Frontier gets OK
for flights to Canada
Frontier Airlines received approval Friday from the U.S. Department of Transportation to begin flying to Canada, just a couple of weeks after it submitted the application.
Frontier is not ready to announce what cities it will fly to and has not received Canadian government approval, but the U.S. approval means Frontier can begin selling tickets at any time.
Frontier spokesman Joe Hodas said he expected sales within the next month. He said Frontier is the first low-cost carrier set to enter the Canadian market.
Post publisher hears about Knight Ridder
William Dean Singleton, vice-chairman and chief executive of Denver’s ap, the seventh-largest U.S. newspaper publisher, met last week with Knight Ridder officials about that chain, based in San Jose, Calif., according to a published report.
Singleton and Media News president Jody Lodovic listened to a presentation about Knight Ridder, its newspapers and its finances, according to a story Friday in the San Jose Mercury News.
Knight Ridder, under pressure from shareholders to sell itself, publishes the Mercury News and 31 other daily papers. Media News publishes The Denver Post and 39 other daily papers.
Singleton declined comment.
Real-estate radio show to debut
A 30-minute radio show geared toward real-estate professionals and consumers debuts at 9 a.m. today on AM 760 KKZN. “Colorado Real Estate Update” will be hosted by Tim Thomas and Lou Barnes of Boulder West Financial Services and feature a panel of guests who are experts in their field. Regular segments will include “Trends in Mortgage Rates” with Barnes; “Market Update” with Michael Galansky of Re/Max Unlimited; “Regulatory Update” with Mary Cates, president of the American Real Estate College South Campus; “Nothing Down,” tips for first-time homebuyers with Nadine Baumbartner of Metro Brokers Unique Homes; and “List to Sell,” quick sale tips with Pat Forber of Re/Max Alliance DTC.
Single women No. 2 homebuyers
Single women have emerged as the second-largest group of homebuyers, behind married couples. In 2003, single women purchased about 1.7 million homes, representing about 21 percent of all home purchases. Married couples accounted for 59 percent of homebuyers that year, while single men represent 10 percent of purchases, according to a study from the National Association of Realtors, Fannie Mae and Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Fannie Mae estimates that by 2010, there will be about 31 million households headed by women in the United States.
Stapleton takes honors
Stapleton has been named one of the five best Western places to live by Sunset magazine. Sunset named the 4,700-acre develop – ment, with a population of 5,000 and growing, at the former Stapleton Airport the “best refurb burb,” the category of neighborhoods rising from former airport and institution sites. Nearly a quarter of the land is reserved for parks and open space, while the concrete from the old runways was recycled into new streets and sidewalks. Other cities on the list are Boulder City, Nev., best exurb; Brea, Calif., best bounceback burb; Orenco Station in Hillsboro, Ore., best new burb; and Barrio Santa Rosa in Tucson, best new city neighborhood.
Vennerses plunk down $2.3 million
for 4,092-square-foot Denver home
Last fall, Theodore and Lori Venners purchased a two-story home in the 400 block of Cook Street in Denver. The couple paid $2.3 million for the 4,092-square-foot house, built in 2001.
The home, which sits on a 6,250-square-foot lot, has three bedrooms, three full baths and two half baths. It also has a 2,225-square-foot basement, about half of which is considered finished, according to public records.
Venners, 57, is chairman and chief technology officer of KFx Inc., a Denver-based coal processor. Until September, he had served as the company’s chief executive since its inception more than two decades ago.
Venners declined to comment on the home purchase.
The seller, Pmapbp LLC, paid $600,000 for the property in October 2000.
Dan Issel unloads pricey digs
for modest 3,800-square-foot home
Basketball legend Dan Issel retreated to the mountains after his resignation as coach of the Denver Nuggets in December 2001 following a slur made to a fan. But the former Nuggets player, coach and general manager is moving closer to the city that made him famous.
Issel and his wife, Cheri, recently sold their home in Edwards for $1.9 million and purchased a more modest home in Chateau Ridge, a gated community in Castle Pines.
The 3,800-square-foot model, built by Fairfield Homes, has three bedrooms, four baths, two fireplaces and a two-car garage. The couple paid $729,700.
Issel, called “The Horse” during a 15-year playing career, has spent his time away from hoops raising horses and helping his son with a tile business. NBA commissioner David Stern last year called for Issel to return to the sport.
Issel did not return a call seeking comment.
Check out the four-bedroom on the block on your way to the big game
Thousands of people will pass Clemente Calderon’s home Sunday on their way to the Broncos game at Invesco Field at Mile High.
That’s good news for Calderon, who has on the sale block a four-bedroom, one-bath home just a block from the stadium. The price? $250,000.
The brick home on Eliot Street, built in 1912, has parking for six cars in the back and a large fenced-in yard, which is nearly 400 square feet larger than other lots in the neighborhood, said Guillermo Martinez, an agent with Coldwell Banker Residential 18.
Martinez is marketing the home.
Planners acknowledge mistakes, look ahead
When the last group of civic visionaries came together in the 1980s to plan for Denver’s future, they suggested providing housing downtown, creating more retail along the 16th Street Mall and building a new convention center.
But not all their ideas were prescient. When a new group reconvened Tuesday to devise a new Denver Area Plan, one member of the original committee came clean about one idea that was just plain wrong.
“We knew we wanted killer amenities on either end of the 16th Street Mall,” said Tom Gougeon of Continuum Partners. The Civic Center served that purpose on the eastern end, but on the western end, “we wanted to tear down Union Station once we got the trains out of there.”
Now planners realize Union Station is the killer amenity they were looking for, and its redevelopment plans are off and running.
“Of course, now we see it for the jewel it really is,” Gougeon said.
Another challenge for the new group, issued by project director John Desmond: “Downtown is like an unfinished quilt. We need to stitch all the pieces together … and knit the Auraria Campus into downtown.”
United attorney headed for slopes
United Airlines’ lead bankruptcy attorney Jamie Spray regen had his priorities straight this week when Denver Post reporter Kelly Yamanouchi caught up with him in Chicago’s U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
After spending three years helping the airline negotiate the final details of its restructuring plan, he had two things on his mind as they talked about what comes next: Being in court Friday for the judge’s final approval of the plan and being in Beaver Creek by this weekend.
Basketball’s “Harlem” not about location
Last week the Fort Collins-based Harlem Ambassadors made news after filing a complaint against the Harlem Globetrotters with the Federal Trade Commission. Their beef: The Globetrotters unfairly restrict arenas from booking similar shows for 14 weeks before and after their appearance.
The basketball entertainment group claims the policy keeps it out of prime venues during peak basketball season. But at least one reader wondered how a club based in Colorado can get away with using the term “Harlem” to describe itself.
For the same reason the Phoenix-based Globetrotters and the New Jersey-based Harlem Wizards use it, explains team president Dale Moss.
Instead of describing a hometown, the term refers to the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. It also lets people know that the show has an African-American theme.
There’s no registry for cells, carriers say
Here’s an e-mail that’s been making the rounds: Register your cellphone number on the National Do Not Call Registry before telemarketers get it.
Problem is, the e-mail is false. It’s an urban legend that has been circulating off and on for more than a year, cellphone carriers say.
There is no such list for cellphones, because there is no national cellphone directory, although one is being created, said Anne Marshall, spokeswoman for Cingular Wireless. When the national directory is created, it will be “opt in” only, meaning cellphone customers will have to call someone to get their numbers listed.
Marshall thinks the rumor got started because of the “do not call” list for land-line telephones.
“I have people with master’s degrees sending this e-mail to me,” she said, laughing. “I don’t forward it.”
Thousands sign up for cellphone dating
In another sign that cellphones have permeated all areas of social life, more than 10,000 hipster singles across the country have signed up for Zogo, a service that lets them “date” anonymously by hooking up to other like-minded cellphone users without seeing each other’s number.
Anonymous phone dating is billed as the next Match.com., said Neil Alumkal, a Zogo spokesman. “You can tell a lot from a phone conversation, and if you’re not into it, you can block somebody, and they have no way of reaching you.”
Radio station donates $80,000 to nonprofits
With the help of several thousand listeners, Denver radio station KQMT-FM “99.5 The Mountain” donated more than $80,000 to 20 local nonprofit groups.
The station handed out the checks during a reception Wednesday. The fundraiser, which ran during the holiday season, worked like this:
The station asked listeners to log on to its website, www.995themountain.com, and join the station’s so-called “Mountain Community.”
Members were then asked to donate $10 to nonprofits such as Denver Rescue Mission, Food Bank of the Rockies and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Colorado.The station then matched the donation to the selected nonprofit.
“This was a fantastic opportunity for us to get our family, friends and volunteers involved,” said Kristina Vourax of the Denver Dumb Friends League.
