NoCo Newsletter | June 20, 2025

Photo: NAI Affinity featured listing – Loveland | Highly Visible End-Cap Retail Space

NoCo Newsletter | Keeping You Informed on Northern Colorado’s Commercial Real Estate Market | June 20, 2025

Recognizing Juneteenth—Freedom Day. On June 19, 1865, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas with news that the last enslaved Black Americans were finally free. “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.” — General Order No. 3

Juneteenth is a celebration of freedom delayed, but not denied—a day to honor the strength, perseverance, and joy of Black Americans who turned pain into power and built culture, community, and progress. It is not just Black history—it is American history.

Each day adds to our collective history. Here is what is shaping Northern Colorado’s present and future: discover our newest listings, recent happenings in the NoCo CRE community & other industry news. This edition brings news of a stabilizing economy, condo construction defect reform, stock repositioning, and more.

REAL ESTATE & BUSINESS NEWS

• Natural Grocers Purchases Vacant Midtown Fort Collins Building
  • Coloradoan | “Vitamin Cottage Natural Food Market Inc. purchased 2839 S. College Ave. for nearly $3.5 million on May 16, according to Larimer County property records. The property was previously home to a Joann fabric and craft store until 2011 and was most recently used by a Mitsubishi car dealership before its 2019 closure, according to past Coloradoan reporting. A conceptual review application filed with the city of Fort Collins in early 2025 posed demolition of the property’s existing 55-year-old building and construction of a new, one-story 18,000-square-foot grocery store in its place. At the time, the property was listed for nearly $4.5 million.”
• General RV Center Closes on Purchase of Longmont Dealership
  • BizWest | “Tampa, Florida-based Lazydays Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: GORV) has finalized its sale of the Lazydays of Denver at Longmont, a recreational-vehicle dealership at 10400 E. I-25 Frontage Road, to General RV Center Inc.”
• Ball Buying Back $250M in Stock
  • BizWest | “Of the deal, Ball CEO Daniel Fisher said: “This share buyback, which is part of our previously announced planned purchases for the year, enables us to most efficiently deliver on our goal of returning at least $1.5 billion to shareholders by year-end.” Ball’s board of directors in January approved the repurchase of as much as $4 billion of company stock. Leaders at Ball, which has seen its stock price increase by nearly 3% since the beginning of 2025, began emphasizing buybacks in conjunction with the company’s $5.6 billion sale of its Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. division to British aerospace and defense company BAE Systems PLC in February 2024.”
• Enliven to Sell $200M in Stock After Positive Drug Trial
  • BizWest | “Enliven Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: ELVN), a clinical-stage precision oncology company, recently reported positive data from a clinical trial for one of its drug candidates, and plans to raise $200 million in a public stock offering. ELVN-001, one of Enliven’s promising drug candidates, is being tested in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia…. Enliven, which began dosing patients in clinical trials for two of its drug candidates during the second quarter of 2024, boosted its research and development spending to $24.9 million in the first quarter of 2025, up from $20 million in the same period last year.”
• The 2025 Legislative Session: NCLA Business Debrief
  • NCLA | “Among its highest legislative priorities, the NCLA sought to stimulate the construction of attainably priced condominiums, which have declined to just 3% of new housing stock due to builders’ and insurers’ concerns about litigation risks. With median housing costs now reaching $550,000 in Colorado and the median age of first-time homebuyers rising from 35 to 38 last year, House Bill 1272 was introduced by Fort Collins’ State Representative Andrew Boesenecker, Representative Shannon Bird and Senate President James Coleman, with NCLA’s support, to finally deliver meaningful construction defects reform….The bill creates a voluntary program allowing builders to obtain greater protection from lawsuits in exchange for guaranteed warranties and the use of third-party inspectors. The Colorado Association of Home Builders, with whom we concur, expressed concerns that the bill’s provisions may be simultaneously too vague and too prescriptive in different sections, potentially limiting builder participation. Additionally, some provisions allowing attorney’s fees and maintaining broad conditions for lawsuits may not sufficiently reduce insurance premiums for condominium construction.”

ECONOMIC & EMPLOYMENT NEWS

• Fort Collins Loveland Water District to Tap Aquifer 800 Feet Underground, Securing Drinking Water for Expected Growth
  • CBS News | “Pletcher said he believed the aquifer would help his district further secure water for more than 5,000 new homes, or an additional 10,000 consumers, over the next decade. Pletcher said this was a great opportunity for his company to also secure access to drinking water without having to buy and dry an agricultural operation, “which really feels good to us, that we are not having a detrimental effect on agriculture,” he said. If the project moves forward as anticipated, the district will have access to the aquifer’s resources by the spring of 2029.”
• Muted May Inflation Defies Tariff Fears
  • WSJ | “Inflation was tame in May, defying fears that the impact of President Trump’s tariffs would start to show a rise in prices. Consumer prices rose 0.1% in May over the previous month, less than economists anticipated. Year-over-year inflation was 2.4%, in line with expectations and near a four-year low recorded in April. The S&P 500 ended the day slightly lower. For months, businesses have warned that they will raise prices in response to Trump’s tariffs, and economists had expected tariff-related price hikes for items such as cars and clothing to show up in the May numbers of the consumer-price index. Wednesday’s report doesn’t provide definitive evidence this happened, with prices of cars and clothing declining rather than rising. The report will raise questions over when a widely anticipated bump in prices this summer, expected by the Federal Reserve and private-sector economists, will materialize—and whether it will be as stiff as some have warned.”
• The Fed Waits Out the Tariff Economy
  • WSJ | “Powell offered nothing to hint at a July rate reduction, and investors eyed September as the earliest possible resumption of rate cuts paused earlier this year. With most relevant data still to come, it made little sense for the Fed chair to commit to a specific course of action, Guha said. The timing for rate cuts ‘could come quickly. It could not come quickly,’ Powell said. ‘We feel like we’re going to learn a great deal more over the summer on tariffs.’”
• Retail Sales Fell 0.9% in May, Worse Than Expected, as Consumers Pulled Back
  • CNBC | “Retail sales declined 0.9%, even more than the 0.6% drop expected from the Dow Jones consensus, according to numbers adjusted for seasonality but not inflation. The decline followed a 0.1% loss in April and came at a time of unease over tariffs and geopolitical tensions. Sales rose 3.3% from a year ago. Excluding autos, sales fell 0.3%, also worse than the estimate for a gain of 0.1%. However, excluding a series of items such as auto dealers, building materials suppliers, gas stations and others, sales increased 0.4%. That reading, known as the control group, is what the department uses when calculating gross domestic product….GDP declined at a 0.2% annualized pace in the first quarter but is projected to rebound. Second-quarter growth heading into the retail sales release was pegged at 3.8%, according to the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GDPNow tracker of rolling data….import prices were flat against a forecast for a 0.1% decline, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Export prices fell 0.9%.”

COMMUNITY & OTHER INDUSTRY NEWS

• Client Testimonials
• Larimer County’s Biggest Private Employers: Here’s Who Makes the List
• Old Town Square No. 4 in USA TODAY 10 Best Readers’ Choice Awards Best Public Squares List
• Most Peaceful Place to Live? Fort Collins Tops the List With Outdoor Recreation, Low Noise
• Here Are 15 Road Projects at the Top of Fort Collins’ List for the Next 10 Years.
• Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce: Northern Colorado Economic Overview
• Northern Colorado Boasts Nine of Top 20 Fastest-Growing Communities in State
• 2 Colorado Cities in Top 4 ‘Best Places to Live Rankings
• Denver International Airport Ranked No. 6 in Passenger Traffic Worldwide
• Support Your Local Bold Voice of Business by Contributing to the 13th Annual Moving Fort Collins Forward! Campaign

FEATURED LISTING

NAI Affinity is pleased to present this outstanding end-cap retail space for lease with high visibility along Crossroads Boulevard. The space is positioned just south of the 6,800 seat Blue Arena Event Center, 263 key Embassy Suites Hotel and Conference Center, and in close proximity to many large residential neighborhoods, employment, other retail and entertainment. The unit is currently built out as a liquor store with an open floor plan, kitchenette area, private restroom, and building signage available to tenant. Located next to Firehouse Subs and QDOBA Mexican Eats.

Click here to learn more about this prime end-cap opportunity!

See previous newsletters here.

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