So. Colorado Business Digest & CSBJ || JULY || 2025

INNOVATION

COLORADO SPRINGS

PEOPLE

EcoTech Biofuels Aim to Solve Two Problems

Colorado Targeting Landfill Methane Pollution

The Farmer’s Friend: Jeremy Anderson

P. 8

P. 29

P. 40

July 2025 / Vol. 3 No. 7

The Wealth Beneath our Feet

The Wins & Concerns about Colorado's Rural Economy

Access / Opportunity / Connectivity / Visibility / Insights

$4.95 USA / SOCODIGEST.com

socodigest.com / Vol. 3 No. 7 - July 2025 / 3 Publisher’s Letter

“Off Come the Floaties!”

FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER

Dirk R. Hobbs

dhobbs@coloradomediagroup.com MANAGING EDITOR

Lee Harper

lharper@coloradomediagroup.com SENIOR COPY EDITOR

Rhonda Van Pelt

info@coloradomediagroup.com DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

Francis J. Zankowski

franz@coloradomediagroup.com CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Christopher Tombaugh

ctombaugh@coloradomediagroup.com DIGITAL DIRECTOR

Sean Cassady

scassady@coloradomediagroup.com SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Geraldine Villanueva

gvillanueva@coloradomediagroup.com MEDIA SALES & PARTNERSHIPS

Kerri Blanco

kblanco@coloradomediagroup.com

Karen Hazlehurst

karenhazlehurst18@gmail.com

Jeff Mohrfeld

jmohrfeld@coloradomediagroup.com SENIOR WRITERS

Pam Bales, Jeanne Davant & Wayne Heilman STAFF WRITERS

Keri Kahn, Lucy Richardson, Andrew Rogers, Kay Rowe, Lorelei Smillie, Tiffany Underwood & Theresa Woods

I

f this obscure reference escapes you, it’s from Adam Sandler’s film, Just Go With It. When his girlfriend’s son, who is not yet confident swimming without floaties, gets frustrated and takes them off to prove he can overcome his self-doubt.

So what does that have to do with business in southern Colorado? In the abstract, we’re “taking off the floaties,” in many regards, as it relates to becoming a strong economic region in the western states and moving into new and exciting territory. But we still have to overcome some lingering tendencies as it relates to how the region grows.

Lately, there’s a fly in the ointment. A steadily growing, albeit misguided, stream of antidevelopment sentiment that’s sending a counterproductive message to current and would-be employers who otherwise see this region as a strong contender for expansion or relocation.

While there are valid concerns within the anti-development narrative, those concerns tend to be myopic in nature. Furthermore, authentic concerns can be legitimately addressed with facts about real-world development and the impact it has for citizens who are critical of growth.

Later this year, The Digest will present a series on topics surrounding development and unintended consequences of a pronounced anti-development sentiment. We will work with subject matter experts on both sides of the issues that commonly arise: EDCs, utilities executives, land developers, HOAs, employers and companies. There is a retraction in the economy when this narrative deters employers from investing in southern Colorado’s otherwise thriving communities and business-friendly environment.

This will be an examination of the common objections and how our regional development leaders pay close attention to the details concerning growth.

We’ll separate myths from facts and define jargon, to provide real answers from experts who know the importance of smart growth. Can you say “water” anyone?

I’m excited to bring these experts forward in a series on Economic & Land Development 101 … and maybe, 201.

Until then, let’s take a look at some of our agricultural economy here in southern Colorado.

Dirk R. Hobbs,

Founder & Executive Publisher Colorado Media Group, Inc.

NORTH Magazine, The Business Digest/CSBJ, and the NEW: Southern Colorado Insider! (The former Indy)

Business talk radio with regional experts and leaders on-air host, Dirk Hobbs!

F R I DAYS AT 3PM MST A M1460 / 1 01 .1 FM

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

William Craighead, Ph.D. - UCCS Economic Forum, Max Cupp - Exponential Impact, Dawn Dawson, Jon-Michael Horst - Colorado Companies To Watch, Larry Plummer, Ph.D. - EPIIC at UCCS, Becca Tonn - Pikes Peak Workforce Center, Lola Woloch - SCWCC & Paul Yankey - UCCS STRATEGIC MEDIA & PRODUCTION PARTNERS

Cumulus Media COS, FOX21 KXRM & Salem Media AM1460/101.1FM

The So. Co. Business Forum & Digest audio version can be heard on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Podbean, and Google Play. So. Co. Business Forum & Digest is also distributed to the Business Wire and Apple News+.

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All naming conventions, derivatives, and the ampersand are the sole property of Colorado Media Group, Inc. The Digest is a secondary trade name for this medium.

Corrections, Questions, or General inquiries for the Editor or Publisher, email: info@coloradomediagroup.com | 719-330-7448 Advertising or Press Release: kblanco@coloradomediagroup.com, jmohrfeld@coloradomediagroup.com or karenhazlehurst18@gmail.com Offices: 6385 Corporate Dr., Colorado Springs, CO 80919 Mail: P.O. Box 13395 Voyager Parkway, Ste 130-PMB #746,Colorado Springs, CO 80921 Copyright © 2025 Colorado Media Group All Rights Reserved.

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4 / Southern Colorado Business Forum & Digest

Contents / July 2025 Half a million people visit the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, the tallest dunes in North America, every year. P. 20

INNOVATION

NONPROFIT

8 EcoTech Biofuels Aims to

15 Funding Cutbacks Impacting

Linda-Rose Myers saw needs to mitigate wildfire risk in forests and to supply sustainable aviation fuel; her answer was to turn dead trees into fuel. The Rio Grande Biofuels project is planned to harvest 500 tons of dry and dead timber for processing at a plant in Walsenburg.

Colorado has 19 centers supporting children who’ve suffered abuse and maltreatment. With federal budget cuts, the centers are struggling to continue vital services and staffing.

Solve Two Problems at Once

BY THERESA WOODS

TOURISM

Child Advocacy Centers

BY JEANNE DAVANT

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

16 Colorado’s Largest Shipping Container Community Opens Effects of Consumers’ Uncertainty 10 Hospitality Sector Showing

Colorado Springs’ hospitality picture was gloomy as 2025 began, with the federal freeze on nonessential military travel. But officials predict that the peak tourism season will brighten the outlook for all of Colorado.

BY WAYNE HEILMAN

AEROSPACE/ DEFENSE 13 Space Command’s Future is Still Uncertain

The Government Accountability Office report released in May casts doubt on the possibility of the agency’s headquarters remaining in Colorado Springs. The report cites local facilities that are not sustainable in the long term.

BY ANDREW ROGERS

HEALTHCARE 14 Rural Residents Hurting for Healthcare Colorado is 77% rural, yet home to about 12% of the state’s residents, with less access to healthcare than their urban counterparts. Providers from the Colorado Springs area are opening satellites in Southern Colorado to address the disparity.

BY ANDREW ROGERS

Buena Vista is home to a new housing development fashioned from shipping containers, and it’s already a success.

Founders Jerry Champlin and Tania McEvoy wanted to create a community that would be affordable and sustainable.

BY JEANNE DAVANT

18 Walsenburg Revives Historic

Downtown

The century-old Mercantile is just the start of the small town’s redevelopment.

Ripples are spreading out from there, with other buildings being repurposed in hopes of drawing tourists and new residents.

BY EMILIE HAGOPIAN

REGION PROFILE 20 Where the Roots Run Deep Alamosa is an often-overlooked gem nestled in the San Luis Valley.

Agriculture has long been an economic mainstay, but tourists love visiting the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, wildlife refuges, hiking trails, hot springs and more.

BY THERESA WOODS

COLORADO SPRINGS

PEOPLE

27 Strong Start to 2025 —

Colorado Springs’ Character

Remainder Uncertain

Colorado businesses grew by 7.7% in the year’s first quarter, compared to the same time in 2024. Local officials say the growth is even stronger in COS.

BY ANDREW ROGERS

28 Back to the Drawing Board Colorado Springs voters rejected the Karman Line annexation in Eastern Colorado Springs, forcing developer ONE La Plata to drop plans for a 1,913acre development catering to people working at Schriever Space Force Base.

BY ANDREW ROGERS

29 Colorado Targeting Landfill

Methane Pollution

The state Department of Public Health and Environment is working to reduce greenhouses gases, released when organic material breaks down in landfills.

Colorado is following tactics other states have used to solve the problem.

BY KERI KAHN

ADVANCED MANUFACTURING 34 Company Secures Funds for Cancer Therapy Testing

Lahjavida, a medical tech company based in Colorado Springs, has $1.5 million to continue testing a new technology that could revolutionize cancer treatment.

Compounds of a drug and a delivery system are being tested in animals, with hopes to test humans in 2027.

BY JEANNE DAVANT

39 Scottish Architect Shaped Thomas MacLaren spent 34 years creating beautiful buildings in the Pikes Peak region and beyond. He came here to recover from tuberculosis and, alone and with partners, left a legacy that’s still celebrated.

BY JEANNE DAVANT

40 The Farmer’s Friend Jeremy Anderson, CEO of Farm Credit of Southern Colorado, talks about the institution’s growth and the impact economic factors have on its members.

He says farmers and ranchers deal with challenges that are out of their control.

BY ANDREW ROGERS

42 The 5 Ps at Phil Long Dealerships

Product and profit are not the only guiding principles at the longtime auto dealerships. Kevin Shaughnessy, president/CEO and partner, ensures that his team also supports people, passion and process.

BY PAM BALES

44 Professionals on the Rise Get to know some of those people in the region who have made leaps in their careers. This is where The Digest celebrates the achievements of Southern Colorado’s workforce.

6 / Southern Colorado Business Forum & Digest UP DAT ES AR OUND THE REGION

Statewide

Grants to Rural Areas Courtesy of Department of Local Affairs

Douglas

El Paso Fremont Pueblo Alamosa

The Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI) program recently awarded $780,000 to 13 projects statewide to assist rural communities in building resilience by diversifying their local economies.

“The REDI program demonstrates DOLA’s commitment to Colorado rural communities,” says Maria De Cambra, executive director of the Department of Local Affairs. “From childcare to main street revitalization, this vital funding helps communities attract investment, encourage entrepreneurship, stimulate

economic growth and improve the quality of life for rural Coloradans.”

The program funds projects including: $134,030 for the City of Alamosa’s Little Learners Early Care and Learning Center; $15,000 for the Saguache County Launchpad; $62,470 for the Moffat County Geothermal Equipment Project; $16,500 for the Lyons Maker Space and Retail Small Business Incubator; $100,000 for the continued expansion of the City of Sterling’s tire retread facility; $87,000 for the Morgan County Innovation Center;

Douglas

Pueblo

Castle Rock Named a Top City Castle Rock was highlighted recently on the website Livability.com, which highlights the “unsung awesomeness” of small to mid-size cities across the country. The website said that Castle Rock ranks high when it comes to health, safety and economic factors. The website does not offer a ranked listing of cities, but compiled a list of the top 100 cities when considering eight categories: economy, housing/cost of living, amenities, transportation, environment, safety, education and health.

$100,000 for the Town of Eagle’s Business Advancement Program (BAP); $25,000 for the San Luis Valley Economic Outreach and Engagement Project; $50,000 for a Main Street revitalization initiative in the City of Victor; $100,000 for the Custer County Wet Mountain Valley Agricultural Marketplace; $15,000 for a hotel feasibility study in the Town of Akron; $25,000 for

the strengthening community spaces study in Elbert County; and $50,000 for infrastructure and resiliency studies in Kiowa County.

“Colorado is proud of our growing economy and especially the role that our rural communities play in driving us forward. This support for our rural communities will help small businesses across Colorado,” says Gov. Jared Polis.

Some Fish are Hazardous to Your Health Anglers are advised to limit their consumption of fish caught in Pueblo’s Runyon Lake due to levels of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) detected in fish there. The Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment (CDPHE) issued the advisory for rainbow trout caught in Runyon Lake.

PFOS belong to a group of human-made chemicals called perand poly-fluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. Nicknamed “forever chemicals” due to their long lifespan in the environment and the human body, exposure to them may be linked to higher cholesterol levels,

immune system effects, liver issues and a higher risk of certain cancers, based on the latest scientific findings and data. The most common ways people are exposed to PFAS are through drinking water and certain foods, including fish.

In 2020, CDPHE began studying PFAS in fish. Fish from six bodies of water were sampled in 2023. PFOS levels high enough to warrant advisories were found at three: Barr Lake near Brighton, Chatfield Reservoir near Littleton and Runyon Lake.

The water is safe for fishing and recreation. Children ages 6 and younger should eat less than half a serving per

month. All other people, including pregnant women, can eat a maximum of two servings per month. Follow all CDPHE fish consumption guidelines when eating any fish you catch.

CDPHE regularly tests for mercury levels in fish and maintains a listing of consumption guidelines by species. Thirty-eight locations have additional advisories due to high contamination levels found there.

A COMPLETE LIST

of fish consumption advisories for Colorado can be found at:

COEPHT.COLORADO.GOV/ FISH-CONSUMPTION

socodigest.com / Vol. 3 No. 7 - July 2025 / 7 UP DAT ES AR OUND THE REGION

Alamosa

Luxury Resort Fully Booked for First Season After opening in April, the Kosmos Resort & Stargazing Spa, between Mosca and the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, is fully booked until November. Due to construction delays, several initial bookings were rescheduled or offered credit toward a future

stay. The resort states no further rescheduling is anticipated.

Solar-powered villas constructed from hempcrete, which uses the woody core of hemp to create a sustainable alternative to concrete, are the first phase of the luxury eco-resort. To date, $2.5 million of the $3 million construction budget for Phase 1 has been spent.

The resort raised $1.2 million from investors and more than $1.9 million through a record-breaking 2024

Fremont

El Paso

State of the Utilities Update in COS The Colorado Springs City Council, acting as the board of Colorado Springs Utilities, last year approved a five-year rate increase plan to pay for nearly $4 billion in long-term projects in anticipation of future growth.

Utilities CEO Travas Deal said the city-owned utility is getting started this year on many of those projects.

The annual rate increases approved last year range from 4%9% across electric, natural gas, water and wastewater between now and 2029, but the average residential customer bill remains 6.9%, or

will continue through 2026, with plans to open the resort’s Wellness Spa next summer. A welcome center, planetarium and meeting rooms are under construction for opening in 2027.

The resort is the brainchild of CEO Gamal Jadue Zalaquett, who fell in love with the area and purchased the 40-acre site. Matador Network and Conde Nast Traveler named this immersive astronomy travel destination one of the most exciting new hotels of 2025.

El Paso

Cañon City Discusses Plans for Clocktower Plaza

Venu Breaks Ground on Amphitheater in Texas

Photo courtesy of the City of Cañon City.

After Cañon City put together plans for the redevelopment of the Clocktower Plaza, officials hosted an open house in early June for the public to provide feedback for the project development and final design plans. City officials envision the plaza as an urban gathering space on the western end of Main Street. The site is being used as an overflow parking lot in downtown and features a three-story freestanding clock.

Indigogo crowdfunding campaign.

Construction began in April 2024.

In addition to stargazing villas outfitted with full kitchens and telescopes, the resort offers public events. Immersive Stargazing Sessions are dark-sky tours and telescope viewings with an astronomer. Corporate and large group events are also available.

Breakfast and lunch service will begin in October.

Construction of additional villas

$20.42, below the Front Range average of $275.03.

Upcoming projects include: • Energy Wise rates, starting Oct. 1, higher during peak weekday demand from 5-9 p.m. and lower the rest of the day, to encourage customers to shift usage away from peak periods. Traditional flat-rate plans will remain available.

• Utilities’ first battery power storage system with a capacity of 100 megawatts is expected to begin operation in July at the Jackson Fuller Substation in eastern El Paso County, to store renewable energy purchased when prices are low.

A groundbreaking ceremony took place Friday, June 13, for Venu’s next outdoor music venue, the $300 million Sunset Amphitheater in McKinney, Texas, powered by EIGHT Elite Light Beer. The estimated opening is in 2026. The luxury concert venue is following the model first used for the company’s first outdoor venue, the Ford Amphitheater, in Colorado Springs. Like the local venue, the

McKinney location is being built with a combination of public and private funding, along with the sale of luxury fire pit suites.

• Council members, acting as the Utilities board, approved the $400 million Eastern Wastewater System expansion that will serve much of the eastern edge of Colorado Springs through interceptor lines and lift stations.

• Utilities began construction last year on the 160-acre Horizon Utility Campus near Colorado Springs Airport that now includes an electric substation.

Within three years, the campus will expand with natural gasfueled electricity generators and more battery energy storage.

• Utilities is rehabilitating its reservoirs on Pikes Peak

and wants to expand the Montgomery Reservoir near Hoosier Pass to improve the safety and capacity of its water storage system.

• As Utilities moves toward buying more renewable energy and phasing out its coal-fired power plants, it plans to keep natural gas-fueled generators on those sites to replace the generating capacity.

• Utilities is looking at expanding into nuclear power since state legislators declared it to be a renewable energy source, Deal said. While nuclear plants carry a big price tag, those facilities can last up to 80 years, he said.

8 / Southern Colorado Business Forum & Digest I N N OVAT ION

EcoTech Biofuels Solving Two Problems at Once

BY THERESA WOODS

A view of the East Peak wildfire near La Veta, Colorado, June 21, 2013. It burned 13,572 acres and destroyed 17 structures. The Colorado National Guard was assisting with efforts to fight the blaze.

Photo credit: Capt. Darin Overstreet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

E

coTech Biofuels (ETF) grew out of concerns about declining forest health and a predicted significant, long-term shortfall in the supply of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). “The reason why I felt compelled to do something about this is because we do have the engineering know-how to solve this problem, and the [U.S.] Forest Service really needs us to do that,” says Linda-Rose Myers, ETF founder and president.

Her company converts highly flammable, dead trees into sustainable fuels before they’re engulfed in devastating wildfires. “The Forest Service is hoping that we’ll do all the Western states because so many of them need the same kind of thing.

So that’s why this one has to work perfectly,” says Myers.

ETF’s Rio Grande Biofuels project (RGB) will harvest 500 tons of dry standing and dead timber per day from the 1.8 million acres of Rio Grande National Forest (RGNF) southwest of Colorado Springs.

This harvested woody biomass will become 1,150 barrels of SAF and synthetic diesel at a plant to be built in Walsenburg. The National Wild Turkey Federation, the largest provider of forest-thinning services to the U.S. Forest Service, has contracted with ETF to harvest the biomass. It will be transported to a staging, processing, storage and rail car-loading area in Monte Vista for delivery to the plant.

AEG Fuels, a leading fuel provider for the aviation industry, committed to purchase all the SAF the plant produces, an estimated 14 million gallons per year.

At the plant, the biomass is put in a high-temperature, low-oxygen gasifier. “It’s like a closed-loop, updated boiler,” explains Myers. This converts it to syngas — synthesis gas.

“It’s similar to natural gas, only it’s woody biomass gas.”

The gas is further processed to maximize yields of carbon monoxide, hydrogen and carbon dioxide. “Then we send that to a Fischer-Tropsch process, gas-to-liquids process, where you first get a type of crude fuel, which we further refine to get sustainable aviation fuel, which is

Linda-Rose Myers is the founder and president of EcoTech Biofuels, a company turning wildfire fuels into sustainable aviation fuel. chemically equivalent to Jet A,” a kerosene-based fuel commonly used in civilian aircraft.

ETF’s proprietary, closed-loop system feeds the carbon dioxide to specially bred algae that metabolize it into a soil amendment.

“We’re going to put that algae on the burn scar areas to remediate that soil, put nutrients into the soil, and then I’m going to sponsor summer jobs for high school kids that plant trees,” she says.

Previously, Myers was in discussions with communities in South Dakota. When these did not produce results, she switched her focus to Colorado. Longtime RGNF Supervisor Dan Dallas was a key advocate for relocating the project

here. For the past four years, Myers has been building relationships in southeast Colorado. Concerns over the plant’s water requirements and ability to transport via railroad moved the planned plant location from Walsenburg to Trinidad, and back to Walsenburg in September 2024.

Plant construction is estimated to cost $340 million. Currently, 65 acres of land are under contract for the plant site, and soil analysis and Phase 1 and Phase 2 environmental reviews are complete. Black & Veatch, a global infrastructure development company with an office in Denver, was awarded the engineering, procurement and construction contract for the plant, expected to be completed in 24 months.

“We shouldn’t have any difficulties getting all of the permits in hand within nine months,” Myers says. ETF has secured $255 million of the total project cost and is seeking equity or debt partners for the remainder.

The project is estimated to increase labor earnings by $9.4 million and tax production by $463,000. At least 90 direct-employment, full-time positions will be created: logging personnel, truckers, mechanics, engineers, plant operators, managers and supervisors. Myers has pledged to hire locally and emphasize hiring unemployed veterans.

“I believe in doing business sustainably, so that you work closely

with your stakeholders, and our stakeholders are the local community,” she says.

There is a lot riding on this plant’s success. It would be a major boost to the area’s economy and a personal mission for Myers, who is deeply invested in the project, personally and financially. New Mexico and Montana are inquiring about being the next project sites.

“This plant has to be meticulously engineered so that it’s a good example to anyone,” says Myers. She acknowledges there is room in the market for other companies but hopes ETF will be the primary manufacturer of SAF in the region.

She just has to build the Walsenburg plant first.

Theresa Woods is a staff writer for the SoCo Business Forum & Digest.

12M CHILDREN A R E T R A FF IC K E D E V E RY DAY I N 2 0 2 5 , I N C LU DI N G R IG H T H E R E I N C O LO R A D O. W H E N Y O U P L AY W I T H Y O U R T E A M I N THE AMBASSADORS FOR HOPE CHARIT Y G O L F T O U R N A M E N T, Y O U S E N D THE E XODUS ROAD TO FREE THEM.

Join Colorado Springs-based global nonprofit, The Exodus Road, together with tournament host Colorado Springs Orthopaedic Group and partner Colorado Media Group, on October 6, 2025, for the 3nd Annual Ambassadors for Hope Charity Golf Tournament.

BENEFITING

Hosted at The Garden of the Gods Resort & Club, the charity tournament is a four-person team event with proceeds from player registration directly benefiting The Exodus Road’s work in bringing freedom to trafficked children and justice to perpetrators.

The Exodus Road operates in the U.S. as well as five other countries around the world and has celebrated its role in securing freedom for more than 2,600 trafficked men, women, and children. They’ve aided law enforcement in the arrest of more than 1,200 perpetrators of the crime.

M O N DAY OCTOBER 6, 2025

GARDEN OF THE GODS RESORT & CLUB

PRESENTED BY

T H E E X O D U S R O A D . C O M /G O L F

10 / Southern Colorado Business Forum & Digest TO URISM

Region’s Hospitality Sector Showing Effects of Consumers’ Uncertainty

BY WAYN E HEILMAN

T

he Colorado Springs hospitality industry started 2025 on a down note, but industry officials are optimistic the peak tourism season that began last month will at least keep pace with an unexpectedly strong year in 2024.

Hotel occupancy has declined nine consecutive months and 11 of the past 12 months and the average daily room rate in local hotels has decreased for 10 consecutive months and 11 of the past 12 months, according to data from CoStar, a top provider of hotel and real estate data. The occupancy declines grew larger every month this year, including 8.4 percentage points in March and 11.7 percentage points in

April, before narrowing to a 3% drop in occupancy in May. The local market has performed significantly worse than the rest of the nation this year, with national occupancy rate declines ranging between 0.3 and 1.9 percentage points and a slight increase in February and average room rates increasing in all four months. The weak national performance prompted CoStar and Tourism Economics to downgrade their industry forecast of demand and average room rate for the rest of this year and all of 2026.

“We’re looking ahead to a second half of the year with consumers facing higher prices and a weaker labor market, businesses tapping the brakes on investment and soft international visitor volumes,” Aran Ryan, director of

industry studies at Tourism Economics, says in a news release on the forecast downgrade. “While recession risks have eased, the economy — and the travel sector — will walk on a tightrope through this period.”

Occupancy and average room rates in Colorado Springs are weaker than the rest of the nation for several reasons.

The Trump administration’s freeze on nonessential travel in late February has a bigger local impact because of the large role the military and defense contractors play in the local economy and the rapid pace of hotel construction — adding rooms at 4% annual rate while demand has declined nearly 3%, according to CoStar.

Jan Frietag, CoStar’s national director of hospitality analytics, says the larger declines in March and April could also be the product of Easter Sunday moving from March 31 last year to April 20 this year, delaying many family vacations from March to April due to a later spring break in schools. He says corporate travel also has slowed due to economic uncertainty over tariffs the Trump administration imposed, then delayed.

“Uncertainty weighs on consumers’ minds. They still don’t know what things are going to cost because of uncertainty about tariffs, and that is having an impact on all three major travel segments — group meetings, corporate and leisure,” Frietag says.

“Government [travel] demand is likely to stay flat, and I don’t expect it will accelerate, so it will probably stay where it is or deteriorate a little more.”

Doug Price, CEO of Visit Colorado Springs, the local tourism promotion agency, says the supply of rooms added in the past year, about 800, hit the local market hard in March and April, when travel spending was soft.

He also pointed to a major decline in international travel, especially Canadian tourists, as another factor slowing hotel demand that will continue for “the foreseeable future.”

The London-based World Travel & Tourism Council forecasts that international visitor spending in the U.S. will fall by $12.5 billion, or 6.6%, this year because “while other nations are rolling out the welcome mat, the

U.S. government is putting up the ‘closed’ sign,’” says Julia Simpson, the council’s president and CEO. The biggest drops in international visitors are from Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Other tourism indicators are mixed. Revenue from the Colorado Springs tax on hotel rooms and rental cars has fallen in four of the past five months but is up 1.1% in the first four months of the year due to a big increase in February. Passenger numbers on outbound flights from the Colorado Springs Airport have dropped for nine consecutive months and are off 6.2% in the first four months of the year.

The recent declines in many tourism indicators come after a big year in 2024. Data compiled by Longwoods International, an Ohiobased tourism market research firm, showed the number of visitors to the Pikes Peak region rose 2.8% last year to 25.5 million and tourism spending grew 6.9% to $3.1 billion. Price says that was a pleasant surprise since he was expecting both indicators to be flat last year.

Price attributes the tourism industry’s slow start this year to cold and rainy weather, and he is optimistic that the tourism industry will bounce back during the peak season with visitors attracted by some key summer events. They include NBA superstar Steph Curry’s UNDERRATED Golf Tourney at the Air Force Academy and the U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor, both in late June, and the Department of Defense Warrior Games at Colorado College in July.

“Everybody is concerned about economic uncertainty, but gas prices on Memorial Day weekend were 40 cents cheaper than last year and most of the visitors to the Pikes Peak region arrive here by driving,” Price says. “Yes, we are concerned but we have to open for business, and we are optimistic. The hotel industry is very cyclical and there will be an increase in demand after a settling-out period that could take 12 to 18 months.”

P.K. McPherson, executive director

CONTINUED ON P. 11

socodigest.com / Vol. 3 No. 7 - July 2025 / 11

of the Pikes Peak Region Attractions Association, says visitor numbers at the group’s 29 attractions have been largely flat so far this year but, like Price, she is optimistic about the rest of the peak tourism season through August. She says telephone, social media and website inquiries from potential travelers have jumped in recent weeks, pointing to a boost in visitor traffic later this summer.

An online survey the Bank of America Institute conducted in late February and early March found 70% of those responding are planning on vacationing this summer, up from last year’s survey, a ray of hope after the travel industry’s slow start this year. The survey also found higher-income households are more likely to travel internationally and lower-income households are more likely to travel domestically.

John Kelley, senior vice president of hospitality, gaming and leisure for commercial real estate consulting firm Newmark Valuation & Advisory in Denver, is less concerned about the

local impact of the federal employee travel freeze because the Trump administration is seeking a big increase in defense spending that could benefit the Colorado Springs economy and perhaps thaw the freeze for militaryrelated travel.

But Kelley is concerned that leisure travel may soften both in Colorado Springs and nationwide due to the threat of tariff increases and economic uncertainty, though he added that the local market is well-positioned for tourism industry growth in the long term.

“Uncertainty is driving a lot of people’s decisions and consumers are cutting back on travel, which could mean they go a destination closer to their home. On the corporate side, many have put everything [travel-related] on pause,” he says.

Wayne Heilman is a senior writer for the SoCo Business Forum & Digest.

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12 / Southern Colorado Business Forum & Digest EN TR EPR ENEUR SHIP

The Climb is Better Together

BY MAX CUPP

A

fter our recent Demo Day, Jonathan Rosswog came up to me and said, “This program has completely changed my trajectory!” He said it with an enthusiasm that made it clear he wasn’t just talking about his business.

Jonathan moved to Colorado Springs less than a year ago from Huntsville, Alabama. At the time, he had all but shut down his company.

He’d let go his employees, stopped pursuing new business and left the venture behind after his sole-source prime contract with NASA concluded.

That might have been the end of the story, until Jonathan met Kris Cargyle, a pillar of the Exponential Impact (XI) mentor community. They struck up a conversation at the zeroproof bar Gratitude in Old Colorado City and Kris quickly realized Jonathan wasn’t done. He still held valuable assets, including the algorithm and

intellectual property he had developed for his business. Kris encouraged him to check out XI’s Pitch Night.

That simple invitation changed everything. Over the next six months, we witnessed a remarkable transformation — from someone who appeared defeated to a founder with a pep in his step and an air of confidence.

About six weeks ago, Jonathan joined our group of 25 to climb the Manitou Incline. We were a mix of folks connected by tech and innovation — people from XI, Catalyst Campus, Office of Economic Development and International Trade and Colorado Startups. Just five days earlier, Jonathan had attempted the Incline and tapped out at the aptly named First Bail Out. But that Friday morning, things were different.

He told me his goal was to make it to the top in time for the 10:30 a.m. photo. As the countdown ticked under 20 minutes, we approached the false

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Jonathan Rosswog presenting at the recent Demo Day.

summit. We were going to have to book it to make it to the top for that picture.

I told Jonathan we could take one or two quick breaks during that final ascent. And then we marched upward.

I’m confident Jonathan would tell you those last 20 minutes would’ve been nearly impossible without a partner — without someone who felt that same burn. Without someone who knows the feeling of accomplishment that comes from pushing through to a tough goal.

Without someone saying, “just take one more step.”

Here’s what I’ve learned: just like climbing the Incline is better with a friend, so is entrepreneurship.

At XI, we’ve built a community of founders who know what it’s like to build something from the ground up.

They understand the grind. They’ll be the ones to warn you about the false summit. They’ll sit with you during those moments when every step feels twice as tall as it is deep. And they’ll cheer you on when you land your first customer.

More importantly, they know this won’t be your only climb. And they’ll be there the next time you lace up your boots.

We’ve built this community intentionally, with partners from across the local ecosystem and throughout the state. And we’re always down for the next hike.

Join us for coffee every Thursday from 9 to 10 a.m. at Exponential Impact HQ, 3650 N. Nevada Ave., Colorado Springs. Whether you’re a builder, an innovator or a founder at heart, we’ve got a seat for you.

Max Cupp is the executive director of Exponential Impact.

Come take a tour to learn what we do for your community.

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socodigest.com / Vol. 3 No. 7 - July 2025 / 13 AEROSPACE/ DEFENS E

GAO Report Highlights Issues with Space Command’s Colorado Springs Future

BY A N DREW ROGER S

U.S. Space Force photo by Staff Sgt. JT Armstrong

A

report from the Government Accountability Office, released in May, highlights several concerns with keeping the headquarters of U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs. The GAO has continued to investigate the feasibility of keeping the command headquartered at Peterson Space Force Base, rather than moving to the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama.

The decision about Space Command’s permanent headquarters was announced as Alabama in the waning days of the first Trump presidency, after being reestablished in 2019 at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs after a 17-year hiatus. The command remained at Peterson during the political turmoil of a change in administrations and advocacy from elected officials from both states.

Over the ensuing years, Department of Defense investigators continued to review the two locations and, in June 2023, the Air Force revalidated Huntsville’s Redstone Arsenal as its preferred headquarters location for the command. However, then-Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall did not announce a decision before President Biden ultimately determined in July 2023 that Space Command would permanently remain in Colorado Springs.

“Colorado Springs is already home to key national security space assets that provide irreplaceable infrastructure and support for USSPACECOM. These include the United States Space Force’s Space Operations Command, the National Space Defense Center and NORAD/ NORTHCOM, which possess critical infrastructure and expertise that will not be duplicated elsewhere,” Rep. Jeff Crank, a Republican representing Colorado’s 5th Congressional District, says in a letter he wrote along with other members of Colorado’s Republican delegation. They sent it to President Trump before the Defense Department’s inspector general issued a report on the decisions made in the ongoing discussion.

Headquarters Space Operations Command at Peterson Space Force Base.

The joint combatant did reach full operational capability in December 2023, two years earlier than Defense officials expected. Despite the positive news about reaching full operating capacity, many officials with Space Command told the GAO that communication and staffing were among some of the most persistent challenges.

Home Sweet Home The outline reports that, as of March 2025, the headquarters for Space Command were operating in four buildings across the Colorado Springs area. Two are on military installations and the other two are leased commercial facilities.

“Officials stated the Command’s posture is not sustainable longterm and new military construction would be needed to support the headquarters’ operations in Colorado Springs,” the report outlines.

Although the current facilities were intended to be “temporary,” they are described in the report as “inefficient and cumbersome.” The report online states that the current infrastructure had an adverse effect on completing the command’s mission.

During site visits, GAO investigators found entire floors of cubicles where many cubicles were being used by multiple employees working staggered schedules. Aging technology and

infrastructure were also highlighted among the main concerns for the command’s advanced needs.

A sensitive compartmented information facility trailer was located adjacent to the command’s main facility, which had been transferred from a previous deployment. The investigators also outlined that three of the four facilities are more than 40 years old and that the aging infrastructure cannot fully support the command’s modern information technology requirements.

The geographical location, with two facilities being on base and two being in civilian commercial developments, also has presented challenges for officials working together, notably the travel time between facilities along with the challenges of many decisionmakers being in separate locations.

To address the concerns of operating the nation’s security from space, it was decided to build a new multistory permanent headquarters at Peterson Space Force Base. In July 2023, the price tag of the new facility was estimated to be $1.5 billion and take five years to complete.

Much of the cost is due to building a permanent, purpose-built facility to handle the unique power, IT and security requirements of Space Command. Without these updates, the Air Force stated that the command

and its mission will continue to operate inefficiently, also continuing to show vulnerabilities to Space Command’s mission, facilities and personnel.

The construction study from July 2023 says that building wouldn’t begin until January 2029 with a target completion date of July 2034. Funding for the new headquarters was not included in the most recently passed National Defense Authorization Act and, as of March 2025, Air Force officials say that there were no further updates regarding funding the permanent headquarters facility in Colorado Springs.

Help Wanted “We are in a different spot than we were a few years ago. Space Command’s rightful home is in Colorado, where, since 2023, it has been fully operational and an invaluable asset to America’s military,” Crank says.

Although many local officials are quick to remind decisionmakers that the command is fully operational two years ahead of schedule, the GAO report shows that Space Command is not yet fully staffed.

The report noted that, in fall 2024, the command was still working without many needed civilian personnel positions being filled.

Civilian personnel are intended to make up nearly 60% of all staff members for Space Command. The ongoing debate over the final location of Space Command, along with the extra steps needed to fill civilian positions in the government compared to the process to assign or reassign military personnel to the command, have hobbled the hiring process.

“As of October 2024, the command had filled 1,024 of 1,379 authorized positions, including 576 of 809 government civilian positions,” the report outlines.

Andrew Rogers is a staff writer for the SoCo Business Forum & Digest.

14 / Southern Colorado Business Forum & Digest HEALT HCAR E

Where It Matters Most

Urban Medical Providers Take Healthcare Access to Rural Colorado

BY A N DREW ROGER S

A

pproximately 20% of the U.S. population live in rural areas. According to the Centers for Disease Control, there are several demographic, environmental, economic and social factors that may put rural residents at higher risk of death than their urban-dwelling counterparts. Access to routine and/or preventative care is one of the large contributing factors for this disparity.

In Colorado, roughly 12% of the state’s population live in the 77% of the state defined as rural. To help address the gap in healthcare access, several providers from the Colorado Springs area are opening satellite offices and clinics across the wider Southeast Colorado landscape.

“Because of career, time, distance or access to care, there’s a variety of things that come into play, but we tend to find that cancers can be diagnosed at a later stage in our rural populations,” says Braden Healy, a doctor of dermatology and fellowshiptrained Mohs surgeon with Vanguard Skin Specialists in Colorado Springs.

Vanguard works with several rural communities to provide access to dermatological services in Hugo, La Junta and Cañon City. The clinic’s founders, Dr. Vhin Chung and his wife, Leisle, have made it a cornerstone of their growing clinic network, based on backgrounds being raised in rural Arkansas, and as first-generation immigrants from Vietnam and South Korea, respectively.

To assist with the rural outreach, Vanguard partners with various

coworking conference rooms offices

hospitals and healthcare facilities to house their providers.

“What we’re doing is actually utilizing some of their space at the hospitals themselves,” he says. “We’re using their outpatient clinics to bring a team — I personally bring my team of five people — we come, and we set up our own shop inside of their clinic, and then we see patients. It’s all seen through Vanguard; it doesn’t go through the hospital itself.”

Much Needed Care Another specialist who splits his time between serving patients in both urban and rural settings is James Lee, an ophthalmologist and founder of the Colorado Eye Institute.

Lee travels between Colorado Springs and communities, including Walsenburg, to provide much-needed services twice a month — including monthly surgical care.

“When we see them, nothing is routine. Meaning they’re not coming in for a routine general health check.

They’re coming in because they have problems,” Lee says.

At a number of rural satellite clinics (some as far south as Alamosa), the Colorado Eye Institute also provides access to cornea transplants, cataract treatments, laser eye surgery, retina care and treatment for glaucoma and diseases that cause inflammation of the eye.

Lee grew up in a largely rural community in the Midwest and knew that providing outreach and satellite options to largely underserved communities was necessary. Healy also grew up in the rural Midwest, with a deep understanding of the unique needs and concerns of those he serves during his clinic time in Hugo, a Lincoln County community near Limon, and how they differ from the patients he serves in Colorado Springs.

Similarly to Lee’s experiences, Healy also says that he spends much of his time with more challenging cases.

“When I go to these rural areas, I do significantly more biopsies to diagnose skin cancers than I would do in the usual day in Briargate,” Healy notes.

Mission Focused Many of the healthcare providers traveling to rural communities know that much of their work is done with a sense of duty and giving back to the community — the reality of modern medicine makes this work much more of a calling than a cash cow.

“In fact, it’s probably a disservice to our business to have satellites because of the time utilization; we all have limited time and because the demand is so great in Colorado Springs than in the surrounding areas,” Lee says.

Lee adds that the extra time boils down to a general belief that providing access to specialty services in rural communities is simply the right thing to do. Healey agrees, noting that the communities he serves outside of Colorado Springs often show deep appreciation for his time and services, which makes the job that much more rewarding.

“My patients, specifically in La Junta, have been very grateful to be able to get access sooner, with less of an impact on their lives — in terms of travel, taking days off work, etc.

We get a lot of good feedback from the hospital system out in La Junta,” Healey says. “And we’re grateful for them allowing us to be there.”

“One big testament is that I recently diagnosed an advanced melanoma in a patient who said, ‘you know, if I couldn’t have come in easily, I probably wouldn’t have come in at all.’ I think that drives home the point that making access to care available really is saving lives.”

Andrew Rogers is a staff writer for the SoCo Business Forum & Digest.

socodigest.com / Vol. 3 No. 7 - July 2025 / 15 N O NPR OFIT

BY JE AN N E DAVANT

C

hild Advocacy Centers across Colorado support children who have suffered abuse or maltreatment recover from the most difficult time of their lives. Because of federal funding declines, these centers have cut back on expenses and are operating on reserves. But unless legislation passes in Congress to ease ongoing funding shortfalls, they will increasingly be looking to donors to continue support for these vital services.

Colorado’s 19 Child Advocacy Centers have faced drastic funding cuts in the past several years, says Ashley Jellison, executive director of the Colorado Children’s Alliance. The alliance provides training, support and technical assistance to CACs. CACs including Safe Passage in Colorado Springs and the Pueblo Child Advocacy Center provide safe places for children while child abuse allegations are investigated through forensic interviews and medical evaluations, and offer family advocacy and mental health services that are vital to help traumatized children start to heal.

The CACs are independent nonprofit organizations. Much of their financial support comes from the Crime Victim Services Fund, authorized by the federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA). The money does not come from taxes, but rather from settlements, fines and fees from prosecutions. Deposits to the fund, which supports a variety of agencies that help crime victims, have dropped off sharply over the past few years.

As a result, funding for Colorado’s CACs has declined by 75% since 2018, Jellison says.

The Crime Victims Fund Stabilization Act in 2024 sought to redirect unobligated funds from

settlements of fraud cases against the government to the VOCA fund.

That bill did not pass, but it has been reintroduced with broad bipartisan support in the current Congress.

In November 2024, Colorado voters approved Proposition KK, a 6.5% tax on firearm and ammunition sales. That funding was implemented this year but won’t be available to CACs and other victim assistance programs until 2026.

Meanwhile, the CACs are relying on state and local victim assistance and law enforcement grants, along with donations and other local fundraising.

Individual CACs have redoubled their fundraising efforts but also have been forced to take other steps to keep from having to cut back services.

At Safe Passage, “we are continuing to pull from general operating supports that would have supported other initiatives” such as increasing mental health staff, Executive Director Maureen Basenberg says.

“I had hoped to add another fulltime therapist, but we don’t have the budget resources to support that,” she says, adding that there is a wait list for Safe Passage’s two mental health providers.

The Pueblo CAC, which serves 10 Southern Colorado counties, has seen a 20% cut in its VOCA funding this year, but “we’re not going to cut our services,” Executive Director Jennifer Chavez says. “What we’re looking to do is manage the cuts.”

Pueblo is appealing to private funders such as foundations to help make up the difference, “but they’re cutting back as well,” Chavez says. One of the results is that strategic plans to create satellite offices in some of those areas, such as Trinidad, have been put on hold.

“We are doing a lot of outreach and we have been able to secure a little bit of funding to provide gas cards to the families who can’t make it in,” she says.

Photo courtesy of Safe Passage.

Federal Cutbacks Impact Child Advocacy Centers

Children and families participate in a community activity during an event hosted by Safe Passage, one of Colorado’s Child Advocacy Centers that support healing and well-being for children and families.

Each forensic interview conducted at the center costs from $2,300 to $2,700.

“Without the services provided by us, the responsibility and cost of these interviews would fall to law enforcement and the Department of Human Services,” Chavez says.

“They’re already stretched thin, but more importantly, they’re not equipped to offer the same child-focused, healing, centered environment that we have here.”

In the long term, CACs save money, Basenberg says.

“We address needs that, if they go unmet, will cause longer-term problems,” Basenberg explains. “These adverse childhood experiences, when they’re not addressed, lead to physical and mental health instabilities and citizens that aren’t as functional and end up in the juvenile system or the adult system. We have studies that show us this.”

Passage of the 2025 Crime Victims

Fund Stabilization Act “would be life saving for crime victim organizations throughout the country,” Jellison says.

“If it passes, we will be very excited.

Otherwise, it’s not looking great.

We’ve heard that VOCA grants will get cut further next year.”

Basenberg says that, in the current political climate, she is not optimistic.

“I don’t think we’re getting a lot of attention,” she says. “When we can’t look to government to play their role, we’re left to look to our businesses and our fellow citizens to assist, if they want employees who are ready and capable to show up to work, if they want those younger citizens to grow up ready and capable. It really does all come home.”

Jeanne Davant is a senior writer for the SoCo Business Forum & Digest.

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16 / Southern Colorado Business Forum & Digest ECO NOM IC DEVELOP M E N T

Largest Shipping Container Community in Colorado Opens in Buena Vista

BY JE AN N E DAVANT Photo credit for all images: Sydney Conrad Photography

W

hen Jerry Champlin and his wife, Tania McEvoy, set out to build a housing development in Buena Vista, they wanted to create an attractive, efficient small-living community that would be affordable for working people.

Although they weren’t able to keep rents as low as they’d hoped, the couple was able to manifest their vision for a space where people share amenities that encourage them to connect with each other. BV Basecamp, which consists of 16 units constructed from shipping containers, is attracting a lot of interest from folks who live and work in Buena Vista, and attention from affordable housing proponents throughout the state. The community — the largest of its kind in the state — opened June 5, and Champlin expects most, if not all, of the units will be leased by early July.

BV Basecamp was a first-time venture into real estate development for Champlin, a technology and management consultant, and McEvoy, a high-tech HR professional.

“The neighborhood that we live in in Boulder has small houses, and people are pretty close to each other,” Champlin says. “We wanted to try to re-

create that here but on a smaller scale.”

Their first thought was a tiny home community, but the city flatly rejected that concept, he says. When they learned about Wyatt Reed and Barna Kasa’s shipping container hotel, The Industrial, in Florence, they cut some LEGO®-like wood pieces and put together a conceptual model.

Champlin brought in Boulder architect Alicja Hudson of BlackSwan Creative Labs and hired Reed to oversee construction. McEvoy supervised the interior design, and their three high-school and college-age children got involved as well, doing everything from building cabinets to welding.

Champlin wishes he knew then what he knows now about the whole process, during which he had to

pivot to meet building codes and make modifications required by the city that drove up costs. With the cantilevered placements of the shipping containers, stacked to fit on the lot in Downtown Buena Vista, it was a difficult project to build.

But the result is a striking configuration that embraces common gathering spaces and achieves the goal of attainability.

“We’re at the bottom end of the price point,” Champlin says. “If we priced it to a normal real estate cap rate you’d expect on a project like this, it would be a fair bit more expensive.”

Jeanne Davant is a senior writer for the SoCo Business Forum & Digest.

BV Basecamp, which opened in Buena Vista in June, features shipping containers that frame community gathering spaces. Developer Jerry Champlin, who led the project, takes a break on site.

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about BV Basecamp by visiting:

BVBASECAMP.COM

socodigest.com / Vol. 3 No. 7 - July 2025 / 17 UTI LIT IES

Pikes Peak’s North Slope Recreation Area under Review Public Asked for Input

O

Right: Crystal Reservoir Below: Vicinity map of North Slope Recreation Area

Image courtesy of the City of Colorado Springs.

ne of Colorado Springs’ most iconic landmarks is Pikes Peak. Through decades of change, the Peak’s towering presence and its importance to the city’s vitality have remained constant.

In addition to its beauty and recreational amenities, Pikes Peak also plays an important role in the city’s water supply. Colorado Springs Utilities’ infrastructure on both the North and South Slopes includes 10 reservoirs that collect and store drinking water supplies for city customers. Critically, the three reservoirs in the North Slope Recreation Area (NSRA) on the Peak also serve as terminal storage for much of the city’s transmountain supplies from the Continental Divide.

The reservoirs in the NSRA — Crystal Creek, North and South Catamount — provide fishing and nonmotorized boating for visitors. Area trails are a draw for hikers, cyclists and nature lovers. As community interest in recreational opportunities within the NSRA has grown in recent years, so has the potential impact to the watershed and utility infrastructure.

A review of recreational impacts in the NSRA with a specific look at existing access, enhanced public safety and protection of drinking water sources is underway — to help inform future management of the popular visitor destination. The current South Catamount Reservoir dam rehabilitation project and its related access limitations to the NSRA provide a window of time to engage with the public and craft a comprehensive recreation plan this year.

Colorado Springs Utilities is collaborating with Pikes PeakAmerica’s Mountain and other stakeholders to conduct the review, which will also consider costs

Photo courtesy of North Slope Recreation Area.

BY CO LORADO SPRI N GS UTI LI TI ES PUBLI C A F FA I R S STA FF

associated with managing recreation.

Recreationists are asked to provide their input through a survey that’s available this summer at csu.org/ NSRAreview.

Two public meetings were held in June that provided additional opportunities for input. The feedback from those meetings is available on the csu.org website. Future public meetings will be scheduled for fall and will include in-person and virtual options.

Findings from a smaller study completed in 2023 identified commercial guided recreation models

and best practices to protect natural resources, which will also be included in the review.

“The results of this study will help us minimize the potential for increased conflicts between utility operations and public vehicle/ cyclist/pedestrian traffic,” says Mark Shea, watershed planning supervisor for Colorado Springs Utilities. “We have a legacy of achieving a balance of recreational activities with the protection of critical dams and the mountain’s sensitive ecosystems, and we are committed to maintaining that balance while exploring suitable

solutions that improve the user experience.”

Any recommended operational or policy changes resulting from the review will be presented to the Colorado Springs Utilities Board and City Council for consideration and adoption in late 2025 or early 2026.

18 / Southern Colorado Business Forum & Digest ECO NOM IC DEVELOP M E N T

BY EMILIE HAGOPIA N

W

alsenburg is undergoing a strategic transformation to draw tourists, entrepreneurs and remote workers. Located at the intersection of Interstate 25 and U.S. Highway 160 about 90 miles south of Colorado Springs, the former coal-mining town is now leveraging its historic architecture and scenic backdrop to drive economic growth.

The redevelopment reflects a carefully coordinated effort between local government, private investors and state programs such as the Colorado Main Street initiative.

In the heart of this resurgence lies the centuryold Walsenburg Mercantile.

The first floor now hosts artisan vendors, community events and a café that draws both locals and visitors. The real revitalization, however, happened upstairs. The original top two floors have been reimagined into 15 industrialstyle loft suites designed for remote professionals and small teams. Each suite includes a commercial-grade kitchen, a living room space built for entertainment and a flexible office space.

A stunning rooftop lounge offers sweeping views of Main Street and the Spanish Peaks, and functions as a gathering venue for networking events, small conferences or casual community meetups. Since its reopening in 2022, the Mercantile has become a local economic ecosystem, offering accommodations, workspaces and social hubs in one beautifully restored landmark.

Other adaptive reuse projects have spurred a wave of activity downtown.

Crafty Canary Brewery repurposed a former auto garage into a craft beer destination complete with a beer garden and regular weekend events.

The brewery has injected new vitality into evenings, drawing crowds who, in turn, support nearby retail and dining.

Meanwhile, the Fox Theatre, which first opened in 1917, is being restored to host films, concerts and community performances.

Walsenburg has also attracted fresh dining and retail offerings.

Corrales Mexican Grill remains a goto spot for locals, while the Wahatoya Community Market features locally grown produce and handmade goods.

The recent addition of GubGub’s Pizza and Ice Cream has added to the town’s family-friendly charm and helped bring more visitors downtown during the day. These businesses are shaping a downtown identity that reflects local culture and community values.

Public space improvements have enhanced this momentum. The rollout of Miners Plaza, a pocket park at the intersection of Sixth and Main streets, introduced seating, performance infrastructure and visual appeal. Managed through a publicprivate partnership, the plaza now hosts Porchfest, holiday events and grassroots gatherings. Supporting place-making initiatives, hand-painted art planters line Main Street, each celebrating regional heritage, from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the traditions of the Mouache Ute Nation. The Downtown Revitalization Committee curates and maintains the planters to foster local pride and aesthetic cohesion.

Institutional funding has played a key role in Walsenburg’s downtown projects. This spring, the city’s Urban Renewal Authority launched a grant program offering up to $7,500 per storefront to help with façade repairs, window restoration, signage and lighting. The program requires matching funds from property owners and oversight from the Historic Preservation Board to maintain quality. Additional support from Great Outdoors Colorado, the Gates Family

CONTINUED ON P. 19

Photo credit: Myotus, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Walsenburg Revives Historic Downtown to Attract Business and Tourism

Fox Theatre, Walsenburg

socodigest.com / Vol. 3 No. 7 - July 2025 / 19

Photo courtesy of Walsenburg Mercantile.

Foundation and the Department of Local Affairs has helped pay for streetscape upgrades, signage and the development of public spaces. The city has also used Opportunity Zone incentives to guide redevelopment and attract new investment.

Walsenburg’s success mirrors that of other renovated towns, such as La Veta and Trinidad.

Downtown foot traffic has increased steadily, especially on weekends and during events.

New business licenses in retail, food service, arts and hospitality have followed. Investors are buying and upgrading vacant historic buildings for commercial and residential use, encouraged by grant-funded public improvements and ongoing demand. The growing occupancy of short-term rentals and remote-work suites shows that Walsenburg is becoming an attractive place to visit and work.

City leaders are assessing

additional heritage structures, including a vacant hotel and the former Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall, for similar conversions.

Initial plans envision livework studios, event space and remote-work suites. The Walsenburg Mercantile success serves as both an inspiration and a blueprint.

As downtown offerings expand, Walsenburg is positioning itself as more than a humble crossroads. By leveraging its heritage, publicprivate partnerships and strategic grants, Walsenburg is transforming its historic downtown into a dynamic hub that supports both economic growth and a enjoyable visitor experience.

Emilie Hagopian is a staff writer for the SoCo Business Forum & Digest.

Walsenburg Mercantile

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20 / Southern Colorado Business Forum & Digest REG I ON PR OFILE

Roots Run Deep: People and Agriculture Create Alamosa

BY THERESA WOODS

Agriculture and Tourism Farming and ranching dominate the area. The underground water aquifer makes agriculture possible in the continent’s largest high-altitude desert. It’s the second-largest potato producer in the nation; spinach, lettuce, carrots and quinoa are also grown. The livestock includes cattle, sheep and goats.

“Farming production is always on my mind,” says Sarah Stoeber, executive director of the San Luis Valley Development Resources Group & Council of Governments. “How would we replace that income? Some people believe it’s renewable energy.”

Photo credit for all images: National Park Service

H

alfway between Denver and Albuquerque lies a city easily overlooked, where residents tout the friendliness of the people, the sense of place and the natural beauty. Take U.S. Highway 160 west from Interstate 25, and you’re in Alamosa. Nestled in the San Luis Valley, which locals call “the Valley,” is the region’s largest city, with approximately 9,500 residents.

“The border keeps jumping in South Colorado,” says Jeff Myers, director of the San Luis Valley Museum. Nearby Blanca Peak was significant to both the Ute and Diné before Juan de Oñate claimed it for Spain in 1598. It was part of the new nation of Mexico in 1821 and the Republic of Texas in 1836, before the Mexican-American War made it American in 1848.

“We were formed in 1878 as an old railroad town,” Myers explains.

The railroad brought American settlers to land inhabited by Hispanos, descendants of the 1830s Mexican settlers. “The first school desegregation case in the whole country happened here in Alamosa,” he says. The town had two schools in 1912, one exclusively for nonHispanics. “Miguel [Maestas] lived right next to that school, and they wouldn’t let him go to school there because he had a Hispanic name.” The court ruled in Miguel’s favor.

The sand dunes lay against the foot of the Crestone Peaks near Alamosa. Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve encompasses ecosystems from alpine tundra to grasslands and wetlands.

Exposing urban residents to real-life agriculture as pleasurable experiences such as outdoor dining is an economic opportunity, in Stoeber’s opinion. Bison tours at Zapata Ranch and the Colorado Gators Reptile Park, originally a tilapia farm, are flourishing examples of agricultural tourism.

Tourism is the area’s secondlargest industry. Fishing, hunting, hiking trails from 14ers to the valley floor, mountain biking, gravel cycling trails, five major wildlife refuges, 300 of Colorado’s 500 bird species and the sandhill crane migration route make Alamosa a hub for outdoor recreation and bird and wildlife watching.

Half a million people visit the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, the tallest dunes in North America, every year. Sand sledding, hiking and stargazing are the prime attractions. The Valley also boasts hot springs, interesting geology and a wealth of historical sites. A downtown Alamosa Creative District is being organized, a new downtown hotel is under construction and a boutique hotel is opening soon.

Stoeber’s hope for tourism is, as additional attractions develop, “people want to stay for more than just a pass through.”

Sandhill cranes fly at sunset in front of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The mountain at center is Milwaukee Peak, part of Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve.

“There are a lot of things that we’re working on, that I want to see develop, that’s going to help our community and build pride in our community,” says Alamosa Mayor Ty Coleman.

Invested in Their City One of the most impactful items under Coleman’s watch was the voter-approved sales tax for city streets. The Alamosa Streets Trust Fund enables $1.8 million in road work annually. It funded practical

and aesthetic improvements to Main Street, including outside dining areas. Those were part of the downtown revitalization plan, another accomplishment by Coleman, to “create the downtown that the actual residents have been surveyed on and would like to see,” he says.

The plan calls for pedestrianfriendly measures, restoration and adaptive reuse of buildings, adding residential units to second floors,

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socodigest.com / Vol. 3 No. 7 - July 2025 / 21

walking and biking trails, public gathering spaces, murals and Rio Grande riverfront beautification.

Grants for building façade enhancements are available to owners.

Alamosa is not without its challenges. It needs Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) support for its tourism and agricultural economic development. Water security and water rights are constant concerns. Other needs are more housing — attainable and affordable to all income levels, additional mental health services, solutions for the growing number of unhoused people and keeping the only hospital in the county open under the proposed federal budget.

“The best thing for a small, rural community like ours is when we see our young adults come back. … I’ve been seeing a lot of young people come back and, lately, I’ve seen a lot of young people move here who can work remotely,” says Coleman, who moved to Alamosa in 2010. “I really wouldn’t want to move any other place, because of the people.”

Theresa Woods is a staff writer for the SoCo Business Forum & Digest.

The area is known for its outdoor recreation opportunities.

This map shows the biking trails surrounding Alamosa.

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olorado Springsbased Boecore, which operates as Auria, has won an $8.1 million contract to develop a secure, cloud-based scheduling system to help satellite operators with the antennas they need.

Boecore will use Colorado Springs-based Defense Unicorns, which provides secure software development for the Department of Defense and military contractors, as a subcontractor on the Joint Antenna Marketplace project, according to a news release from the U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command, which awarded the contract.

Washington, D.C.-based Sphinx Defense won a similar $9.5 million contract.

Both contracts call for developing a prototype system “designed to improve scheduling agility, reduce communications bottlenecks and enable the rapid integration of commercial capabilities into hybrid space architectures,” the release says.

The automated marketplace will help Space Force satellite operators match government satellite communications needs with commercial and government antennas.

The contracts with Boecore and Sphinx leverage “the software acquisition pathway to fully exploit available and

evolving commercial antenna capacity, which will minimize development and long-term sustainment costs of purposebuilt government systems,” says Space Force Col. Patrick Little, senior material lead for Space Systems Command tactical command, control and communications.

Boecore President Tom Dickson said in an email that the company has begun hiring about 30 people, with roughly half of those in Colorado Springs, for the Joint Antenna Marketplace project and two other recent contract wins. The new hires will be mostly software and systems engineers, boosting Auria’s staff to about 400 employees spread over offices in Colorado Springs; San Diego; Greenbelt, Maryland; and Huntsville, Alabama.

Boecore was started in 2001 by Kathy Boe and sold in 2022 to Enlightenment Capital, a Washington, D.C.based investment firm that provided the resources for the company to acquire Ascension Engineering Group, Orbit Logic and La Jolla Logic. These four were combined to create Auria, which encompasses the company’s expertise in satellite communication, software development and cybersecurity.

Wayne Heilman is a senior writer for the SoCo Business Forum & Digest.

socodigest.com / Vol. 3 No. 7 - July 2025 / 23

Economic Forum

Dissecting Colorado’s Employment Slowdown

BY DR . BILL CR A I GH E A D

W

hen comparing labor markets among the states, Colorado is usually a star; so, the recent weakness of the state’s employment picture stands out. Over the past 30 years, our unemployment rate has been at or below the national rate (309 out of 360 months). However, since March 2024, Colorado’s unemployment has exceeded that of the United States overall.

The unemployment rate is calculated based on a survey of households, but employment figures generated from surveys of business establishments have also been lackluster. In the 12 months through March 2025, the state added 4,600 jobs — a mere 0.16% gain — while U.S. payrolls increased by 1.14% in the same period. The previous year, Colorado’s increase of 1.75% had outpaced the national gain of 1.53%.

Among Colorado’s seven metropolitan statistical areas, it is not surprising that the Denver metro area accounts for the largest part of the slowdown, since it accounts for just over half the state’s population. However, in percentage terms, the Fort CollinsLoveland and Greeley metropolitan areas had the sharpest slowdowns.

In the year through March 2025, Greeley payrolls were still growing faster than the state overall, but much more slowly than their blistering 4.28% pace of the prior year. The biggest swing was in the mining, logging and construction category — which includes oil and gas — that went from a gain of 800 to a decline of 400.

The Fort Collins-Loveland metro

professional and business services category, which lost 3,700 jobs between March 2024 and March 2025, after gaining 6,000 the year before. Within this category, computer systems design and related services saw a decrease of 3,100.

Overall, Colorado is fortunate to have a highly educated and highearning population — the state ranks ninth in personal income per capita and second in the share of persons 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree — but that does not guarantee that ebbs and flows of employment across different industries will always be in our favor. area saw employment decline 1.13% from March 2024 to March 2025.

The most significant shift there was in leisure and hospitality, which lost 1,600 jobs after gaining 2,400 the prior year.

Statewide, the biggest sources of slowdown were the private education and health services, as well as the professional and business services categories.

In the same time period, private education and health services saw modest growth, but a sharp deceleration from very strong growth the year before. Healthcare had been relatively slow to recover from the pandemic and was still catching up in 2023, even as the overall economy had settled back into a more normal growth phase.

More worrisome was the

1. It should always be kept in mind that, while these data are useful, they aren’t perfect. Surveys – even high-quality ones by the Bureau of Labor Statistics – are subject to sampling error, and Colorado’s employment data was also impacted by a collection problem related to a changeover in the reporting system for unemployment insurance in 2023. That information is used to make adjustments to the payroll figures. While that issue was resolved, some extra caution is advised with this data.

Dr. Bill Craighead is the director of the UCCS Economic Forum.

S AV E T H E D AT E The 29th Annual UCCS Economic Forum will take place Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025.

More details to come!

24 / Southern Colorado Business Forum & Digest W OR K FOR CE

How Seasoned Employees Boost Your Bottom Line

BY BECCA TONN

B

y 2030, one in five Coloradans will be older than age 65. So why are so few businesses tapping into this burgeoning talent pool?

Replacing your older workforce with younger — let’s-be-honest — lesserpaid people might not benefit your bottom line the way you think it will. If your company suffers from lack of talent, here are other options to consider.

The Case for Experience The seasoned worker brings expertise, wisdom and patience to the table and the boardroom. And when so many businesses are bemoaning the shortage of workers, this option seems rather obvious.

“For most people, raw mental horsepower declines after the age of 30, but knowledge and expertise — the main predictors of job performance — keep increasing even beyond the age of 80,” wrote Josh Bersin and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic in Harvard Business Review.

Mentorship: The Overlooked ROI In addition, if a business replaces all its experienced workers with greenhorns, the result could be disastrous. There needs to be a long period of knowledge transfer.

Not only do seniors contribute to a positive culture and innovation in the workforce, but they also bring diverse perspectives, a wealth of experience

and one of the 10 most in-demand essential skills — excellent problemsolving — according to Forbes.com.

Older workers maintain lower turnover rates and enhance organizational performance.

For example, by being flexible and accommodating its senior workers, BMW was able to improve productivity, according to Deloitte.

Another overlooked advantage — the beauty of seasoned mentors for your younger staff.

Employers’ biggest complaints focus on a lack of professional conduct, including the need for conflict resolution, better customer service (especially for older clients), problem-solving and a more collaborative work environment.

Older workers model traits you want passed along: strong work ethic, stability, adaptability to change, diversity of thought and solid interpersonal skills, along with powerful mentoring skills, according to WorkPlaceFairness.org.

Creative Staffing Solutions Work If you’re not persuaded yet, look at potential options. You may not want to pay them a full-time, high-end salary.

On the flip side, older workers likely don't want a full-time, high-pressure gig anyway.

According to Longevity Colorado, 840,000 adults older than age 65 want to work past retirement age. But many are seeking flexible hours — they’re open to part-time positions or contract work or being brought in as

a consultant on a weekly, monthly or project basis.

At the Pikes Peak Workforce Center, we hired a retired professor in his 70s to meet one-on-one with job seekers, review their résumés and help them reframe their skills to better attract employers. His productivity was off the charts — he personally met with 500 individuals in the first year and set his goals even higher for the next!

While exploring options with your staff, make sure to negotiate new terms, manage the transition with clear expectations, track their progress and adjust your strategy as necessary, according to Linked.com.

Of course, there are a variety of other creative options to keep payroll costs low, while providing your business with the skill sets it needs. Consider offering hybrid or fully remote work options, and prioritizing flexibility in scheduling and in roles, which increase your staff’s appreciation of their jobs (think better morale and fewer sick days) and engagement with their colleagues and the work at hand.

Companies can also offer unpaid sabbaticals during summer or holidays so retirement-age staff can spend more time with their loved ones or traveling, according to Forbes.com.

The Bottom Line If you want to retain your hardwon institutional knowledge and the benefits of on-staff mentors who model the traits of adaptability, problem-solving and resourcefulness, then it’s time to consider retaining your older workers or hiring the senior-age talent you’ll need to improve the culture in your business, quality of service and competitiveness.

When you’re ready to assess your business needs or to hire, reach out to the Business Relations Group at the Pikes Peak Workforce Center, at 719-667-3814 or ppwbrg@elpasoco.com.

Becca Tonn is the communications manager for the Pikes Peak Workforce Center.

EN TR EPR ENEUR

Leveraging Third-Party Signals: Strategy for Entrepreneurs (and Warning for ESO Leaders)

BY L A RRY PLUMMER

I

n the noisy landscape of earlystage financing, entrepreneurs face a significant challenge: how to stand out among thousands of startups competing for limited

stakeholder attention and investor capital. Based on my research with colleagues Tom Allison and Brian Connelly, the answer may lie in effective market signaling, particularly through third-party endorsements.

Market signaling refers to actions

entrepreneurs take to communicate their ventures’ quality and potential to investors (among other stakeholders) who lack complete information. For early-stage ventures, this information asymmetry is particularly pronounced — investors have insufficient data

to evaluate startups, making their decisions inherently risky.

This is where third-party signals become invaluable. They come in many forms, from agreements with key partners, placements from reputable angels, contracts with noted customers, etc.

For the earliest stage ventures, there is another option: When a respected “entrepreneurial support

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socodigest.com / Vol. 3 No. 7 - July 2025 / 25

organization,” like Catalyst Campus or Exponential Impact, affiliates with a startup, it serves as a powerful endorsement.

These affiliations work in two critical ways: (1) they help validate the startup’s quality and (2) they communicate that the ESO is letting the venture “borrow legitimacy.”

What makes third-party signals especially powerful is their ability to unlock the potential of more pedestrian signals that might otherwise go unnoticed. Our research shows that characteristics and actions of entrepreneurs often remain dormant signals unless activated by third-party endorsements.

For example, an entrepreneur’s management experience or product introduction might be overlooked in a crowded marketplace unless a respected third party has already validated the venture’s legitimacy.

This “better together” effect occurs because third-party affiliations help interested stakeholders make sense of ambiguous signals. In the uncertain environment of early-stage investing, investors struggle to interpret signals that could have multiple meanings.

A third-party endorsement disambiguates these signals, helping investors to interpret them positively.

For entrepreneurs seeking external capital, the strategic implication is clear: securing

affiliation with respected third parties should be a priority, as these relationships not only provide direct benefits but also enhance the value of all other signals entrepreneurs send to potential investors.

And for those of us leading ESOs, there is a corollary implication, if not a warning: recruiting entrepreneurs into our programs will never benefit from a butts-in-seats mindset. Careful vetting of both entrepreneurs and their ideas is critical to a robust and healthy entrepreneurial ecosystem.

If an entrepreneur is going to borrow legitimacy, we should be aware of the risk to our organization’s reputation and select accordingly.

Larry Plummer holds the El Pomar Chair in Business and Entrepreneurship and is the interim director of the El Pomar Institute for Innovation and Commercialization (EPIIC) at UCCS. He is internationally recognized for his research on regional entrepreneurial ecosystems and development.

Plummer, L.A., Allison, T.H., Connelly, B.L. (2016) Better Together? Signaling Interactions in New Venture Pursuit of Initial External Capital. Academy of Management Journal, 59(5): 1585-1604

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26 / Southern Colorado Business Forum & Digest I N N OVAT ION

Second-Stage Companies Fuel Colorado’s Economic Fire E D ITORIAL BY J O N-MICHAEL HORST

W

hen we talk about the economic engine of Colorado, we often spotlight startups and large corporations — but in between, there’s a group of companies doing heavy lifting that too often flies under the radar: second-stage companies.

These are the businesses that have moved beyond the startup phase: proven their model, created jobs and built teams. They are now scaling their operations, refining their products and expanding their impact. At Colorado Companies to Watch, we champion these companies and celebrate their success—not just because of their numbers, but because of their role in driving Colorado’s sustained economic vitality.

From 2009 through 2024, our Colorado Companies to Watch winners have created over 27,000 full-time equivalent jobs and more than $7.3 billion in revenue. That’s the kind of energy that keeps Colorado’s economic fire burning bright.

The Pikes Peak region claims more than 25 second-stage companies.

These businesses represent the full spectrum of Colorado innovation and resilience — from local breweries and distilleries, to tech pioneers, human resource specialists, veterinary clinics, and beyond.

What truly sets Colorado Companies to Watch apart is the community we’ve built. CCTW isn’t just an award — it’s a year-round network of support, celebration and shared knowledge. Across the state, winners and alumni lift each other up, collaborate and find ways to grow stronger together.

The Pikes Peak chapter has been the most active regional chapter in the state, hosting numerous events that build connections and create meaningful impact. We’ve gathered at iconic local spots like Distillery 291 and Red Leg Brewing Company, cheered on the Switchbacks at Weidner Field and come together for high-level business discussions on topics like AI integration, capital raise strategies and local incentives.

This year, we are especially proud to celebrate our 2025 Colorado

Companies to Watch Winners from the Pikes Peak region. Their achievements speak volumes about the talent, tenacity and vision that thrive here.

Bluestaq has been named the 2025 Hall of Fame Winner. Born at Catalyst Campus in the heart of downtown Colorado Springs, Bluestaq has grown into a powerhouse of data strategy, delivering secure, mission-critical solutions with a bold, team-first culture.

To all our local winners — thank you for your contributions to our region, our state and our future. You are the companies to watch, and we’re honored to watch you shine.

2025 Hall of Fame Winner

Bluestaq builds secure, intuitive technology that gets the right data to the right place at the right time.

Serving the defense, healthcare, space and commercial sectors, the company supports missions where data isn’t just important — it’s everything. With a growing international presence in the UK and Australia, Bluestaq has been recognized as a Colorado Companies to Watch Hall of Fame inductee, a threetime Inc. 5000 honoree and a Best Workplace for seven consecutive years.

2025 Winners from the Pikes Peak Region

Active Release Techniques® is the leading provider of non-invasive treatment for soft-tissue and nerve issues, such as strains, sprains and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). A

hands-on, movement-based approach swiftly alleviates pain and restores function, ensuring fuller, faster recovery compared to traditional therapy methods. To increase access to higher-quality, more costeffective care, their On-Site Wellness programs make treatment available to employees at facilities across the country who face musculoskeletal challenges.

Acuity Innovations is a small business based in Colorado Springs, specializing in system engineering, integration, test and evaluation and digital ecosystem design. Their mission is to support the defense of the United States by delivering innovative solutions and exceptional service to Department of Defense clients.

InnovaFlex® Foundry is redefining the future of electronics manufacturing, pushing far beyond traditional semiconductor boundaries.

With expertise in advanced packaging, hybrid electronics, haptics, microfluidics, thin films, sensors/ MEMS, imaging arrays, display technology, antenna solutions and digital optical sensors, they create breakthrough technologies on both glass and flexible substrates.

Every year, more than 4,000 students learn trade skills like metalworking in locations in and around Colorado. To expand their reach, they launched Excalibur Outdoors, Inc. to manufacture United States Air Force Academy sabers, Catalan software to manage class

registrations, and the nonprofit Association of Independent Trade Schools to assist other trade schools across the nation.

Lokiten Behavioral Health is a modern mental health clinic based in Southern Colorado, offering outpatient services both in-person and virtually. Founded by a team with deep industry experience and a strong track record, Lokiten is rapidly expanding to meet the growing need for integrated, high-quality behavioral health services.

Palski and Associates is a womanowned small business with 75 employees in Colorado, California, Washington and Missouri. They currently provide satellite systems and mission engineering, training for situational awareness and RPO systems, as well as modeling, simulation, analysis and capability prototyping for the Space Force, the Space Security & Defense Program and for satellite manufacturers.

Through a selective hiring process, they have built a cadre of nextgeneration engineers and developers, 90% of whom have security clearances.

Jon-Michael Horst is the Program Manager & Chair and Alumni Committee with Colorado Companies To Watch.

socodigest.com / Vol. 3 No. 7 - July 2025 / 27 A Legacy Carried Forward by the

Strong Start to 2025 — Remainder Uncertain

BY A N DREW ROGER S

Local businesses continue to shape Colorado’s economy, with new storefronts opening across the state even amid signs of economic uncertainty later in the year.

T

he first three months of 2025 saw businesses across the state grow by 7.7% compared to the first quarter of 2024.

According to data released by the Colorado Secretary of State’s office and the University of Colorado’s Leed’s School of Business, the new business filings also grew by 19% compared to the final three months of last year.

Over the same period, the state experienced 0.1% job growth as of March, which translates to an additional 2,300 jobs year-over-year.

The state’s GDP grew by 2.4% in the final six months of last year, which, quarter-over-quarter (annualized) in Q4 2024, ranked Colorado 26th nationwide. Personal income grew 4% during last year, putting Colorado 41st in that category.

Locally, Colorado Springs has been riding a strong wave of economic activity. City officials say that the local economy grew by approximately 8.5% in 2024, with 30% growth over the past five years.

“The city approved eight major economic development agreements driving $650 million in investment, $24 million in projected new revenue and nearly 900 new jobs,” says Jamie Fabos, chief of staff for the City of Colorado Springs, during a town hall meeting that provided an update on the city’s strategic plan.

Revolving Door One of the easiest ways to see the ebb and flow of businesses calling Colorado Springs home is to see the changing landscape in the downtown shopping sector.

“In terms of the churn that we regularly see with businesses, there was no difference from years that we’ve seen before. This past year, I think it was about 29 new businesses — that’s more than the number that we saw in pre-pandemic years,” says Chelsea Gondeck, interim CEO of the Downtown Partnership. “We were in the high teens and low twenties for several years.”

In the same quarter, downtown

Colorado Springs had a 7% retail vacancy rate, which Gondeck says is traditionally lower than other similar midsized cities, and below the citywide vacancy rate as well. Among the retail offerings online in the final three months of 2024 and the first three months of 2025 are: Toodles Tea Room, Owambe African Restaurant and Lounge, Brakeman’s Burgers, Shivers Taphouse, MoJoe’s Cafe, Rocky Mountain Beignets, Superior Barbershop, Siver Linings Recovery and Luna’s Boutique.

It’s not just downtown; other new businesses are continuing to choose Colorado Springs as their new home base. In May, Okika Devices, a producer of chips and cutting-edge software, announced that it had selected Colorado Springs to house the business’s new headquarters, along with a research and development center.

“We are honored to welcome Okika Devices to Colorado Springs. Their investment brings high-quality jobs, innovation and strengthens our role in advancing technologies critical to national security,” says Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade.

Continued Uncertainty Despite a strong finish to last year, and start to this year, the remainder

of 2025 may provide a less favorable outlook. Many economic factors are leading both civic leaders and the business community to prepare for a potential storm, primarily due to national and international headlines and economic policies.

“These [recent local economic

growth numbers] are worth celebrating, but let’s be real, this year is proving to be a different story,” Fabos says. “We are seeing signs of a slowing economy, something akin to 2020 and even 2008. We are paying close attention.”

Across the state, paperwork to renew existing businesses is a mixed bag, another sign of the cyclical nature of an economy growing and retracting — all too familiar to the local business community.

“What a lot of people don’t realize is something like 50% of businesses don’t make it past the first five years. I think it’s like 80% of businesses don’t make it past the decade,” Gondeck explains.

Andrew Rogers is a staff writer for the SoCo Business Forum & Digest.

28 / Southern Colorado Business Forum & Digest A Legacy Carried Forward by the

Colorado Springs Voters Deny Controversial Karman Line Annexation Photo credit: Lower Arkansas Water Conservancy District.

“... We [CSU] don’t forcibly take anything; everything we do is in partnership or collaboration with whoever owns those water rights. ...”

Protesting farm water transfers and major annexations, Lower Arkansas Valley farmers and others gathered in May at Colorado Springs government offices.

BY A N DREW ROGER S

V

oters in Colorado Springs overwhelmingly voted against a bid to have the city’s boundaries extended through the potential annexation of the Karman Line project near Schriever Space Force Base.

The unofficial results on Tuesday, June 17, show that 61,900 votes were cast against the annexation, equaling 81% of the total 75,778 ballots cast in the special election.

Local developer ONE LaPlata proposed 1,912.62 acres near Bradley and Curtis roads as a “flagpole” annexation using Bradley Road to connect to the city’s existing boundaries. ONE LaPlata was founded after La Plata Communities development company’s bid to use a similar annexation for its Amara project north of Fountain was denied in August 2024.

Colorado Springs City Council approved the project 7-2 in January 2025, but concerned members of the community, as well as several officials from southeast Colorado, appealed that decision and it was sent to public vote.

“I want to thank everyone who engaged and voted in this election,” Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade said after the unofficial

Background image courtesy of the City of Colorado Springs

Travas Deal, CEO Colorado Springs Utilities

Background: Map of the Karman Line annexation area, east of Colorado Springs, northwest of the Bradley Road and Curtis Road intersection.

results were released. “As your mayor, I remain committed to building a Colorado Springs that works for everyone. That means continuing to prioritize housing affordability, supporting our infrastructure, and ensuring that we grow responsibly and sustainably.”

He continued, “This result does not mark the end of the conversation about growth, housing and long-term planning. It simply means we must find pragmatic pathways forward, with solutions that reflect the values and concerns of our community while addressing the real challenges ahead.”

In February, the Colorado Springs City Clerk certified a petition to recall the annexation’s approval. Much of the vocal opposition came from citizens who raised concerns over the amount of water, mostly from the Lower Arkansas River Valley, the new development would use.

“We recognize that Colorado Springs is growing, and we’re not here to stand in the way of progress,” says Rob Oquist, Otero County commissioner. “But growth must be balanced with longterm water planning. … We’re asking for thoughtful, responsible growth that doesn’t come at the expense of agricultural regions downstream.”

As Colorado Springs has grown, much more of the water the city relies

on has come from the Arkansas River, along with recent programs in which Colorado Springs Utilities helps to upgrade farmers’ irrigation equipment in exchange for a portion of the landowners’ water rights in unused areas of land.

“Securing 34,000 acre-feet of additional water is already a significant burden that your utility bears just to support buildout of the tens of thousands of undeveloped acres already within your city limits,” says Jack Goble, general manager of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District. “Every decision that increases this demand puts even more farmland — and the rural communities that depend on it to survive — at risk.”

Travas Deal, CEO of Colorado Springs Utilities, told the former Colorado Springs Business Journal in April that every deal the utility makes in the Lower Arkansas Valley is voluntary.

“We’re dealing with a person with water rights. We don’t forcibly take anything; everything we do is in partnership or collaboration with whoever owns those water rights. We look at how to make them prosper better, so our individual farmers love dealing with Colorado Springs Utilities.

“We bring in capital, make them more efficient in the farming industry

and [help with] all those things they may not be able to do to keep their farms active long-term. Everything from crop rotations … [and] we put in center-pivot irrigation. We [help] make [them] more efficient users of water, then we benefit from that as we get some of those water rights periodically over a 10-year period.”

Deal says that he can empathize with the outcry from many of the valley’s farmers, since he grew up in a rural community, even serving as president of his high school’s Future Farmers of America chapter during his senior year.

“The community itself thrives off farming. In the years when there’s not a lot of farming going on, I’m sure those communities feel a pinch because you don’t have as many people buying equipment, seeds and fertilizer. It does impact some of the businesses, especially in the Arkansas Valley. We need to continue to, not only do a great job with the farmers we deal with but also, support and understand the communities and what their concerns are around not having as many crops in the ground and how that impacts their economy in other ways,” Deal says.

Andrew Rogers is a staff writer for the SoCo Business Forum & Digest.

socodigest.com / Vol. 3 No. 7 - July 2025 / 29 A Legacy Carried Forward by the

Colorado Fights Climate Change Using Landfill Methane Reduction

BY KERI KAHN

T

he Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) released draft methane rules in April which, if accepted by the Air Quality Control Commission at a rulemaking hearing this August, would reduce methane pollution from the state’s 51 municipal solid waste landfills.

Three of the 51 are in El Paso County: the Colorado Springs, Midway and Fountain Landfills — the latter two are both located in Fountain.

Going Above and Beyond Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change, and it is emitted from landfills when food scraps and organic waste break down below the landfill’s surface.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), municipal solid waste landfills are the thirdlargest source of methane emissions from human activity in the U.S., and an estimated 58% of these emissions are from food waste.

The EPA already has landfill methane rules in place, but to meet its greenhouse gas reduction goals, Colorado proposes going above and beyond as recently modeled by California, Oregon, Maryland and Washington.

How El Paso County Landfills Would be Affected by the New Rules A fundamental element of the new rules would be a lower emissions threshold than what the EPA currently mandates for landfills to be required before installing gas collection and control systems (GCCS).

In Colorado, 11 landfills already meet the EPA’s threshold, including the three in El Paso County. These sites have GCCS installed at present but would be required to implement other measures from the proposal, including a requirement to investigate emissions detected through new remote methane monitoring.

El Paso County landfills would also face new requirements regarding surface emissions monitoring.

“The EPA allows for a 100-foot spacing in the walking pattern that’s done for the monitoring at the landfill, and we have decreased that to 25-foot spacing, so that more of the surface of the landfill is covered by that surface emissions monitoring,” says Tim Taylor, strategy development unit supervisor in the Climate Change Program at CDPHE. Taylor also says, when a landfill closes and its methane generation rates dip to a certain threshold, landfills remove the GCCS device and typically control methane emissions with a flare. Under the rule proposal, El Paso County landfills would replace the flare with what’s called a biofilter.

“It basically uses methane-eating bacteria to reduce the methane coming out of the landfill and it converts the methane to carbon dioxide and still allows the gas collection system at the landfill to be utilized. Instead of running the collected methane through a flare for it to be burned off, it gets run through these biofilters.”

Economic Impact of Proposed Rules CDPHE looked at other states that have adopted landfill methane rules to determine the expected impact on tipping fees (the fees a landfill charges

for the amount of waste it receives on a per ton basis).

Tipping fees affect household waste collection fees, and the economic impact analysis completed by Taylor and his team found an insignificant impact on tipping fees in other states.

Scan the QR code on the right to read the full Economic Impact Analysis.

“Now we did do sort of a worstcase analysis, and if landfill operators that would have to comply with the rule passed along all the costs of doing so to the consumers they serve, then it would be about an increase of $22 per year per household,” Taylor notes.

If implemented, the proposed rules would result in job creation.

Engineering firms and suppliers would be hired by landfills to install GCCS. Once GCCS is installed, various industries would see positive economic impact as contractors and consulting firms are sought for surface emissions monitoring and biofilter compliance.

The Colorado Air Quality Control Commission has the ultimate say on whether to adopt a rule and what requirements to include.

Keri Kahn is a staff writer for the SoCo Business Forum & Digest.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

visit the CDPHE landfill methane reduction website at:

CDPHE.COLORADO.GOV/ LANDFILL-METHANEREDUCTIONS-IN-COLORADO

ECONOMIC IMPACT ANALYSIS Scan the QR code or visit:

DRIVE.GOOGLE.COM/FILE/D/ 1D-VNCM2SYGOB2TDXPUJOKTN MQNNQAZDR/VIEW

30 / Southern Colorado Business Forum & Digest A Legacy Carried Forward by the

Photo courtesy of the City of Colorado Springs.

Tejon Street Revitalization Project Reaches First Milestone

BY T H E R ES A WO ODS

C

onstruction of the new and improved Tejon Street on the east (northbound) side between Colorado and Pikes Peak avenues is complete, after work began March 24.

“You can really feel what it’s gonna be like,” says Ryan Hershberger, project manager with the City of Colorado Springs, referring to when the entire two-block project is completed. Work on the west (southbound) side begins in July.

The newly installed 9.5foot section of decoratively patterned concrete with railings creates outdoor dining spaces; sidewalks are now 10 feet wide to improve pedestrian access and safety. Next to this is the amenity zone, a 6-foot-wide area of colored concrete with trees, benches, streetlights and other aesthetic features.

Hidden beneath the streets, a new stormwater pipeline and relocated natural gas main improve and protect infrastructure in the area.

Installation necessitated closures of the roadway and eastbound Pikes Peak Avenue at the end of June.

To prepare for the trees being planted next spring, crews installed underground soil cells that provide a foundation for

the sidewalks and ample space underground for the tree roots to spread. The new trees, which will line both sides of the street, will be 15 to 20 feet tall when planted and grow to 50 feet tall.

The total cost of the project is $8.6 million, funded by a $1.6 million grant from the Colorado Department of Transportation and the city’s Parking Enterprise.

The Downtown Development Authority is funding aesthetic enhancements to the historic “Busy Corner” at Pikes Peak Avenue.

“We aim to be done with block two by the end of the year, and that’ll prepare us to do the intersection work and some paving in the springtime,” Hershberger says. “I, personally, am a downtown resident. …

What I really appreciate is, in the evenings and on the weekends, seeing our construction sites full of people, going into businesses and restaurants, and doing all the things that they were doing beforehand but now it, in my opinion, is a lot more enjoyable.”

The city publishes emailed newsletters with project updates. To sign up for them, visit coloradosprings.gov/ tejonstreet.

Theresa Woods is a staff writer for the SoCo Business Forum & Digest.

socodigest.com / Vol. 3 No. 7 - July 2025 / 31 A Legacy Carried Forward by the

Game On!

Summer Sporting Events Provide Fiscal Shot in the Arm

BY A N DREW ROGER S

I

n 2024, 365,964 spectators visited Colorado Springs to attend multiple sporting events held across the Pikes Peak Region, hosted by the Colorado Springs Sports Corp. [Dirk R. Hobbs, founder of Colorado Media Group, publisher of the Southern Colorado Business Forum and Digest, serves on the Sports Corp.’s board of directors.]

Those spectators are on top of the 46,090 athletes and 1,580 volunteers who made the events happen. In all, the sports economy in Colorado Springs filled 98,976 room nights across local hotels.

“We’re Olympic City USA. We have all the [Olympic] NGBs (National Governing Bodies) here, the Air Force Academy, Colorado College, UCCS, the Vibes, Switchbacks — all these massive sports entities,” says Lauren De Marco, marketing, communications and public relations manager for the Sports Corp.

Much of the economic impact of the visitor influx is seen through the city’s Lodgers and Automobile Rental Tax. LART collects a 2% tax on short-term lodging and a 1% tax on automobile rentals. In 2023, $9.5 million was collected and reinvested back into the community by providing grant funding for projects aimed at attracting visitors or enhancing the economy and cultural benefits of the city and region.

Best of the Best Among the events that the Sports Corp. sponsors and hosts each year is the Rocky Mountain State Games, Colorado’s largest multi-sport festival for athletes of all ages, which will be held across the Pikes Peak region between July 18 and 20, 2025. The annual games are open to athletes of all abilities, including those with physical disabilities, visual impairments and intellectual and developmental disabilities.

All medalists from the Rocky Mountain State Games — and 29 other state games — will qualify to compete on the campus of Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania, for this year’s State Games of America, which will be held July 28-Aug. 2.

This summer, Colorado College will also serve as host to the 2025 Department of Defense Warrior Games, which will take place between July 18 and 26.

“This event is a celebration of resilience, determination and the indomitable spirit of our nation’s service members and veterans. We look forward to welcoming these incredible athletes to our campus and providing a world-class experience for them, their families, and the community,” says Lesley Irvine, vice president and director of athletics at Colorado College.

The annual games, coordinated

by U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, bring together more than 200 military service members to compete in an array of adaptive sports as part of the DoD’s Warrior Care Program.

“We love this event and everything it stands for, but nothing can compare to the impact this event has on the service members, their families and friends and the fans,” says David Paschal, director of the Warrior Games. “This event is truly life-changing, and it is a tremendous honor for our team to have built this event into what it is today after 15 years and to have supported and encouraged thousands of service members on their road to healing and rehabilitation.”

The games will take place over 10 days, returning to Colorado Springs for the first time since 2018.

“As a community deeply rooted in military service and support for our nation’s heroes, Colorado Springs is once again honored to welcome the Warrior Games, a celebration of resilience, determination and the unwavering spirit of our nation’s wounded and injured service members

and veterans,” says Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade. “As Olympic City USA, we deeply value the power of sport to inspire, heal and unite.

To all the athletes, your courage and perseverance embody the very best of our country, and we are proud to stand with you and cheer you on.”

“A lot of the events that people would see in the Paralympics or the Olympics: swimming, sitting volleyball, wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby. The team sports are always something fun to watch. Then you’ve got the individual sports: indoor rowing, archery and cycling,” says Katie Moses Swope, public relations and media lead for the Warrior Games.

The Warrior Games were also the inspiration for a larger international competition of recovering heroes.

“In 2014, Prince Harry attended one of the Warrior Games and said, ‘We’ve got to do something [like this] on a global scale. That’s how the Invictus Games came about,” Moses Swope says.

All Revved Up Another major economic draw for the region is the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. As its name suggests, the race is international in its allure. High-caliber drivers from all over the globe set their sights on what has been dubbed the “Race to the Clouds.”

While 76 drivers have received their invitation to challenge the conditions alongside America’s Mountain, 18 of them are considered Hill Climb rookies. Rookies are racers who have impressive resumes but have yet to challenge the secondoldest auto race in the U.S. Each year, the Hill Climb creates a buzz louder than any engine. First, in the week leading up to the race, there’s Fan Fest — the 10-block street party where 30,000 people will descend upon Tejon Street to meet drivers and their cars up close.

The party is also known to feature motocross riders taking to the skies.

The race week festivities also

mean big business for the Pikes Peak region’s economy. The race has an annual estimated $14.7 million impact on local coffers.

Local and commuter spectators plan months ahead of time to secure one of few camping permits for the only night of the year you can pitch a tent on the side of Pikes Peak. On race day, lines form overnight at the gate to the Pikes Peak Highway as thousands of race fans wait to get their spot to witness the action. The 1,500 parking tickets that Hill Climb organizers sell each year sell out long before race day.

The 103rd Running of The Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb wrapped up on Sunday, June 22. Wind ruled the day, with gusts more than 85 mph at the upper section and deplorable conditions at the summit.

Veteran spectators are aware that often “the mountain decides,” and that was the case this year.

After a two-hour delay, the difficult decision was made for drivers to finish at Glen Cove, approximately 13 miles into the course. It was only the third time in its history that the racecourse was shortened before the starting flag.

Melissa Eickhoff, CEO Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, announced, “After the countless hours logged by race teams, our board, staff and volunteers, as well as our devoted partners, we really hoped the mountain would give us favorable conditions. The decision to shorten the course was difficult and disappointing for everyone, from drivers to our diehard fans who were eagerly awaiting racing action in the upper section. Safety is always our highest priority, and though this was a really tough call, it was the right call.”

With a shortened course finish time of 3:37.196, Simone Faggioli claimed his first King of the Mountain win. Faggioli represented Italy and ran in the Unlimited division.

Andrew Rogers is a staff writer for the SoCo Business Forum & Digest.

32 / Southern Colorado Business Forum & Digest A Legacy Carried Forward by the

SMALL BUSINESS

Resources Available, but Do They Help?

BY A N DREW ROGER S

B

usiness owners spend more hours on the mundane tasks of running their businesses rather than on the goods or services that their businesses provide.

The City of Colorado Springs’ Economic Development Division operates the City’s Rapid Response Team (RRT), a program that provides qualifying primary employers with expedited review and approval of various permits needed for business growth, including land use applications and building permits. These services are open to “primary employers,” defined in the economic development world as a firm that does more exporting of goods and services than importing.

“The importance of primary employment to economic development is the idea that more benefit comes to a community when a firm is doing exporting, because that’s going to be able to support higher-paying jobs, bringing new dollars into the community and helping to grow the economy,” explains Sam Arnold, an economic development analyst with the city’s Economic Development Division and the program’s point of contact.

Examples of the use of these programs include expedited permitting for projects including the city’s new fire stations as well as larger shopping developments including the Creekside Shopping Center at South Nevada and Cheyenne Boulevard.

Small but Mighty According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, 99.9% of businesses nationwide are made up of 500 employees or fewer. And data published in 2022 by the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) shows Colorado as home to 690,000 small businesses, which reportedly employed nearly half of the state’s total workforce.

While there are significant efforts for primary employers to build and complete major projects, many small business owners find themselves in need of assistance with the most basic essentials.

Johnny Joy and his wife, Amanda, own The Local Motive, a small business in Colorado Springs featuring a pair of party buses that provide tailored experiences. The couple began the process of applying for small business loans to expand their offerings by adding a custom bike trolley to visit the downtown entertainment district in Colorado Springs. The small business began speaking with local business lenders to discuss options to obtain a relatively modest $75,000 loan to purchase the custom trolley from a Spanish company, along with paying off other business-related debt.

“The first one was a major bank here in the Springs that thrives on being the local credit union,” says Joy. “They gave me three options from the small business department; one was [that] they’d give me $10,000, and I’m like, ‘Well, now I need way more than that...’ when you own your own business, $10,000 is not a lot of money.”

Other options to obtain a loan of $50,000 included stipulations that he’d have to be in business for three years — they’d purchased the businesses a year earlier — or to have a net profit of $750,000 a year.

“If I’m making three-quarters of a million dollars, why would I need $75,000?” Joy says.

“Financially, that wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense.”

Other banks also offered their

support for a small business looking to expand and reinvest in their community, but again, the Joys were faced with several severe stipulations.

“The title for both of our [personal] vehicles, the titles for both buses, access to my mother’s retirement account — which is my mom’s, that she has me as a beneficiary — and the title to our house,” he explains.

Connecting Point To help small business owners navigate the myriad challenges they face, the City of Colorado Springs has re-hired a small business development administrator. Shakanah Tedder started in the role, which was dormant after Yemi Moblodade left the position with the city. When Mobolade began his term as mayor last year, he brought back the position.

“The thing that I hear most often is understanding what resources are actually available,” Tedder explains about the need for support.

The City of Colorado Springs has recently developed a number of online tools to answer many of the questions that come up along the entrepreneurial journey, including the COS Business Navigator.

“That’s an easy roadmap that guides business owners, step-by-step, in the process of getting a business started.

We have the Permit Partner, which is also a really great resource if people are

curious about the permits and licenses required to have a business,” she says.

The city’s permit partner helps business owners understand the various costs of doing business, along with easily finding whom to contact regarding permits and licenses.

Tedder also said one of the largest issues that she hears from the small business community is access to capital.

“The city supports Exponential Impact; they have a Survive and Thrive loan program — that’s something that began in COVID and has come back in different iterations over the years,” she says. [The application process for that loan program closed on May 30.]

Other resources include business consulting and networking opportunities through the Pikes Peak Small Business Development Center, and resources for veterans specifically through the Veterans Business Outreach Center (VBOC).

“Colorado Springs does a really great job of collaborating between different resource partners and then actually providing resources and then connecting businesses to those resources,” Tedder says. “Because we want businesses to be successful.

That’s what makes Colorado Springs, you know, vibrant, exciting, and different small businesses that make up Colorado Springs.”

Andrew Rogers is a staff writer for the SoCo Business Forum & Digest.

socodigest.com / Vol. 3 No. 7 - July 2025 / 33

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34 / Southern Colorado Business Forum & Digest ADVANCED M ANUF A CTU RIN G

Medical Tech Company Secures Funds for Tests of Promising Cancer Therapy

BY JE AN N E DAVANT

Photo credit for all images: Lahjavida

C

olorado Springs medical technology company Lahjavida has raised $1.5 million in funding to continue testing of a new technology that could revolutionize cancer treatment.

Lahjavida founder and CEO Lyle Small says that the tests of the dyedrug conjugates — compounds of a drug and a delivery system — will bolster animal studies and help confirm that they will be safe for humans.

“If we can demonstrate that, then in 2027 we’re going to launch a Phase 1 human trial with one of the conjugates and show that this compound is safe,” Small says. “From there, we go to Phase 2 and show that it will shrink tumors. From there, we’re off to the races in 2031 or 2032 with a solution.”

Reaching the market with the drug likely will require $100 million of investment capital, Small says, but the first $1.5 million “is going to be crucial to proving the platform,” he says.

The compound works by delivering a chemotherapy agent through a special dye, which seeks out cancer cells and avoids healthy cells. Once it recognizes and attaches to the cancer cells, it delivers the medication exactly where it is needed without the devastating side effects of traditional chemotherapy, which can be fatal to some patients.

Small has been interested in specialized dyes since he was a chemistry student at Cornell University, when he developed a temperature-sensitive ink. After graduation, he founded Chromatic Technologies to explore the commercial possibilities for this thermochromatic technology. He moved the company to Colorado Springs in 1997 because of its central location and outdoor environment.

Chromatic’s best-known product is the labeling ink that causes the mountains printed on cans of Coors Light to turn blue when the beer is chilled. The company, which employs about 30 people at its R&D and manufacturing headquarters on Elkton Drive, also produces labeling inks for hundreds of packaged

Dye-Drug Conjugate No. 1

Lyle Small, founder and CEO of Lahjavida. products and inks used in medical applications, such as temperatureand pressure-activated labels that can indicate when medications have been damaged by freezing and when medical instrument packages are not properly sealed. Among its more recent product launches are a heatseal indicator for roofing membranes and a wetness indicator for diapers, Small says.

The idea of a dye that sticks to cancer cells has been around for 15 years, Small says, and he hired a chemist, Dr. Ray Wang, to work on a process to deliver medication directly to tumors. In 2020, they created a linker that dissolves and releases the drug only after the tumor-targeting dye finds tumors’ distinctive chemical environment.

Small turned over leadership of Chromatic to his chief commercial officer, Daniel Wachter, in 2023 and founded Lahjavida to focus on in vitro and mouse studies of the targeted therapy. Thus far, the studies have shown the therapy targeted and shrank tumors in mice while sparing healthy tissue. The compounds can link to several types of cancer-fighting agents and have the potential to treat more than 30 types of cancer.

“Two-thirds of all cancer treatments could be impacted by our approach,” Small says.

In mid-June, the company shipped several of the dye-drug compounds to Syngene, a world-renowned contract research organization in Hyderabad, India, for further testing to confirm the studies Lahjavida has already

Dye-Drug Conjugate No. 2 Time-lapse of tumor targeting with dye drug conjugates. conducted. The tests are essential to prove that the drugs are safe and effective before they move into clinical trials, and to generate data for investors.

Small has hired Dr. Jeffrey Kern, a pulmonologist and lung cancer specialist who is chief of medical oncology at National Jewish Health in Denver, as Lahjavida’s chief medical officer. Kern also chairs Lahjavida’s scientific and clinical advisory board.

“The team meets once a week, and we’re sharpening our development plan for getting to human trials as quickly as possible,” Small says.

Three pharmaceutical companies have shown interest in the product and want to see more data, he says.

Small says he has been presenting at conferences and meeting with potential investors to raise an additional $6.5 million to complete the preclinical trial studies. He has already secured an investment from the J.H. Edmondson Foundation, a philanthropic organization of the

Pikes Peak region, and calls it “a fantastic partner.”

“We continue to hear that our data is compelling and that our story is new,” Small says. “That is really encouraging because that’s what investors are looking for, along with really big potential.”

When he approaches potential investors about Lahjavida’s products, “the first question that people ask me is, ‘Why isn’t somebody doing this?’ And the answer is it’s probably because it was too simple,” Small says.

“Why would that ever work? Well, we were too naïve or stupid to realize it was impossible, so we went out and tried it, and so far, it’s working.”

Jeanne Davant is a senior writer for the SoCo Business Forum & Digest.

socodigest.com / Vol. 3 No. 7 - July 2025 / 35 SMALL BUSINESS SPOTL IGHT

Bookstore is a Long-Standing Gem in Monument

BY KERI KAHN

W

hen Tommie Plank first founded Monument’s Covered Treasures Bookstore in 1993 with her now-retired business partner, Amazon and other online retailers had not yet wreaked havoc on brick-andmortar businesses.

Both women had backgrounds in education and long-time dreams of opening a business in Monument, which was a much smaller community at the time.

“We got the 1992 census to look at figures, joined the American Booksellers Association and started doing research,” says Plank. “According to everything we were reading, the population was a little bit on the low side to support an independent bookstore, but the education and income levels were much higher than the average needed.”

The store opened with one small room in Monument’s historic Chapala Building, sourced with new inventory as well as garage sale finds to fill the shelves.

In the years since, Plank has expanded to three rooms of new and gently used books, a lovely collection of greeting cards, author book signings and a demonstrated loyalty to local nonprofits and schools. There’s an entire section with local trail guides and wildflower identification books.

She says those books are among the most in-demand.

Brick-and-Mortar Prevails with Avid Readers Contending with challenges such as Amazon, a flood that destroyed an entire room of books and the COVID-19 pandemic may not have been easy, but fast forward to 2025, and the store has certainly proven its staying power.

“There was no way we could compete with Amazon on pricing,” says Plank. “What has helped us is that our customers love the idea of having a local

bookstore. I don’t know what it is about us readers, but we feel so possessive about our books and about the feeling we have when we go into a bookstore.”

In its last annual report, the American Booksellers Association (ABA) reported 323 independent bookstore businesses opened in 2024 and only 37 closed. That’s a 31% increase in openings and a 61% decrease in closures over the previous. It was the fourth consecutive year for more than 200 new store openings.

For the avid reader, there is indeed a special joy in physically entering a store to encounter the sights and smells of books — a joy that doesn’t seem to be declining anytime soon.

Small Shops Must Know Their Customers Thirty-two years in business is no small feat, but with a loyal customer base built over decades, Plank says her No. 1 piece of advice is to know your customer. She knows her patrons by name and favorite genre. She can make knowledgeable and tailored recommendations to fit a specific taste just as easily as she can say her favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird.

“They ask what we’ve read lately that they might like and those are the kinds of interactions they want,” she says. “There is a trust factor that we have read the book or know something about the author.”

Those personal relationships are not always possible with larger online retailers, but what large retailers have that small ones don’t is the greater potential to cater to different types of audiences. That’s why it’s so important for small, independent book shops to know their shoppers.

For Covered Treasures, the customers are intelligent and outdoorsy. Many shop for children or grandchildren. Plank pays attention to what books are requested and has stocked her shelves with pages her customers want.

“Many of them have lived all over

Covered Treasures Bookstore is located at 105 Second Street in Monument’s historic Chapala Building. the world. We have a lot of retired military,” she says. “They ask a lot of really good questions at book signings.

Authors love to come here.”

People who read are year-round readers, but the store does a third of its business in November and December. During that time, it’s common to hear phrases like “Shop Small” or “Small Business Saturday.”

If there is one thing Plank would like people to keep in mind during all months of the year, it is that the things and places you love, you have to love enough to support.

“People want stores to be there, rather than everything going away and only having Amazon to buy from.

We have people say that so often, but they don’t always buy something when they say it,” she says. “I think people need to realize that it’s not enough only wanting the small stores to stay

around, but they need to support them.

They need to buy something.”

Keri Kahn is a staff writer for the SoCo Business Forum & Digest.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Store events and monthly book recommendations are on the Covered Treasures website:

COVEREDTREASURES.COM

36 / Southern Colorado Business Forum & Digest CHAMBER

Tuesday, July 15 | 11 AM – 1 PM The Power of Mentorship: How to Find and Be a Mentor Business Lunch Garden of the Gods Resort & Club

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Strategic Workforce Development for Small Business

BY LO L A WO LO C H

A

s businesses in El Paso County face a rapidly shifting workforce landscape, the importance of strategic employee retention has never been greater. Competitive salaries and benefits are not the only factors that keep employees engaged. Companies must now intertwine workforce development with retention strategies to create an environment where employees can grow, thrive and commit for the long haul.

• Learn the essential qualities, responsibilities, and readiness cues for both sides of a successful mentorship.

• Employees want opportunities to develop their skills and advance their careers. Partnering with local organizations like the Pikes Peak Workforce Center and the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) can offer your team access to training programs, certifications and career counseling. When employees see a clear path for advancement, they’re more likely to stay.

• Walk away with actionable insights to grow your leadership through intentional, impactful relationships.

REGISTER TODAY!

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• Strong leadership plays a pivotal role in retention and workforce development.

Organizations or businesses with high levels of turnover signals a red flag that they lack strong leadership and the culture of the organization is not healthy. Leaders who prioritize mentorship, provide constructive feedback and openly recognize achievements help foster employee trust and engagement. Management leadership training programs and continuous development opportunities can also ensure managers are equipped to support their teams effectively.

A proactive, empathetic leadership style can inspire employees to stay committed to the company’s vision.

• You may have heard the phrase “culture will eat strategy.” It basically means a healthy, empowering culture can be the driving force behind a successful strategy, while a negative, toxic or misaligned culture can quickly derail even the most well-crafted plans.

Create an inclusive workplace that values diversity and encourages collaboration. Host team-building events, offer mentorship opportunities and celebrate achievements to help build a strong sense of community. Incorporate AI policies and expectations into company culture. Coaches and companies are starting to offer these services to small and large businesses alike.

CONTINUED ON P. 37

socodigest.com / Vol. 3 No. 7 - July 2025 / 37

• Work-life balance is still a top priority for today’s workforce.

After COVID, employees came to expect this flexibility. Even if you need front-line employees at your worksite, find some options for flexible scheduling, remote work, employee wellness and volunteer programs to offer.

• You don’t have to recreate the wheel. There is a wealth of resources you can tap into for any size business. SCWCC hosts a monthly business roundtable for entrepreneurs, whether just starting out or in business for years.

The El Paso County Economic Development Office

offers programs to help with workforce planning and grants for training initiatives. Other resources include Pueblo Works & Employment First Programs, SNAP, Colorado FIRST/Existing Industry Training grants, LONE, Jump-Start and job training tax incentives through Pueblo County Economic Development.

Explore partnerships with Pikes Peak State College and University of Colorado Colorado Springs along with Sector Partnerships facilitated by the Colorado Workforce Development Council CWDC. For more information visit: scwcc.com Lola Woloch, is the President & CEO of SCWCC.

38 / Southern Colorado Business Forum & Digest A Legacy Carried Forward by the

Concert Promoter has a Vision City Aud as World-Class Venue

BY JE AN N E DAVANT

A

s a young teen growing up on Cascade Avenue near Downtown Colorado Springs, Jesse Morreale knew the Colorado Springs City Auditorium as a place to see the bands he liked. His first concert there, he recalls, was Mötley Crüe.

Morreale grew up to be a concert promoter who has booked more shows at the City Aud than anyone other than the late, legendary rock promoter Barry Fey. Now, Morreale is reconnecting with the City Aud in a big way. An internal city committee has recommended his company, AVA Presents, to take over operation and maintenance of the venerable building, which has been closed for nearly two years.

City Council will vote on a lease agreement with Denver-based AVA Presents (the acronym stands for Alternative Venue Alliance) on July 8.

The lease agreement is unique in that it affords Morreale the ability to offset some of the rent by in-kind contributions to capital projects, says Ryan Trujillo, deputy chief of staff for the City of Colorado Springs.

“Jesse’s intention has been to invest capital dollars, not only because it’s in dire need, but also, with some of the acts that Jesse’s working to get into City Auditorium, we need to upscale the whole experience, including the backstage, green rooms and stage equipment,” Trujillo says.

Morreale brings decades of experience working with venue owners on programming, development, management and shoring up underutilized facilities, and he has a vision for the City Aud. “We want to provide recreation and arts events for residents and for visitors, and we want to be a revenue-generating anchor for the rest of Downtown,” Morreale says.

“I think that using City Aud as a way to enhance Colorado Springs’ reputation as the major metropolitan city which it’s growing into is going to be important, and showing that

it’s thriving in the areas of hospitality and events and tourism is going to do wonders for the reputation nationally.”

Morreale’s first step will be a thorough analysis of everything from deferred maintenance to comfort improvements for audiences and performers.

“Once the building feels more stabilized and we understand the foundational needs, then I can work on things that I want to do to turn it into the world-class venue that I think it can be,” he says. “We’ve got production people, architects and engineers standing in the wings ready to get to work.”

A Place for the People Prominent local architect Thomas MacLaren and his partners designed the building at 221 E. Kiowa St. It was the culmination of citizen efforts to create a multipurpose meeting and entertainment space, says Leah Witherow, curator of history at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum.

“The original call came out of a women’s organization, the Colorado Springs Civic League, who saw we lacked what they saw as an amenity of a good city,” Witherow says.

“It was built as a place for the people — a plaque above the stage reads, ‘For the use of the people and the glory of the city’ — and it’s literally a container of our history.”

Voters approved a bond issue to

finance the auditorium in 1922, and the building was completed in 1923 at a cost of $424,000.

Over the next 100 years, the City Aud hosted a wide variety of events — music performances and plays, circuses, graduation ceremonies, expositions, boxing matches and roller derbies, cat shows and political rallies.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

Over the years, the costs of operation and maintenance became increasingly burdensome on the city, which in 2018 began a search for an organization to take over programming and maintenance and raise funds for repairs. The Community Cultural Collective, a nonprofit formed to re-envision the auditorium, won the contract.

The Collective had ambitious plans for a $53 million overhaul, including

a multiuse redesign and remodeling of the interior, a 7,000-square-foot addition on the building’s south side and rehabilitation of the building’s exterior.

The Collective’s 2021 agreement required it to raise the funds by March 2023, and the organization projected that groundbreaking could occur later that year, with a soft opening in the summer of 2024. But in November 2022, Director Linda Weise told City Council that the estimated cost had swelled to $87 million, and in August 2023, after fundraising and revenue from events fell far short, the Collective paused its plans and terminated the agreement.

The city set up a solutions team in early 2024 to find a fresh approach, Trujillo says.

“We created a team of over 15 community leaders, subject matter experts and city staff to revisit what we want from the City Aud and what opportunities are available,” he says.

Their findings, which included reactivating the building as a multiuse space and finding creative funding partnerships, informed a request for proposals, to which Morreale was the sole respondent.

“We’re very excited about this potential,” Trujillo says. “The capability that Jesse brings, in addition to his passion for the building, really makes it a good partnership.”

Jeanne Davant is a senior writer for the SoCo Business Forum & Digest.

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socodigest.com / Vol. 3 No. 7 - July 2025 / 39 P EO PLE

Scottish Immigrant Helped Shape Colorado Springs’ Architectural Character

Photo source: Thomas MacLaren School

W

hen prominent architect Thomas MacLaren moved to Colorado Springs in 1893, he found a young city, established only 20 years earlier, that lacked an architectural tradition or identity. Throughout his 34-year career, he brought his unique artistic sensibility to his designs for buildings in the city and throughout the state.

MacLaren “contributed to this community in ways that we can still view,” says Leah Witherow, curator of history at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. “He created some of the most beautiful buildings in Colorado Springs. He sought to represent government and civic ideals in neoclassical forms, but he also built residences and churches in a style that was sympathetic to our beautiful natural landscape. He helped shape a city that equaled our beautiful landscape in his own way, in his own time.”

MacLaren was born in 1863 — the youngest of 11 children — and grew up on his family’s property in the Scottish Highlands. While he was still a teenager, he moved to London to study architecture at the Royal Academy of London, under the supervision of his brother James, who was an established architect. He later studied at the South Kensington School of Art in Edinburgh while serving an apprenticeship at an architectural firm. His mentors were impressed with his exceptional artistic gifts, and he won several awards and

scholarships to study architecture throughout Europe. His training in traditional European forms such as Classical, Gothic and Italian Renaissance designs shows up in many of his buildings, but he was also influenced by the Mission architecture he observed in California.

In 1890, James MacLaren died of tuberculosis, an illness that was endemic throughout the world in the 19th century. Thomas also contracted the disease and, in 1892, moved to Colorado seeking a cure. Colorado’s climate, abundant sunshine and mountain air were considered beneficial for TB patients; Colorado Springs was the site of several sanatoriums and became a major center for innovation and treatment.

As he recovered, MacLaren set up a practice in the city, and his artistic and architectural design talent were soon recognized.

Commissions flowed in, and between 1897 and 1900, MacLaren designed several major projects including the Everhart Building on East Bijou Street and The Broadmoor Casino. Over his career,

Photo source: National Register of Historic Places

BY JE ANN E DAVA N T

he is credited with designing more than 200 buildings, either alone or in partnerships with architects Charles Thomas, T.P. Barber and Thompson Hetherington.

Among the significant buildings he created were Colorado Springs City Hall (with Barber, 1893), Cragmor Sanatorium (1914, now part of UCCS), Pauline Chapel (1918) and the Colorado Springs City Auditorium (1922, with Hetherington and Thomas). He designed school buildings including Ivywild and Steele, and a number of churches, including Grace Episcopal Church, Church of the Sacred Heart and the United Brethren Church (which later became the home of the Colorado Springs Indy and Business Journal). He won commissions for scores of private residences; most notably, he designed Claremont, a private residence for the Baldwin family that was based on the Grand Trianon at Versailles.

According to the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, MacLaren wasn’t particularly fond of that project, since it was a copy and not an original design. But it is one of his signature projects and now is occupied by the Colorado Springs School.

MacLaren’s work centered on Colorado Springs and Manitou

Springs — he designed the Manitou Springs Carnegie Library, American Legion Hut and the bathhouse for the Manitou Mineral Water Co. But as his fame spread, he was pursued for projects in other parts of the state.

In Cañon City, he designed Christ Episcopal Church and several private homes, including the G. Rockafellow and J.F. Marr houses in the 100 block of Main Street. His projects also included the Salida Public Library, Masonic Temple in Montrose, Turkey Creek Ranch at Fort Carson, Durango High School and Elks Lodge in Durango, First Congregational Church in Boulder, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in La Junta and St. Leander’s Roman Catholic Church in Pueblo.

MacLaren died in 1928 after undergoing surgery for a stomach ulcer. His obituary in The Colorado Springs Gazette called him “one of the foremost architects of the West.” He left his estate to the University of Colorado for the establishment of an architectural department. MacLaren is buried in Colorado Springs’ Evergreen Cemetery.

Jeanne Davant is a senior writer for the SoCo Business Forum & Digest.

40 / Southern Colorado Business Forum & Digest P EO PLE

The Farmer’s Friend

Farm Credit of Southern Colorado CEO Discusses Tariffs, Rural Economies

BY A N DREW ROGER S

F

arm Credit of Southern Colorado has seen sustained growth of its lending portfolio of nearly 10% year-overyear for half a decade. The financial institution, founded in 1916, is a cooperative with a board of directors servicing Southern Colorado’s agricultural and rural areas. Farm Credit manages a portfolio of $1.7 billion in loans to farmers and ranchers across 31 counties. Jeremy Anderson has served as president and CEO for seven years and spoke with the Digest to discuss the institution’s growth and the impact economic factors have on its members.

The Digest: What are your customers most concerned about in these changing economic conditions?

Jeremy Anderson: Uncertainty is the keyword. Southern Colorado is almost always in, or going to be in, a drought. [Our farmers and ranchers] are always worried about climate concerns and how drought might affect their crops. Will they have a crop this year? Then you add the uncertainty of tariff threats and things going on in our economy right now, along with the variability and cyclical nature of commodity prices. Right now, our cattle producers are doing really well. Cattle prices seem to be at all-time highs and sustaining at that level. But our corn and wheat growers in Eastern Colorado and our potato producers in the San Luis Valley are struggling and hoping for a break-even scenario because of commodity prices.

They’re aware of the uncertainty of if [the government is] going to tariff [their products] or not. That has them concerned about what that does to the already cyclical nature of commodities.

“We’re going to be in a continuous process of change… Of the 55 Farm Credits in the system, we are the smallest one to do this.

I’m really proud of that.”

— Jeremy Anderson, President and CEO, Farm Credit of Southern Colorado On leading a major technology transformation at one of the smallest institutions in the national Farm Credit system.

What is the largest challenge the bank has seen with its recent growth?

JA: The biggest challenge has been change management. Having a clear vision and having the entire team coalesce around that [vision], believing that we’re building something sustainable and be willing to change.

In an organization that’s been around as long as Farm Credit has, we have a lot of very long-tenured employees, probably more than I've seen anywhere else in my career. It’s not uncommon to have 25-, 30-, 35or even 40-year tenured employees.

When you tell a group of folks with that long of tenure, “We’re going to change, and not only are we going to make this change, we’re going to be in a continuous process of change,” you would expect that they would challenge that, or maybe say, “That’s not for me.” Fortunately, we’ve done really well there. I give our team a lot of kudos. They’re very resilient and have embraced change. Right now, we’re in

the middle of a significant technology transformation we call Project Evolution, which is a move to empower our team about how they serve our customer-owners. We used to use a [third-party] technology provider for loan origination, loan accounting and all the things you do in a financial services institution. We’re bringing all that in-house. Of the 55 Farm Credits in the system, we are the smallest one to do this. I’m really proud of that.

What do you and other financial institutions need to do to continue meeting customer’s needs?

JA: You have to be willing to change, and you have to be willing to implement technology to make the service aspect of our business more seamless. Not everyone’s going to embrace that. We have a wide-ranging customer base. Customers who are in their 20s and right out of college embrace technology in how they work with their financial institution. But our

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average customer age is 56, meaning there are some much older customerowners as well. Are they going to embrace an online digital experience to get the several million dollars in capital they need? Maybe not. We have to be adapting for not only the next generations, but the older generation of borrowers as well.

Has it been easier to do that in the agricultural lending world, knowing technology is constantly changing and modern tractors are more like big computers?

JA: Yes, it has been. I often joke that there are more screens in a tractor or combine cab for most of these producers than we have on our desks.

[Farmers and ranchers] embrace technology in their operations, which has increased their willingness to adopt technology when it comes to financial services.

CONTINUED ON P. 41

socodigest.com / Vol. 3 No. 7 - July 2025 / 41

Farm Credit has been named one of the best places to work in each of the past four years.

How have you developed such a successful workplace culture?

JA: You have to be very deliberate and focus on culture.

I also give a ton of credit to our leaders and our management team. I think culture is built in your manager level and how diligent and dedicated they are to supporting and empowering their teams. It starts there.

Everyone in our organization is a part of this culture.

What is the largest challenge in maintaining your workplace culture?

JA: The challenge is always finding new ways to stay engaged, to measure engagement and to make sure our team is feeling valued, that they’re feeling included and that they are engaged in the workplace.

What is the largest misconception you hear about the financial sector?

JA: People don’t understand what the structure of Farm Credit is. They think of us as their bank. Even borrowers sometimes think of that and don't connect that they own this, that they’re a part of this, because we are a cooperative.

Every borrower buys stock, and what’s available to them is to share in our earnings. The misconception about financial services is that not only are we a capital provider, but we are a strong earner and those profits don’t go back to customers. But in our case, they do. That’s really unique.

What is the one piece of financial advice you wish more people would take?

JA: It resonates with farmers and ranchers [and consumers at large] to know your cost

of production. Know what your true need is, and don’t overspend. Know what that cost is and what it takes to earn a living while living within your means.

You came to Colorado Springs for this job after working in the commercial banking industry.

What was the biggest change coming from commercial banking to ag lending?

JA: Fortunately for me, I came from a farming background and was an active farmer for most of my adult life, so the adjustment to being a pure ag lender wasn’t difficult. Most of my past lending had been not only in commercial but also in agriculture. The difference, for me, was how focused it is here.

We don’t have commercial real estate, consumer loans, car loans. That limits some of our abilities to grow, but it really helps us to focus on what we do and do it well. The other big adjustment for me was getting away from the deposit-taking part of banking. I grew up in the banking world where you are funding your loans with consumer deposits. Farm Credit systems are different.

We don’t hold any deposits.

All of our loans are funded through securities that are sold essentially on Wall Street by our Farm Credit Funding Corp.

Those funds are then channeled to us to lend locally.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Andrew Rogers is a staff writer for the SoCo Business Forum & Digest.

42 / Southern Colorado Business Forum & Digest P EOPLE

Leadership Reigns at Phil Long Dealerships

BY PA M BALES

Photo credit: Studio 9 Commercial Photography

L

eadership at Phil Long Dealerships focuses on the guiding principles known as the “5 Ps” — People, Passion, Process, Product and Profit.

“Profit to us not only means the bottom line; it also means that our success allows us to give back to the community and our employees,” says Kevin Shaughnessy, president/CEO and partner, Phil Long Dealerships.

“These principles underpin every aspect of the dealership’s operations, from team building to customer service, ensuring consistency and excellence across its 15 unique stores.

“Our founder, Jay Cimino, believed in his people and his community,” Shaughnessy explains. “We continue to refine and move forward with this formula that addresses our people, sales, leadership and team building.

We’ve also incorporated heliotropic [follow the sun] leadership into the philosophy.”

Shaughnessy embodies Phil Long’s commitment to the philosophy that Dr. Harry Cohen championed in his book “Be the Sun, Not the Salt.”

This approach emphasizes doing all the good you can, all the time, for everyone, fostering positivity and

Phil Long Dealerships President and CEO Kevin Shaughnessy signs copies of “Be the Sun, Not the Salt.” The book’s leadership philosophy reflects the dealership’s guiding principles and commitment to positivity, service and community. growth within the organization.

Weekly management calls, enriched

by Cohen’s insights, provide valuable direction and reinforce the dealership’s unified strategy.

That ensures every team member understands their role in driving the company’s success through shared values and goals. Regular collaboration and a focus on team building further strengthen this strategy, enabling the dealerships to achieve benchmarks for excellence, according to Shaughnessy.

His leadership style, deeply rooted in kindness and service,

mirrors the vision of Cimino, who believed in investing in people and the community. This commitment is reflected not only in the dealership’s operational philosophy but also in its community involvement, with Shaughnessy personally leading initiatives that provide substantial support to many local organizations.

He chairs the Phil Long Dealership Corporate Sponsorship Committee, which gives hundreds of thousands of dollars to organizations including the American Red Cross, Pikes Peak United Way and Care and Share. His

leadership extends to his position on the board of managers for Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center. And, this year, Shaughnessy was chosen as the grand marshal for the 41st Colorado Springs St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

In 2023, he was inducted into the Colorado Automobile Hall of Fame.

That same year, he was recognized by the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association as the Colorado Auto Dealer of the Year. He was honored as a TIME Dealer of the Year nominee, one of only 48 candidates selected from more than 16,000 franchised dealers across the country, recognized for his community service and industry accomplishments.

Founded in 1945, the dealership has evolved into a cornerstone for both exceptional automotive services and impactful community initiatives across Colorado and New Mexico.

Pam Bales is a senior writer for the SoCo Business Forum & Digest.

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socodigest.com / Vol. 3 No. 7 - July 2025 / 43 ETH ICS

The Leadership Test AI Can’t Pass We’ve been proudly serving businesses along the Front Range for nearly 50 years. Our team is dedicated to providing professional and personalized legal solutions tailored to your unique needs. Whether you’re a startup or an established corporation, we’re here to

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BY PA UL YANKEY, M BA

A

t a recent AI Summit hosted by the UCCS College of Business, Victor Cho, current CEO of Emovid and former CEO of Evite, Inc., described artificial intelligence as “intelligence as a service.”

The phrasing stuck. It strips away hype and reframes AI as it truly is — a practical resource that extends our capacity to think, learn and lead. Like cloud computing or software as a service, intelligence as a service is quickly becoming part of the business infrastructure.

In my own work, I have found AI to be an unexpected ally. It does not think for me, but it helps me think more freely. Sometimes the hardest part of writing or planning is overcoming that first block. AI helps me move past the friction and get to the thought beneath the task. It is not the answer, but it helps me to reach it.

While recently hosting some professors from Vietnam, I asked how they are navigating AI in their classrooms. One answered simply: they randomly ask students to explain their papers aloud. If the ideas do not live in the student’s head, the work does not pass. No software required, just wisdom and accountability.

This is the line we are all walking now. AI should not be feared or worshipped. It should be integrated with intent.

Leaders who ignore it will fall behind. But those who lean too hard on it risk losing their edge.

The leadership test is not about using AI. It is about knowing when to rely on it, and when to rely on yourself.

Paul Yankey, MBA, is an Ethical Marketing & Growth Professor at University of Colorado Colorado Springs.

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44 / Southern Colorado Business Forum & Digest P EO PLE

Professionals on the Rise Southern Colorado’s Workforce Achievements!

Dr. Manya Whitaker has been appointed to the presidency of Colorado College.

She served as interim president starting July 1, 2024, after L. Song Richardson stepped down. Whitaker also had served as executive vice president and Richardson’s chief of staff. The college’s 15th president is a developmental Manya Whitaker educational psychologist with expertise in adolescent identity formation and motivation. Whitaker has taught classes on social and political issues in education at CC and has written four books and more than 20 book chapters and articles based on her research.

The University of Colorado Colorado Springs has named three new deans after committees, HR teams, support staff and the broader campus community collaborated on the search efforts.

Nathan Gresham has been named the executive chef of the Country Club at Castle Pines. Gresham brings a wealth of experience in fine dining and hospitality, most recently serving as vice president of culinary and restaurants at the Garden of the Gods Resort and Club. Gresham’s resume also includes Cherry Hills Country Nathan Gresham Club, where he was executive chef, and Augusta’s Restaurant at the Augusta (Georgia) National Golf Club, where he was head chef. Gresham graduated from the Louisiana Culinary Institute and is a certified executive chef.

William Wells, Ph.D., has been selected as the new dean for the College of Public Service and will begin July 1. Wells is currently the director of the Center for Intelligence and Crime Analysis in the College of Criminal Justice at Sam Houston State University, and a professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology. He is also acting vice president for Research and Strategic Partnerships at SHSU.

Joe Hollman has been named acting chief communications officer for the City of Colorado Springs, replacing Vanessa Zink after her departure for another opportunity. The city will launch a national search to fill the position.

Hollmann has worked for the city for six years, most recently serving as marketing Joe Hollman and engagement manager. Previously, he was communications director for Mayor Yemi Mobolade’s mayoral campaign; Hollmann also served as the immunization communications manager for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Joseph Wehrman, Ph.D., has been selected as the new dean for the College of Education and will begin the position May 20. Wehrman is currently a professor and has been serving as the College of Education’s interim dean of the College of Education. He is a former department chair in the Department of Counseling and Human Services (DCHS) and faculty director of the Counseling and Leadership Program.

Bret Amundson, DMA, has been selected as the new dean for the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and will begin July 1.

Amundson currently serves as dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota.

He has also served as dean of the School of Arts and Letters, director of General Education and director of the First Year Program at CSS.

Joseph Wehrman, Ph.D.

William Wells, Ph.D

Bret Amundson, DMA

Also, at UCCS, Roger Smith has been appointed as the next vice chancellor for University Advancement, Communications and Engagement. He will oversee UCCS Roger Smith fundraising and marketing, government and military relations, executive events and community engagement functions, and will join the university’s executive leadership team. Smith has nearly 25 years of experience and an MBA in Organizational Leadership from the Keller School of Management; he currently serves as senior director of advancement at Regis University.

socodigest.com / Vol. 3 No. 7 - July 2025 / 45

Dale Anderson is joining the Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC as senior vice president of Economic and Defense Development and Government Affairs, effective Sept. 2. Among other duties, the U.S. Army veteran will spearhead the launch and staff support for the newly formed Colorado Aerospace & Defense Dale Anderson Economic Council, a strategic initiative of the Chamber & EDC to strengthen Colorado’s position as a premier hub for aerospace and defense.

He previously worked for Congressman Doug Lamborn and Congressman Jeff Crank.

Thomas Dowd, M.D., a board-certified orthopedic surgeon specializing in foot and ankle surgery, has joined CommonSpirit Orthopedics Audubon, 3010 N. Circle Drive in Colorado Springs. He brings more than 20 years of experience in the U.S. Army to his Thomas Dowd, M.D. practice. Dr. Dowd has a proven track record of successfully managing complex foot and ankle reconstruction cases and is dedicated to helping his patients achieve their individual goals.

Susan Edmondson was named executive director of the Pikes Peak Hospice Foundation in May. She will lead strategic planning, fundraising and community engagement efforts for the foundation, the philanthropic arm of Pikes Peak Hospice & Palliative Care. Previously, Edmondson was president and CEO of Susan Edmondson the Downtown Partnership of Colorado Springs, ED of the Bee Vradenburg Foundation and an editor and writer at the Colorado Springs Gazette. Edmondson also has served on numerous nonprofit boards, including the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum and the Cultural Office of the Pikes Peak Region.

Valerie Martinez, vice president and commercial banker at InBank in Pueblo, has been selected as one of the honorees of Independent Banker magazine’s annual 40 Under 40 community bank leaders award. InBank is an independent commercial bank serving the Colorado Front Range, Southern Colorado and Valerie Martinez Northern New Mexico markets. The award recognizes rising stars who have significantly contributed to their communities and the community banking industry.

Mike Casimiro, president of Casco Construction and Legacy Custom Homes, has joined the Colorado Springs Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Hispanic Chamber Education Foundation.

Casimiro, who has a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the New York Institute of Technology, founded Casco in 2008 Mike Casimiro and split off Legacy to focus on residential projects. The education foundation, established in February 2022, aims to empower, encourage and equip emerging Latino and Latina leaders through the creation of the Adelante Leadership Institute and its fellowship program in 2023.

Kyle Hybl won the 2025 Inclusive Leader Award for foundations and funders from GlobalMindED, which empowers students to achieve financial independence through rewarding employment. Hybl’s accomplishments include being the president and CEO at El Pomar Foundation, chairman of Kyle Hybl the University of Colorado Board of Regents, general counsel to The Broadmoor hotel, chairman of National Cybersecurity Center and corporate secretary of Junior Achievement. After graduating from law school at the University of Colorado, Hybl served in the Air Force’s Judge Advocate General Corps.

Dean Miller has joined Colorado Parks and Wildlife as the agency’s public information officer. Miller previously worked as a public affairs specialist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, as media operations branch chief at the Air Force Academy and as Dean Miller communications and marketing director at Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center. Miller also owns DJ Miller Communications LLC, which he founded in December 2016.

CPW manages 350 state wildlife areas, 43 state parks and 960plus wildlife species.

HIGHLIGHT STANDOUT PROFESSIONALS IN SOUTHERN COLORADO! Share promotions, new hires, or achievements — email up to 40 words & a photo to newsdesk@ coloradomediagroup.com.

46 / Southern Colorado Business Forum & Digest

Advertiser Index / In Alphabetical Order

July 2025

Thank you to each and every advertiser listed.

Add Staff Inc. Altitude Hospitality Group APG: Advanced Printing & Graphics Bank of Colorado Bird Dog BBQ Blaze AI Summit Business Digest Weekly Radio Colorado Springs Celebrity Classic Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC Colorado Springs Hispanic Chamber Colorado Springs Leadership Institute Colorado Springs Sports Corporation Colorado Springs Utilities COS City Hub Exponential Impact Garden of the Gods Resort & Club Garden of the Gods Catering & Events Higginbotham

The Homestead Collective Hotel Polaris Minuteman Press New Altitude Coworking & Office Space NORTH Magazine Ntiva Olsson Pikes Peak Small Business Development Center The Pioneer Rodeo and Demo Derby The PLACE Sherman & Howard / Taft Silver Key Senior Services Sparks Willson SoCo StillFest Southern Colorado Insider Southern Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce Vectra Bank Colorado

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