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/

Re/Max co-founder makes History Channel

Dave Liniger, co-founder of Denver-based Re/Max International, addressed the Greater Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce in early November. Now, he's appearing before a bigger audience. "History's Business," a weekly half-hour series on The History Channel, has completed an episode that discusses the launch and growth of Re/Max. The broadcast will air at 6 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 2. Liniger, chairman of Re/Max, was interviewed in The History Channel's studios by program host Geoff Wawro. Liniger explained Re/Max's start in 1973 as a small office and how it's grown to a global real estate franchise network, with offices in more than 65 countries. In addition to telling the story of Re/Max, Liniger discusses his philanthropy efforts and his adventures as a NASCAR driver, balloonist and pilot. Liniger and his wife, Re/Max co-founder Gail, oversee day-to-day operations of the organization. Additional broadcasts of the Re/Max episode of "History's Business" will be listed on the cable channel's web site, www.history.com.

Big 5 opens at Uintah Gardens

Big 5 Sporting Goods has opened a store at 1810 W. Uintah St. in the Uintah Gardens Shopping Center. It becomes the third Big 5 store in Colorado Springs and is in a former Walgreens. Walgreen vacated the building to build a free-standing store. Big 5 Sporting Goods has 360 locations across 11 Western states.

Economic census coming

This year, the holiday season is also the census season for businesses.
More than 4 millionU.S. businesses, including about 9,700 in the Colorado Springs area, will receive economic census forms in December.
The economic census is taken every five years and provides key source data for the gross domestic product and other indicators of economic performance.
Census forms are sent to all but the smallest businesses in every industry and geographic area of the country. Most businesses with five or more paid employees, and a sample of smaller ones, will receive a census form.
Companies are asked to report information such as employment, payroll and the value of goods and services sold. Questions about franchising, outsourcing and health and pension benefit expenses were added to selected forms this year. The answers, the U.S. Census Bureau assures, are kept confidential. Only aggregate industry data are published.
Forms must be returned to the Census Bureau by Feb. 12. Companies that toss the census form or squirrel it away in a drawer and forget it could be in trouble. The law provides for penalties of up to $5,000 for failure to report and $10,000 for intentionally providing false information.
For more information, go to www.census.gov/econ/census07.

Audi of America sponsors ski competitions

Audi of America has been selected as the official automotive sponsor of the U.S. Ski Team, supplying vehicles to the U.S. Ski Team in the United States and Europe for all its teams. Those include alpine, cross country, freestyle, nordic combined and ski jumping.

Audi also will be the title sponsor of the women's World Cup in Aspen, Dec. 7-9, and the automaker will be associate sponsor of the men's World Cup races in Beaver Creek, Nov. 28-Dec. 2.

The U.S. Ski Team said it chose Audi because its vehicles with a permanent all-wheel-drive system are reliable and safe.

A player piano with an Internet twist

Jazz pianist Sue Downs, who played with the Roger Williams and Red Skelton orchestras, will show off the latest in Disklavier technology Thursday at the just-opened Piano Gallery, 7790 N. Academy Blvd. Yamaha introduced the Disklavier, a concert-quality piano that also serves as a modern-age player piano, more than 20 years ago. The latest twist is Disklavier 2.0, new technology that allows Mark IV series pianos to access and play music from Disklavier Internet radio stations. Downs will be available to answer questions about the technology at 4 p.m. and will perform at 7 p.m. RSVPs are requested for the performance; call 447-9999.

Real estate group convenes economic forecast breakfast Jan. 24

Want to know the outlook for the local economy and real estate market in 2008? The Southern Colorado chapter of the Institute of Real Estate Management will hold its 17th annual economic forecast breakfast at 7:30 a.m. Jan. 24 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel (formerly the Sheraton), 2886 S. Circle Drive on Colorado Springs' south side. The breakfast, usually attended by several hundred business people, will include a look at Colorado Springs' economy as well as the commercial, single-family and apartment markets. Speakers include Mike Anderson, assistant Colorado Springs city manager and a longtime local economist; Doug Carter, a commercial broker with Sperry Van Ness and who specializes in the apartment market; Brian Maecker, a real estate agent with the Maecker Team and Re/Max Advantage; and Kent Mau, a commercial broker with Sierra Commercial Real Estate. The cost is $35 before Jan. 16; afterward, the cost is $45. More information: Linda Littlefield at the Pikes Peak Association of Realtors, 633-7718, ext. 110 or http://www.irem53.org./

Actress Olivia Hussey at One World 2 U

Actress Olivia Hussey will bring a little star power to this weekend’s One World 2 U warehouse sale. One World 2 U, located at 1120 Elkton Drive, Unit E, sells furniture, artifacts and art from India and is open only on select weekends throughout this year. Hussey will be there from 1 to 5 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday to sell items from her collection of Indian tunics and kaftans. The Golden Globe-winning actress was 15 when she gained fame as Juliet in 1968’s “Romeo and Juliet.”

Bargain on snowmobile insurance

The Progressive Group of Insurance Companies is expanding coverage and cutting rates up to 40 percent for snowmobile insurance in Colorado and nine other states.

The insurance covers the rider anywhere and features accessory coverage up to $3,000 of aftermarket equipment and accessories, roadside assistance and various discounts.

For more information, see http://www.progressive.com/.

Banking 'on the go'

FirstBank, Colorado's largest locally owned bank with $8.6 billion in assets, is offering what it calls a new tool to help shoppers and travelers manage their money during the holiday season.

Internet banking customers now can check account balances and transfer funds across accounts using their mobile phones, including while waiting in line at the mall or waiting for a flight at the airport.

The mobile banking feature is available to AT&T Wireless customers, and Verizon customers are expected to gain access in December. FirstBank provides the service at no charge, although connectivity and usage rates may apply.

A six-digit PIN is required to access account information, for security reasons, and the information is not stored in the phone.

The final frontier

Monday is the deadline to register for Experience Colorado Springs at Pikes Peak’s annual dinner and silent auction. The event is 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 2886 S Circle Drive. Guest speaker is Brian Duffy, a 1975 U.S. Air Force Academy graduate who commanded the 100th space shuttle mission. Cost is $60 per person; go to www.experiencecoloradosprings.com to register online or call 685-7621. Among silent auction items: a tourist trip into space, with bidding beginning at a mere $30 million.

HBA holds annual membership dinner

The annual membership dinner of the Housing & Building Association of Colorado Springs will take place at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 28 at the Antlers Hilton hotel, 4 s. Cascade Ave. in downtown Colorado Springs. The event will include installation of HBA officers for 2008, including board president Bobby Ingels of the Ingels Co. Ralph Braden of Nor'wood Development Group will become president-elect for 2009. The event also will include a send-off for George Hess of Vantage Homes, who served as 2007 board president. The cost for the dinner is $50. More information: 592-1800 or www.cshba.com.