The Colorado Department of Transportation began construction on a project to widen County Line Road between Colorado Boulevard and South Quebec Street. The $20.5 million reconstruction of the busy thoroughfare between Arapahoe and Douglas counties will be done in phases, starting with the section between Colorado Boulevard and South Holly Street.

North Carolina-based Midway Airlines will begin service to Denver in February, offering two daily non-stop flights to Raleigh-Durham. The fast-growing regional airline will use newly acquired Boeing 737-700 jetliners on the flights. Midway stated that the Denver-Raleigh route was added in response to customer demand for better service from North Carolina to western destinations. Federal statistics show that Denver was the 19th most popular destination from Raleigh in 1999, although no airlines offered nonstop service between the two cities.

The Denver Housing Authority will demolish East Village, a 199-unit low-income apartment community at Park Avenue West and Tremont Place near downtown. The authority bought the complex from Casden Properties last November for $12.3 million and had intended to renovate the apartments, replacing them with new units by 2006. Renovation costs, however, have risen to the point where immediate replacement is a better option, according to the authority. Plans for the new construction have not yet been revealed.

A California investment advisory firm, Maier & Seibel, bought 5619 DTC Parkway in the Denver Tech Center for $37.5 million. The 240,000 square foot, twelve-story building was constructed in 1981 and is anchored by AT&T Broadband. The building was acquired from CB Richard Ellis Investors of Los Angeles. Maier & Seibel paid approximately $156.25 per square foot for the building.

Adams County Commissioners approved a 25-year, $540 million transportation "wish list". If approved by the Colorado Department of Transportation, the Regional Transportation District and the Denver Regional Council of Governments the Adams County priorities will become part of the overall Denver area transportation plan. The top projects for Adams County include light-rail service from Commerce City to Union Station and widening I-25, I-76 and US-85.

Construction began on Off Broadway Lofts, an 81-unit apartment building at 2135 Stout Street near downtown Denver. The $7.5 million project is being developed by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, which will reserve 26 units for homeless residents. The remaining units will be marketed to persons with moderate incomes, mainly downtown service workers.

The U. S. Census Bureau reported that Colorado had the fastest-growing foreign-born population in the country during the decade of the 1990s. In 1990 the census found that 4.3% of Colorado's citizens had been born outside the United States. By 2000 that proportion had risen to 10%, or almost 413,000 people. Foreign immigration accounted for about one-third of Colorado's net population growth during the last ten years, mainly from Mexico, east Asia, Europe and Africa.

TeleTech, an operator of telephone call centers, bought the former headquarters of Tele-Communications, Inc. in the Meridian Business Park on Lincoln Avenue in northern Douglas County. The purchase price for the 275,000 square foot building was reportedly about $31.5 million. TeleTech had planned to occupy a 133,000 square foot building under construction on Dry Creek Road at I-25 but decided to acquire the former TCI building from AT&T Broadband in order to accommodate future growth. The company currently leases about 95,000 square feet in the Wells Fargo Center in downtown Denver.

AMC Entertainment closed its multi-screen movie theater complex at Tiffany Plaza Mall on East Hampden Avenue in southeast Denver. The closure was part of a company effort to replace smaller theaters with larger facilities. AMC had occupied 21,000 square feet in the shopping center.

The Stage department store on the 16th Street Mall at Tremont Place in downtown Denver is being closed as part of a corporate restructuring. The store opened in 1933 as the Fashion Bar and was sold to a Houston retail group in 1992. The 16th Street store has about 30,000 square feet and will be offered for sale or lease.

The Home Builders Association reported that the number of building permits for new single-family houses in metropolitan Denver was down 9.1% for the first eleven months of 2000, compared to the same period in 1999. Builders obtained permits for 14,926 units during the period. Multi-family permits, however, including condominiums, townhouses and apartments, were up 8.7% during the same period. A total of 25,360 new residential units were permitted by area municipalities and counties during the first eleven months of 2000.

Craig Nassi plans to develop Beauvallon, a $102 million high-rise condominium project on Lincoln Street between 9th and 10th avenues in the Golden Triangle neighborhood south of downtown Denver. Nassi has developed several other high-rise buildings in the area and Beauvallon will be his largest undertaking. There will be approximately 200 units in the complex, contained in two fourteen-story towers. A parking garage, retail space and recreation center will also be included. Prices at Beauvallon are expected to range from nearly $200,000 to $2 million. Construction may be completed by late 2002.

Regus Business Centres Corporation leased 47,059 square feet of office space at 8310 South Valley Highway (I-25) in the Pointe at Inverness. The British company operates business centers for small tenants seeking quality office space and ample tenant services. Regus also plans to open a business center in the Republic Plaza building at 370 17th Street in downtown Denver, leasing 43,672 square feet.

State and regional transportation planners endorsed a $364.3 million project to extend RTD light rail service along I-225 and widen the freeway to eight lanes from I-25 to I-70. The plan envisions RTD light rail service in the median of I-225 with a major station at the developing Aurora City Center on Alameda Avenue. Other stations would be located at Parker Road, Iliff Avenue, 4th Avenue, at the former Fitzsimons Army hospital and on Smith Road at Peoria Street, where light rail would connect with commuter rail service to downtown Denver and Denver International Airport. No time schedule was announced for construction, which depends on finding adequate funding.

Mountain States Logistics leased Upland II, a 70,800 square foot warehouse at 14700 East 38th Avenue off Chambers Road in north Aurora.

The Denver City Council, by eight to four vote, approved a $64 million subsidy for the construction of an 1,100 room Hyatt Hotel adjacent to the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver. The subsidy to developer Bruce Berger will permit the hotel to be built at 14th and California streets while a $267 million expansion of the convention center is undertaken. Hyatt plans to open the hotel in the spring of 2004.

The Golden Planning Commission approved the site plan for a 123-unit Hilton Garden Inn on US-6 at Heritage Road near the Jefferson County Government Center. Developed by Snow Goose Investments of Boulder, the hotel will be three stories tall and have an attached restaurant.

Two anchor tenants were announced for a $120 million mixed-use complex planned for part of the Sears Roebuck property on East 1st Avenue near University Boulevard in Denver's Cherry Creek North neighborhood. Janus Funds will occupy a 120,000 square foot office building and the owners of Hotel Teatro in downtown Denver, Michael Brenneman and Jeff Selby, will operate a 140-unit boutique hotel. The project, recently approved by Denver City Council, is being developed by a joint venture of Nichols Partnership of Denver and Madison Marquette of Cincinnati. In the addition to the hotel and office building the complex will contain retail space and residential units.

The Aurora City Council approved spending $13 million to assist Miller Weingarten Realty in the development of Aurora Town Center, a retail complex at the northeast quadrant of I-225 and East Alameda Avenue. Miller Weingarten plans to develop the sixty-acre site primarily with "big box" anchor tenants in a pedestrian-friendly environment. Target is the initial anchor announced for the center, occupying a 200,000 square foot store that will replace a smaller facility nearby on Abilene Street.

A development entity affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church will build a Christian Living Campus at South Holly Street and South Forest Way in Centennial. The $50 million, 312-unit retirement community will occupy a seventeen-acre tract behind the Kaiser Permanente building, which fronts Arapahoe Road at Holly Street. If approved by Arapahoe County planners, construction is due to begin by late this year. (The Villager, 1/11/2001) (Zip 80121)