poverty went up by almost a full percentage point,” Perry said, “and that doesn’t really jibe with some of the other data points from 2023. And so, I’m not overreacting to a one-year increase in poverty when almost all the other 2023 data points were pretty positive. ... I was expecting those poverty rates to fall. They jumped. We’ll see where we’re at in a year or two.”
Interest rates have been a prevailing headline in recent years as the Federal Reserve Board has kept them high in its attempt to reduce inflation.
See GROWTH on Page 10
MORE ABOUT ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
THE DATA THAT DRIVES HIS OUTLOOK
Colorado Mesa professor of economics Nathan Perry said the data that helps him the most in forecasting economic trends are Gross Domestic Product, personal income per capita, median household income and then the poverty rate.
“Those are the big things that I track,” he said. “I call them standard-of-living measures.”
WAIT AND SEE FOR OIL AND GAS
President-elect Donald Trump likes to say, “Drill, baby, drill,” when speaking of his energy strategy. That resonates in Western Colorado, but Perry isn’t certain to what extent the state will see it.
“I do not know how Trump is going to try and encourage oil and gas exploration, and if it’s gonna impact Colorado, if federal laws are gonna supersede state laws in terms of regulation,” he said. “But I imagine that we’ll see some sort of impact from that, and at least on that, it’s an example of an industry that it will follow the national trends.”
EXPECT SUPPLY-SIDE GROWTH, SUBDUED SPENDING
After summarizing his 2025 expectations are for strong growth, a subdued labor market and “a little bit more subdued spending,” Perry expounded on it.
“I think a lot of the growth is gonna come on supply side,” he said. “Consumers are feeling very confident.”
However, looking at credit-card debt and savings, Perry said, “The data doesn’t look so confident. It’s kind of this weird thing going on with consumers right now, where, if you look at consumers’ confidence, it’s bumping up, but when I look at savings rates and defaults, I’m like, “Oh, boy!’
“And inflation, you can see in company earnings a lot of people are kind of trading down. Target’s earnings weren’t as good, but Walmart earnings were great. That’s a perfect example. You know, people budget, so they substitute to maybe different-quality products or different-brand products.”
THE FED GOT IT WRONG
After addressing high interest rates on Small Business Administration loans, Perry asked, “Is that doing the right thing? I mean, inflation is not that high. They’re stuck on this 2 percent target, but we might not be in a world where 2 percent inflation is possible.”
That was just the beginning of Perry taking the Federal Reserve Board to task for its approach to interest rates.
“What are we at, 2.6, 2.7 percent right now, inflation? I don’t know if that warrants the interest rates we’re at,” he said. “This is just my opinion. I don’t offer too many opinions, but I will on interest rates because it’s fairly apolitical, I think. So, if I were the Fed, I wouldn’t cut rates like crazy, but I would cut rates a little bit into 2025.
“They’re definitely in a holding pattern. I don’t think they’re gonna get their 2 percent inflation unless we have a recession, and I don’t think we want a recession for 2 percent inflation. I think the Fed is doing more harm than good, keeping interest rates high. That’s what I think.
“I think they’re hurting lower-income people more than they’re hurting higher-income people with their high-interest-rate policy, and I am for low interest rates.” F
Nathan Perry
CORRECTION
An information box titled, “Total Impact of Fee Increases,” on Page 12 of the Dec. 25, 2024, edition of The Business Times should have listed the total amount for Parks and Recreation projects in Grand Junction’s 10-year capital plan would total $175,626,240.
Growth
Continued from page 8
The Fed’s small decreases to the interest rate in the past year are likely to remain the approach, as Perry said, “Interest rates will not fall the way people are hoping. I expect interest rates to stay high for the foreseeable future.”
Meanwhile, he added, Mesa County’s real estate prices are up 6.86 percent since last year, which defy the interest rates.
Something that hasn’t been quantified with numbers but will no doubt impact the economy is the return of President-elect Donald Trump to the White House.
Perry said Trump’s promises to implement more tariffs doesn’t portend a clear outcome, especially on the local level, because the specifics remain to be seen.
“It’s hard to say what the impact of the tariffs will be, because they haven’t been negotiated or implemented,” Perry said. “Tariffs can be inflationary, but in the first
Trump administration tariffs were targeted and only certain industries dealt with this.
“Tariffs can be inflationary but they can also create incentives for domestic production.”
Meanwhile, Trump stands to affect Mesa County directly when it comes to the oil and gas industry, as Perry said he promised an expansionary energy policy and a reduction of regulation in that industry.
“I do not know how this will manifest, if there will be certain federal directives that supersede state directives, I’m not sure yet,” Perry said.
Ultimately, Perry sees the president as a positive for Mesa County’s economy.
“Trump has a pro-growth agenda,” he said. “I think many economists are expecting strong GDP growth during his presidency. Mesa County is not so isolated; we follow state and national trends, so if we do see a lot of economic growth, I would expect Mesa County to follow the trend.”
That remains in line with Perry’s overall assessment.
“I think we’ll do OK this year,” he said. “Internationally we’re going to have some supply-side policies that push growth forward. I think demand is going to maybe take a step back. And so those two are going to meet somewhere in the middle, and I think ultimately it’s going to be a positive growth, and I see kind of the same thing happening for Mesa County.” F
2025 Real Estate Market Outlook: What’s ahead for Mesa County
As 2025 approaches, the real estate market in Grand Junction is poised for significant developments across residential, commercial and property-management sectors. As a full-service real estate brokerage specializing in all three areas, we are anticipating trends that reflect the region’s growth, affordability and evolving needs.
Residential Real Estate: Opportunities for Buyers and Sellers
The residential real estate market in Grand Junction is expected to experience steady growth in 2025. Following a moderate increase in home values throughout 2024, prices are projected to rise at a rate of 3-5 percent this year. Low housing inventory continues to be a driving factor, pushing demand for new home construction and remodeling projects.
Grand Junction remains a desirable location for families, retirees and remote workers because of its affordability compared with Colorado’s Front Range cities. The median sales price for single-family homeS currently sits around $433,950 for Mesa County, significantly lower than Denver County, which sits at $690,000 and Boulder County, which sits at $824,042 (according to the Colorado Association of Realtors).
However, buyers should prepare for continued competition in entry-level price ranges as first-time buyers and investors remain active.
For sellers, this is a favorable market, provided homes are priced correctly and marketed effectively. Modern features, energy-efficient upgrades, single-level and move-in-ready properties will attract quicker offers. Per the usual, real estate professionals predict the spring and summer months of 2025 will be especially strong for listings, as interest rates are anticipated to stabilize.
Commercial Real Estate: Growth Driven by Small Businesses and Development
The commercial sector in Grand Junction is expected to see a resurgence in 2025, driven by the expansion of small businesses, infrastructure projects and increased investor interest in the region. With Grand Junction serving as the hub of the Western Slope, opportunities for retail, office space and industrial development remain promising.
Demand for flexible, mixed-use properties that cater to retail, dining and residential spaces is projected to grow. Sectors such as healthcare, logistics and technology are particularly noteworthy with several developers expressing interest in commercial opportunities throughout the Grand Valley.
Vacancy rates for office and retail spaces, which saw fluctuations in recent years, are expected to decline, particularly in downtown Grand Junction and areas along U.S. 6&50 and I-70B. As the city continues to prioritize infrastructure improvements and economic incentives, commercial real estate will be an attractive asset for both local investors and out-of-state buyers seeking affordable options compared to urban Colorado markets.
Property Management: Evolving to Meet Rental Demands
The property-management sector will play a vital role in Grand Junction’s real estate market in 2025. As rental demand remains high, property owners and real estate investors are increasingly turning to professional-management services to handle tenant relationships, maintenance and rent collection.
The residential rental market will see continued growth, particularly in single-family homes and vacation rentals. Grand Junction’s appeal as a recreational hub, combined with its affordability, has made short-term rentals a lucrative option for investors. Programs like our Braycations and other tailored vacation rental offerings are expected to see higher occupancy rates year-round.
However, property managers face challenges, including increasing tenant expectations for 24/7 services, energy-efficient homes and competitive rental rates. Retention of long-term tenants will remain a key focus as rising rents continue to be a concern. Real estate investors are encouraged to prioritize upgrades and proactive maintenance to attract quality renters in a competitive market.
A Balanced Market Ahead
Overall, the 2025 real estate market in Grand Junction presents a balanced outlook for buyers, sellers, investors and tenants alike. Growth across all sectors reflects confidence in the region’s economic and lifestyle appeal. Whether looking to buy a home, lease a commercial property or maximize rental investments, Grand Junction continues to offer opportunities for those ready to navigate an evolving market.
As trusted advisors in residential, commercial and property-management real estate, we encourage clients to partner with experienced professionals who can provide the insights and strategies necessary to succeed in 2025.
Stewart Cruickshank is sales manager of Bray & Company Real Estate, 1015 N. Seventh St. in Grand Junction. To reach out to Stewart, call 970-242-3647.
Stewart Cruickshank
Create raving fans and excel in business
When customers like, or better yet love, your business, they are going to give you their patronage and will happily share their glowing recommendations with others.
Business owners who want to create enterprises that will survive challenging times and thrive in the easy times, should consistently endeavor to create raving fans of their customers.
The most effective way to create raving fans of your customers is to first create raving fans of your team members. They are the ones who interface with your patrons and deliver customer service. In many instances, your team members control the quality of the products and services you provide.
If your team members don’t trust, respect, like and appreciate you, your business will suffer due to decreased customer satisfaction.
How do business owners and managers create raving fans of their team members?
People want to be liked and accepted. This is a basic human need. We typically treat the people we like very differently from those we don’t like. When you like someone, you take an interest in them, build a relationship and care about them, and they know it. They also know when you don’t like or care about them.
Your team members are not merely assets, resources or cogs in the wheel of business. They are human beings with lives, challenges, fears, hopes and dreams, just like you. Take the time to get to know your people. Most team members who are treated this way have a real sense of loyalty and commitment to the business and the customers it serves. When people on your team feel cared about, they have the
People want to feel important. They want to know they matter and to contribute something of value to the team. Creating this feeling in your team members is as easy as involving them in the decision-making process.
tendency to return the favor to you and your customers.
People want to feel valued and appreciated. Don’t you? Now more than ever, praise your team members for a job well done. They aren’t going to be perfect, but if they give their best in caring for your customers, reward them with some recognition, so they know you value and appreciate them.
There are many ways to show your genuine appreciation of your team members, and knowing what they would value matters. When a member of your team is on time, does consistently high-quality work, improves their skills and abilities and treats your customers with the utmost regard, reward them accordingly. Otherwise, they will work for another business and turn its customers into raving fans.
People want to feel important. They want to know they matter and to contribute something of value to the team. Creating this feeling in your team members is as easy as involving them in the decision-making process. If you are truly running the company and they are working in operations, your team members likely will be aware of things you are not.
Ask for, listen to and really consider their input as you make decisions and implement changes. This does not mean that you will use or take action on every suggestion.
But it does mean you think enough of your team members, and ultimately your customers, to get their perspective and implement their great ideas, when and where you can.
Team members who are treated well are typically more engaged, motivated, caring, loyal and willing to go the extra mile for the customer, because the business owner does the same for them. Turnover decreases, efficiency and productivity increases, and sales are captured, not lost in this business model.
It’s important to realize that customer loyalty starts at the top with the business owner. Who you are and how you treat people in the process of doing business will be the ignition point for customer satisfaction, loyalty and business success. As you begin to involve, value, care for, recognize and support your team members to a greater degree, the quality of your business will rise right along with them.
As we face a new year and the unknown that it will bring, I urge you to truly understand and honor the symbiotic relationship between you, your team members and customers. When your team members are your biggest fans, they create raving fans of your customers. Happy customers are repeat customers, they typically spend more of their hard-earned money with you and are a great source of referrals.
Marcus Straub owns Life is Great Coaching in Grand Junction. His personalized coaching and consulting services help individuals, business owners, executives and companies build teams, organizations and lives filled with happiness and success. Straub is winner of the International Coach of the Year Award and author of “Is It Fun Being You?” He’s available for free consultations regarding coaching, speaking and trainings. Reach Straub at (970) 208-3150, marcus@ligcoaching.com or through the website located at www.ligcoaching.com. F
Marcus Straub
4th & 5th Streets aren’t actually safer
New year, new times... Built on old principles
We know we’ve been tooting our own horn for the past few months on this topic, but we can’t help it if our own anticipation has gotten the better of us. And for the staff, our readers and advertisers, the crescendo has finally reached its conclusion.
As of the printing of this edition on Jan. 8, 2025, the Business Times becomes an even greater source for local news from a business perspective with our first weekly printing. Yes, these first papers might be a little smaller than you are used to, but overall, we’ll be covering more news, more frequently and more thoroughly than ever before.
And we’re doing it for the simplest, age-old principle, which all news organizations should have at their core: Quality, sourced, fact-based stories that are of interest to the community and now, in many cases, fall under the people’s right to know.
After all, that’s why freedom of the press exists, isn’t it? And that’s why for (probably) the last time, our horn will be tooting about how great it is to have a weekly, alternative news source in the Grand Valley that embraces the “old-school” way of reporting news. The more news stories the better, right?
We don’t know about you — well, we kind of do — but reading a story that spurs more questions about the story itself than curiosity in looking further into the topic at hand is a frustrating way to take in the news. In other words, wouldn’t you rather read a story where the questions you have are asked and answered? We think so. And we spend a lot of time in editorial meetings ferreting out what those questions are.
Which brings us to another favorite, old principle at our core: Ask the questions, record the answers accurately and put them (edited to AP style as best we can) into print. As we’ve said before, this running a newspaper thing is, literally, that easy.
And that ease of publishing is most strongly supported by the paramount principle of any media outlet: The domains of advertisers, editorial and content never cross into one another’s territory. Each arena is sacred and separate from the others. And in 25 years of printing The Business Times, we’ve been resolute with maintaining this bedrock foundation.
Now some may say, “But you do stories on your advertisers all the time.” Our response, “We do.” Because our advertisers know we are a reliable source in which to press release their stories, and they know those stories will be told as comprehensively as possible.
Put it this way, if you send us a press release about your company, chances are, we’re going to give it the proper coverage. Sometimes it’s a business brief, other times a short story, and occasionally it ends up on the cover. But the main point is this. It will get covered if we believe it is of interest to our readers or falls under the public’s right to know. For most press releases we receive, they do.
“But what about your bias?” you ask. Our first response? “Thanks for reading Craig Hall’s column.” After all, that’s what opinion pages are for: opinions. And we like to publish opinions that get read.
Sadly, for some – but happily and of much interest to others – that’s Craig’s column. We’re hoping to expand on that arena with more letters to the editor and op-eds as we continue to grow the product. Interaction with the community is the heartbeat of any newspaper. And we want to feel the thump. So, keep those cards and letters coming.
And keep reading. We don’t take that for granted. We know it’s built on trust. A trust we’ve spent a quarter of a century building. It’s much appreciated, and we know this one, final truth in newspapers: We can’t do any of this without you.
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Craig Hall is owner and publisher of The Business Times. Reach him at 424-5133 or publisher@thebusinesstimes.com
The Business Times welcomes submissions for publication in the opinion section. Email submissions to publisher@thebusinesstimes.com Please include full contact information with submission.
The numbers are in: Fourth and Fifth Streets are less safe.
In just four months since the redesign, we’ve seen a sharp increase in bike crashes, with three of six post-redesign incidents involving cyclists, one directly tied to the new design. Yet the city’s report paints the project as a success, citing reduced speeds and a 3.4 percent increase in downtown visitation.
And herein lies the problem with relying solely on selective data. While the numbers may look good in isolation, they don’t tell the full story of how this redesign has impacted safety, accessibility and the broader downtown economy.
That said, I appreciate the effort that went into compiling this data, as it reflects the city staff’s commitment to evaluating such a significant initiative. However, there are critical gaps in this analysis that need to be addressed to truly assess the redesign’s success, or lack thereof.
First, while slower speeds are highlighted as a positive outcome, they were achieved through a design that has frustrated drivers and created more congestion. Frustration leads to higher conflict rates, which can ultimately negate any safety gains from reduced speeds.
As I’ve noted in the past, traditional traffic-calming measures such as better signal timing, targeted traffic enforcement and raised crosswalks that act as speed bumps could achieve similar results without the same level of disruption to motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.
The report leans heavily on Placer AI data, which uses anonymized mobile-device data to estimate foot traffic. While this technology can track general-visitation trends, it does not account for population growth in Grand Junction, which has increased in recent years. When adjusted to reflect this population growth, the 3.4 percent increase in downtown visits becomes far less meaningful.
While the geofence used for the data excludes the Ute Avenue and Pitkin Avenue corridor, it does extend about half a block south of Colorado Avenue, meaning it likely includes some impact from the HomewardBound Resource Center. From January to October 2024 alone, the resource center facilitated the distribution of over 100,000 pounds of food to more than 10,000 households.
This commendable work undoubtedly draws people downtown, but it also inflates visitation numbers without reflecting increased economic activity for businesses. Without including sales-tax revenue or feedback from downtown businesses, the report cannot provide a full picture of the redesign’s economic impact.
Sales-tax data, which would provide a far more accurate measure of downtown economic activity, was briefly discussed in the report but deemed “inconclusive” because there was only one month of data. Excluding this data, representing 25 percent of the pilot project timeline, leaves a significant gap in understanding whether the redesign has helped or hurt businesses.
The crash data also requires a closer inspection. In just four months, bike crashes have spiked, with cyclists involved in 50 percent of post-redesign crashes. One of these crashes was directly tied to the design itself. This sharp rise in bike-related incidents, combined with the frustration expressed by motorists, shows the redesign has not balanced the needs of all road users. And the continued reports of near-miss accidents aren’t included or even mentioned in the report.
Both police and fire unions have pointed out critical flaws in the design, beyond just the inadequate lane width. The current layout does not provide space for cars to yield to emergency vehicles or for fire trucks and ambulances to maneuver around vehicles when drivers freeze up, as they often do when overwhelmed by lights and sirens behind them.
Additionally, despite the report’s note about slightly wider roadways, the design still fails to allow fire trucks and ambulances to navigate corners effectively, creating further safety hazards.
While the short timeline for data collection is a limitation, I believe we have gathered enough information and community feedback to warrant a decision to return Fourth and Fifth streets to their original design. At the same time, we should carefully consider adding bike lanes to other locations, such as Third or Sixth streets, where they can be safely integrated without disrupting critical road functions or creating safety risks for other users.
The “moving forward” portion of the staff report is also revealing. Instead of considering course corrections, such as moving the bike lanes to another street or returning Fourth and Fifth to their original configuration, it only focuses on keeping the bike lanes where they are. This rigid approach ignores legitimate concerns raised by residents, businesses, and even first responders.
My “Moving Forward” approach …
Sometimes, plans don’t work out, and that’s OK. What’s important is the ability to admit when a course correction is needed and make adjustments based on what we’ve learned. In this case, it may mean going back to the original design rather than trying to justify a bike-centric redesign that has proven to be less safe and a disservice to the broader community.
While data is an important part of evaluating any project, it must be collected and analyzed in a way that provides a clear, objective view of its impacts, not just in a way that supports a predetermined position. If we are truly committed to doing what’s best for Grand Junction, we need to ensure the data we rely on is comprehensive, transparent, and reflective of the full range of community experiences. Only then can we make decisions that truly serve our community. F
Cody Kennedy is the District A representative on the Grand Junction City Council.
Cody Kennedy
Craig Hall
n FRUITA MEET AND GREET FOR CITY MANAGER FINALISTS
The four finalists to become the next city manager of Fruita will make presentations to the Fruita City Council during a special meeting Jan. 9 from 7:45-9 a.m. The finalists then will participate in a community meet and greet later that day, 5:30-7 p.m. at the Fruita Community Center, 324 N. Coulson St.. Comment cards will be available to provide feedback to the Fruita City Council about the finalists.
The city narrowed the field to four finalists after receiving 43 applications from candidates from Colorado and 18 other states. The finalists are: Jay Harrington; Keith Rinehart; Drew Sanders; and Shannon Vassen.
Harrington has been the county manager for Routt County since 2021 and was the town manager for Carbondale from 2011 to 2021 and city manager for Cortez from 2007 to 2011 He has a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies and Sociology from St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York. He also has a master’s degree in Urban Regional Planning from the University of Colorado at Denver.
Rinehart has been the director of community and economic development for the City of Saginaw, TX, since 2020. He was Saginaw’s director of recreation and community services from 2004 to 2020 and the director of recreation from 2004 to 2005. Rinehart has a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from Angelo State University, San Angelo, TX.
Sanders has been city manager for Cortez since 2021 and was chief of police in Page, AZ, from 2019 to 2021 and a lieutenant for the West Jordan Police Department from 1992 to 2019. He has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice administration from Columbia College and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Utah, where he also was an adjunct professor.
Vassen is Fruita’s interim city manager and served as Fruita’s assistant city manager
since 2023 and as the assistant to the city manager from 2021 to 2022. Vassen was a management analyst for the City of Fruita, worked for the City and County of Denver and Mesa County’s department of human services. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Colorado Mesa University and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Colorado School of Public Affairs.
n HUNTER PROMOTED TO GM AT EXPRESS EMPLOYMENT
After nearly 18 years of connecting job seekers with companies as owner of Express Employment Professionals in Grand Junction, Nina Anderson is relinquishing day-to-day management responsibilities and welcoming Jenny Hunter as the new general manager.
Hunter joined Express Employment in July 2023 as staffing manager for the light-industrial and skilled-trades divisions.
Anderson said Hunter brings a wealth of experience and enthusiasm to her new role, along with a commitment to continuing Express Employment’s tradition of excellence in workforce solutions.
“I am thrilled to pass the torch to Jenny,” Anderson said. “Her fresh ideas, dynamic energy and passion for the local job market make her the perfect leader to guide our team into the future and to support our incredible client companies.” Hunter said she looks forward to collaborating with hiring managers and businesses in Western Colorado.
“Together,” she said, “we’ll continue making a positive impact in our community by connecting people with meaningful work and helping companies thrive by taking on the burden of finding good quality people their businesses need.”
