Parade of Homes begins Aug. 17

It's as much a tradition as county fairs and July Fourth celebrations -- but without the funnel cakes and fireworks. The 2007 Parade of Homes, sponsored by the Housing and Building Association of Colorado Springs, kicks off Friday, Aug. 17, and runs through Sunday, Sept. 2. This year's parade -- in which builders put homes on display for the public to see -- will feature two main sites: Black Forest Reserve, southwest of Meridian and Hodgen roads, and The Preserve at Walden, northeast of Hodgen and Colorado Highway 83. Both developments are in Black Forest, the unincorporated area north and northeast of Colorado Springs. Other individual home sites will be in several Colorado Springs neighborhoods and in Woodland Park, west of the Springs. Homes on display will range in price from $165,000 to more than $2 million. Admission to view homes is $10 for adults; children under 18 and adults 65 and older will be admitted free. All homes will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. Tickets can be purchased at Safeway stores and at parade home sites. More information: http://www.cshba.com/ or 592-1800.

Managing Small Projects seminar

Small-project guru Dan Price will present a one-day seminar on managing small projects, Thursday, Sept. 13, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., at The Sheraton Hotel, 2886 S. Circle Drive.

The cost is $195 per person.

The fast-paced, small group and results-oriented seminar is geared toward all organization sizes and types. Participants will learn how to perform projects faster, cheaper and with greater success with tools and techniques Price has created.

For more information, see www.winning-ways.com or call 685-2474. Reservations are due by Sept. 11.

Shops at the Bluffs demolition coming soon

A makeover for the Shops at the Bluffs could begin Friday, Aug. 10, for the shopping center on the northwest corner of Austin Bluffs Parkway and Academy Boulevard. United Properties, the Minneapolis-based company that bought the property in 2005, plans a "demolition party" on Friday, although it's unclear if any actual demolition will take place that day. If not, the work will begin soon. United Properties plans to tear down large portions of the 1970s-era mini-mall, retain and remodel other portions and build a new King Soopers grocery to replace an existing store. The result will be a traditional shopping center, with large, freestanding buildings to house anchors and smaller buildings for banks, restaurants and other stores (shown in a computer-generated aerial, above). Also, the shopping center will be renamed Marketplace at Austin Bluffs. Much of the work will be completed in mid-2008.

Verizon Wireless store opens on east side

Verizon Wireless has opened a store at 4331 Integrity Center Point, at the northwest corner of Powers Boulevard and Barnes Road. Verizon Wireless Communications Stores are staffed for sales, customer service and technical support, including providing sales and dedicated service to small-business customers with as many as 50 lines of service.

Springs lending initiative nets award

The American Western Lenders Conference recently honored the Small Business Administration’s Colorado district office for an initiative that started in Colorado Springs. The office was presented the Best Practices in Partnering With Small Business Lenders in Region Eight award. (Region Eight consists of Colorado, Montana, Utah, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.)

The Colorado office won for a pilot initiative developed in cooperation with the Greater Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce, the Colorado Springs Small Business Development Center and the Springs chapter of SCORE. The goal was to increase the number of active SBA participating lenders in the area by cultivating smaller regional banks that were not participants in the SBA loan guaranty program. The Springs Chamber worked with member banks to actively promote SBA loan program requirements to the nonparticipating banks.

“The Colorado Springs pilot initiative has been a success and we are beginning to see the positive results — more small-business lending in El Paso County,” said Patricia Barela Rivera, SBA Colorado district director.

T. Rowe Price is now offering a free publication -- "Smart
Financial Living: A Guide to Getting Started" -- to help new and less
experienced investors set out on the path toward reaching their financial
goals. The 24-page guidebook offers investors expert advice,
charts and worksheets to help them define their priorities, assess their
financial situation, determine how much they need to save to reach their
goals, align their saving and investing plans with their aims, and stay on
track. Order by calling 1-800-528-4509.

On your mark, get set, fasten!

Think you’ve got tool skills? Here’s your chance to prove it. The Colorado Springs Fastenal store, 1130 E. Fillmore St., will host the local running of Fastenal’s nationwide Ultimate Drive Challenge. Contents using a DeWalt cordless impactor drive down six screws (three into wood, three into metal) and then rachet down one nut as quickly as they can. The 10 fastest in the country will be flown to Homestead, Fla., to compete for a 2008 Dodge Ram 1500 Laramie packed with tools and gear. The local challenge will run from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Aug. 14 as part of an all-day sales event.

Stewart Title emphasizes Hispanic homeowners in the Springs

The Colorado Springs division of Stewart Title of Colorado has launched a full-service title and closing team targeting Hispanic home buyers and sellers. The Hispanic team will be based out of Stewart Title's downtown Springs office in the Plaza of the Rockies office complex, 111 S. Tejon St., Suite 111.

The Springs' rising Hispanic population was cited as a reason for offering the services. In addition to offering escrow documents and closing materials in Spanish, Stewart Title will have Spanish speaking employees and a "culturally relevant approach to servicing Hispanics," the company said. Stewart Title is committed to making its services “more welcoming to the Hispanic community,” said Tammy Perez-Baca, regional multicultural markets director for Stewart Title Guaranty Co.

Ken Barela, chairman of the Colorado Springs Hispanic Chamber of Commerce's board of directors, said businesses must understand the markets they serve. “There are rapid changes in our community's demographics occurring and the overall consumer base is requiring businesses to better understand the culture, values and different perspectives associated with this new era of diversity,” Barela said.

Krumbz crumbles

Robert "Chef Rob" Lemoine and girlfriend Pamela Raver opened Krumbz cake and pastry shop in early June at 321 N. Tejon St., the former Tejon Street Grocery and Deli. Within a month, they were gone, said Scott Long, who owns the building.

Long, who also owns the neighboring Tejon Street Wine Shoppe, said he learned Krumbz had closed when he found the store’s sign tossed in the trash. “He moved out overnight,” Long said of Lemoine.

Lemoine acknowledes he gave no warning. The rent was too high and business was too slow the first month, he said. “We started with really low capital,” he said.

Is that your final answer?

In today's Gazette story about the apartment industry, Colorado Springs real estate veteran Ken Greene, who works for Apartment Realty Advisors in Denver, was asked if a second-quarter dip in the Springs apartment vacancy rate signaled the start of an improvement in the market, or was just a one-time decline.

“That’s the $64 question," Greene said, "nobody really knows.” His response prompted this reply from some readers under the age of, oh, 40: What "$64 question" was he talking about?

OK, for those of you came out of the womb wearing an iPod, here's the answer. Greene's comment refers to the 1950s-era television game show called "The $64,000 Question," in which contestants answered a series of questions and saw their winnings increase for every correct answer. That program was based on a radio quiz show that started as 1940's "Take It or Leave It" and was renamed "The $64 Question" a decade later. Today's "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" is based on those shows. More information: www.museum.tv, the Web site for the Museum of Broadcast Communications.

Downtown Jamba Juice closing

Downtown Colorado Springs suffered another loss today as Jamba Juice, 15 E. Bijou St., was set to close its doors for good at 7 p.m. The downtown smoothie and juice shop opened 10 years ago as Zuka Juice.

“It’s our last day,” said franchise owner Dean Patzel. “Kind of a sad finish to 10 years.”

Patzel and his wife, Diane, own three other Jamba Juice stores in the Springs. They’re staying open, he said.

The downtown location was not an underperformer, he said. In fact, business has been up, possibly because of the closings in recent months of Michelle’s and Cold Stone Creamery downtown. But the shop was at an age that it needed a face-lift, he said, and corporate wanted a site with higher volume and more exposure.

“I agree with them,” Patzel said. “We’re excited about growth and we’d like to pursue opening a few more stores in town. This is kind of the first step in that whole process.”

New store opens at Promenade Shops

Olivia & Rose (www.oliviaandrose.com) has opened at The Promenade Shops at Briargate, featuring fine paper products such as greeting cards, stationery, gift wrap and custom invitations and announcements. A grand opening celebration is set for Aug. 4. The Promenade Shops at Briargate also has welcomed back the Halloween Bootique. Located between Kirkland’s Home and Gymboree on the west side of the shopping center, the seasonal shop features costumes, wigs, masks and makeup.

Apply your green to brownfields

Here's a chance to double your money, while helping to clean up dilapidated and polluted areas. The Colorado Brownfields Foundation, a Littleton non-profit, has announced the billionaire Anschutz family of Colorado will match donations to the Brownfields Foundation up to $5,000 between now and Oct. 15. The tax deductible donations will help the foundation in its efforts to clean up brownfields around the state. The organization partners with communities, local governments and other non-profits to help reuse and redevelop sites where hazardous substances, pollutants or environmental contaminants hamper their clean-up. An estimated 1,000 brownfield sites -- including former gas stations, dry cleaners, manufacturing facilities, mine and milling sites and landfills -- exist in Colorado, the foundation says. The matching grants from the Anschutz family will help raise funds for the Brownfields Foundation, but also will shine a light on the importance of its work, the organizations says. More information: http://www.coloradobrownfieldsfoundation.org/ or 303-962-0941

Never mind

It took a Grand Canyon-sized leap in logic to conclude that construction of a pair of John Q. Hammons' hotels would be delayed in Colorado Springs, but the Colorado Springs Business Journal took the plunge.

On Friday, the weekly Business Journal ran an item on its daily electronic update with the headline "Colorado Springs hotel developer changes mind." The item went on to say that Hammons -- of Missouri, not the Springs -- had apparently put his proposed southwest downtown and northern Colorado Springs hotels "on the back burner." Because Hammons was moving ahead with a hotel project in Loveland, the Business Journal concluded, he therefore was delaying his Springs' hotels. The item carried no comment from Hammons, his company or local land developers where the Springs hotels will be built.

A Gazette call Friday to Hammons' senior vice president L. Scott Tarwater brought this comment: "Nothing could be further from the truth." He went on to say that Hammons' hotel in Loveland had no connection to the company's projects in the Springs. On Monday, the Business Journal retracted its Friday item -- sort of. The publication now said "it appears Colorado Springs isn't on the hotel construction back burner after all." The Business Journal didn't acknowledge its Friday item, but quoted Tarwater and an executive from Classic Cos. -- the Springs developer which owns land where one of the hotels will be built -- as saying the two local hotels are on schedule.

Former Albertsons becoming a Ross

A former Albertsons supermarket in Security is being transformed into a Ross clothing store. The new Ross at 302 Main St. is slated to open in early October.

Supervalu Inc., owner of the Albertsons grocery chain, closed the Albertsons in Security last summer along with two stores in Colorado Springs. Since then, Ross Stores, Inc. has announced an agreement to acquire certain leasehold rights to 46 former Albertsons sites in Colorado, California, Florida, Texas, Arizona and Oklahoma. While former Albertsons in Boulder and Highlands Ranch are also being remade into Ross stores, there’s no plan to do so with the two empty stores in the Springs, a spokeswoman said.

Langstaff-Brown Urgent Care Center turns 25

Langstaff-Brown Urgent Care Center in Woodland Park will celebrate its 25th anniversary with an open house Aug. 4, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 41 State Highway 67.

Free hamburgers, hot dogs, prizes, entertainment and blood pressure checks will be available.

Children can take their favorite stuffed toy to an interactive Teddy Bear Clinic for a checkup. Dr. Funny Bones will provide animal balloons and the Peterson Air Force Working Dogs will give a demonstration.

Chamber weighs in on Pinon Canyon debate

The Greater Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce is working to make its voice heard in the debate over expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site.

The Army’s intention to buy more than 400,000 acres of land in southeast Colorado has met with fierce opposition from ranchers who live near the training area. The House voted last month to stop the Army from spending money on the project.

In letters this week to senators Ken Salazar and Wayne Allard, the chamber urged passage of the Senate version of the 2008 Defense Military Construction Appropriations bill. The letters encourage Salazar and Allard to reject the amendment that the House added to its bill blocking funding for the study and assessment of the maneuver site expansion.

“The state’s military installations are critical to the vibrancy and well-being of our state’s economy, contributing approximately $2.8 billion annually,” the letters state. “Colorado’s military installations not only provide a tremendous number of jobs and revenue to our state, but also create an atmosphere that entices other companies to relocate to Colorado, including many small start-up businesses.”

It's Hammons, not Hammonds

You'd think after developing 185 hotels over nearly a half-century, Missouri hotelier John Q. Hammons (right) could get a little respect. But in Colorado Springs, they don't know how to spell his name. Hammons has said he plans to build a 220- to 240-room Embassy Suites hotel in southwest downtown as part of an urban renewal project, and a 306-room Renaissance Hotel as part of the InterQuest Marketplace shopping center on the city's far north side. But the city's Urban Renewal Authority often spells Hammons' name as "Hammonds" in planning documents, while Nor'wood Development Group -- the Springs real estate company developing InterQuest Marketplace -- does the same on its Web site. Everybody misspells a name now and then. Of course, this is the name of a man who's investing tens of millions of dollars in the Springs.

Hospital opening delayed a month

The opening of Pikes Peak Regional Hospital in Woodland Park has been pushed back one month to Sept. 17.

The first full-service hospital in Teller County was supposed to open in August but equipment and finishing touches won't be ready until September, according to hospital officials.

Within the next month, the Pikes Peak Regional Medical Center Foundation hopes to raise $1 million in cash and pledges. To date, the foundation has raised $4 million from 550 donors to help keep the project on track.

Tax forum set for August

Colorado’s tax structure and its effect on business solvency and growth will be the subject of a forum Aug. 13 in Denver. The forum, open to all Colorado small-business owners, starts at 1 p.m. in the Old Supreme Court Chambers on the second floor of the state Capitol. It’s hosted by the National Federation of Independent Business/Colorado. To RSVP, e-mail Tyler Nifong at tyler.nifong@nfib.org.