No more Room at the Inn

Room at the Inn, a Victorian-style bed and breakfast at 618 N. Nevada Ave., has been sold and will no longer operate as a B&B. Owners Dorian and Linda Ciolek, who operated Room at the Inn for nine years, sold the property to a software developer who will relocate his offices there next year. They did not identify the business.

A Gazette story in 2006 said the B&B was for sale at $1.2 million. Dorian Ciolek said it sold for “close to that.” The three-story building, built in 1896, has also served as a single-family residence and an apartment building.

Home builders to look ahead to 2008 and 2009

Metrostudy, a real estate research and analysis firm, will present an overview of the Pikes Peak region's new home market during a members-only breakfast hosted by the Housing & Building Association of Colorado Springs. The look at the current market, and what's ahead for 2008 and 2009, will take place from 7:30 to 9 a.m. Dec. 12 at the Marriott hotel, 5580 Tech Center Drive, in northwest Colorado Springs. The cost is $20. More information or to register: 592-1800, ext 18, or www.cshba.com. Metrostudy, based in Houston, tracks housing data in 10 Front Range counties in Colorado, as well as several other markets around the country.

What would Capone say?

Girl of the Golden West, a women’s western wear store at The Promenade Shops at Briargate, is expecting quite a hefty package Monday. Navis Pack & Ship will deliver an 8-foot-tall, 22-foot-long antique wet bar that, according to legend, was once owned by gangster Al Capone. Phoebe Schmidt, owner of Girl of the Golden West, bought the bar from a New Hampshire couple. It will be the centerpiece of her enlarged store that opens in January. It’ll generally be used as a beauty bar, though it will be used as originally intended for occasional social events.

Keeley retires from Simtek board

Robert Keeley, a professor emeritus of finance at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, has retired after 14 years on the board of directors of Colorado Springs-based semiconductor designer Simtek Corp.
Keeley retired as the El Pomar chair of finance at UCCS in 2004. He had been chairman of Simtek's audit committee and will be replaced by John Hillyard, who joined the board last year and is chief financial officer of Boulder-based LeftHand Networks Inc.
Simtek also said Philip Black, who joined the company's board in August, was named chairman of the board's compensation committee and a member of the audit committee. Black is chief executive of California-based Nexsan Technologies Inc.
"Dr. Keeley has been a real asset to Simtek. We thank him for his long-standing service as a member of the board and wish him well as he more fully enjoys his retirement," Simtek Chairman Harold Blomquist said. The new posts for Black and Hillyard "will enable us to capitalize on the breadth of experience on public boards both bring to Simtek."
Keeley said he has been "gradually stepping away from my professional activities and am excited to pursue more personal interests. In the entire 14 years I've been a director of Simtek, the company has never been in better shape."
For more information, go to http://www.simtek.com/

A growing partnership

The Greater Colorado Springs Partnership is growing — and getting a new name in the process. The Greater Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce and the black and Hispanic chambers announced the partnership in June and were quickly joined by Experience Colorado Springs at Pikes Peak Convention and Visitors Bureau. All retained their individual identities, but embraced the alliance as a way to share resources and speak with a single, stronger voice on key issues. The partnership is becoming the Pikes Peak Regional Business Partnership as two new chambers join: the Fountain Valley Chamber and the Eastern Plains Chamber, formerly the Falcon Business League. They’ll officially sign on at the Colorado Springs Chamber’s “Breakfast With the Chamber” on Tuesday morning at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

Lennar sells Colorado properties

Lennar Corp., a new home builder with five communities in Colorado Springs, has sold some of its land and homesites to Morgan Stanley Real Estate, as part of a new investment venture between the two firms.

The properties acquired by the venture consist of about 11,000 homesites in 32 communities throughout the country. A spokesman for Lennar would not confirm what communities were included but did say some were in Colorado.

Lennar has a 20 percent ownership interest in the investment venture. The venture acquired the property, with a $1.3 billion net book value as of Sept. 30, for only $525 million.

The sale helps Lennar, which is struggling like many new-home builders, by giving it an infusion of cash, said Stuart Miller, president and CEO.

In the Pikes Peak region, Lennar's communities include Four Mile Ranch in Canon City, Meridian Ranch in Peyton, Mesa Ridge in Fountain, Misty Acres Estates Collection in Monument and Morning View in Colorado Springs. They represent about a third of the company's communities in Colorado.

Al's Formal Wear buys out Mister Neat's

The three Mister Neat’s Formalwear stores in Colorado Springs are becoming Al’s Formal Wear stores. Houston-based Al’s Formal Wear announced Monday that it had acquired all the assets of Mister Neat’s, the largest formal wear company in Colorado with 17 stores across the state. Visitors to www.misterneats.com are now taken to www.alsformalwear.com and signage outside stores will change soon, a spokeswoman said.

Penrose-St. Francis Health Services' electronic medical records system in place

Penrose-St. Francis Health Services is one of several Centura Health facilities in southern Colorado to implement a new electronic information system Dec. 1.

Others are: Langstaff-Brown Urgent Care Center in Woodland Park, St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center in Pueblo and St. Thomas More Hospital in Canon City.

The system will enable hospital employees to record patients' medical information electronically, which improves care and safety, according to Mike Scialdone, chief financial officer for Penrose-St. Francis Health Services.

The health care system has purchased several million dollars worth of new equipment to support the new computer system, including mobile work stations, tablet computers, desktop computers, desktop scanners, bar code scanners, printers and wireless networks.

Xiotech lands $40 million from Seagate

Xiotech Corp. announced earlier this week it has landed $40 million in an investment round led by Seagate Technology LLC Chairman Steve Luczo that it plans to use to bring new technology acquired from Seagate to market.
Eden Prairie, Minn.-based Xiotech bought "certain assets" and a license for the technology of Seagate's Advanced Storage Architecture (ASA) group in early November and hired almost all of the research and development operation's 100 employees in Colorado Springs (see story at http://www.gazette.com/articles/seagate_30198___article.html/xiotech_operation.html). Xiotech officials declined to further identify the types of products the operation is developing.
"This is an exciting time to be part of Xiotech, as we're really well positioned to help the storage industry rethink assumptions at a truly fundamental level," Ciotech CEO Casey Powell said. "This investment round and the addition of Steve Luczo to our board are important steps to fully capitalize on the acquired ASA technology."
Xiotech, which is owned by Seagate and Oak Investment Partners, generates about $100 million in annual revenue producing information storage equipment used in data centers. For more information, go to http://www.xiotech.com/