Orders, attention flowing in for Belly over Jolie T-shirt
The hits keep coming for Belly, the Cherry Creek North boutique that sent a congratulatory package to actress Angelina Jolie this year prior to the birth of her daughter. Photos in People magazine showed baby Shiloh wearing a T-shirt identical to one Belly said it sent. Media outlets worldwide have carried the story.
“CNN just called,” Belly co-owner Janci Frisby said Wednesday. She said the store has 200 back orders for the T-shirt, at $42 apiece.
For celebrity sleuths, a question may occur: What’s the proof that the T-shirt worn by Shiloh is the same one sent by Belly? After all, the T-shirt designed by Kingsley Aarons is available elsewhere.
Frisby said her New York public-relations firm, 5W, has a record that the package was hand-delivered to Jolie’s manager.
“We feel great we sent it to her,” said Frisby. “We’re never going to know if it’s the exact one. All we can say is that it’s had an enormous impact on our business.”
DENVER
5 Colo. properties win affordability credits
Five Colorado apartment developments will receive $2.85 million in U.S. low-income-housing tax credits, helping them create or preserve nearly 300 units of affordable housing.
The five developments – three in Denver, one in Monte Vista and one in Boone near Pueblo – were selected from a pool of 11 applicants, who requested nearly $5 million in credits from the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority.
The five developments receiving the allocation are: Reserve at Gates, Denver; 16th and Colorado, Denver; 28th & Clay Residences, Denver; Valley Grande Apartments, Monte Vista; and Via Don Carlos, Boone.
All 283 units will be affordable housing, with most of them available to tenants earning less than half of the area’s median income.
DENVER
Space Systems gets new vice president
Lockheed Martin on Wednesday named Mark Valerio vice president and general manager of special programs for its Jefferson County-based Space Systems business unit. Valerio succeeds Thomas Scanlan, who is retiring June 30. Valerio will lead one of Space Systems’ largest lines of business, which comprises more than 2,200 employees, focusing on national security space projects.
WYOMING
Union Pacific reports record coal haul
Union Pacific Corp. said Wednesday that mild weather helped its railroad haul a record amount of coal during the first five months of this year.
The nation’s largest railroad loaded 5,304 coal trains during that period, which is a company record.
DOUGLAS COUNTY
Judge allows mall to claim Stephany’s spot
A bankruptcy judge has given Park Meadows mall officials permission to retake control of space once occupied by bankrupt Stephany’s Chocolates.
Stephany’s shut down in April, and the company’s store in Park Meadows has remained closed and vacant since then.
DENVER
Kim Koehn to lead Corporex Colorado
Denver real-estate veteran Kim Koehn has joined Corporex Colorado LLC as president.
Koehn, who previously led the Denver regional office of Equity Office Properties Trust, replaces Steve Moyski, who left in February to form his own development firm, Urban Frontier LLC.
Koehn’s focus will be to grow the local operations of Corporex through development, joint-venture partnerships, fee arrangements and acquisitions. The company, which is developing the Museum Residences in Denver’s Golden Triangle, plans to increase its local operations in condominium, hotel and office development.
DALLAS
Top investors snap up homebuilder shares
The biggest slump in U.S. homebuilder stocks since 1994 has spurred investors with some of this decade’s best records to snap up shares of Centex Corp., KB Home and Toll Brothers Inc. So far their confidence has been unrewarded.
Donald Hodges, whose Hodges Fund outperformed 99 percent of its peers the past five years, added to his stake in Centex as the shares tumbled 35 percent this year. Legg Mason Inc.’s Bill Miller and Hussman Strategic Growth Fund’s John Hussman both bought KB Home amid the stock’s 42 percent slide in 2006. Hussman also purchased Toll Brothers shares, down 26 percent.
DENVER
Mortgage applications rise after four weeks
Mortgage applications in the U.S. rose for the first time in four weeks, suggesting the decline this year in the housing market will be gradual.
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s index of applications to buy a home or refinance an existing loan increased 7 percent, the most since the end of April, to 571.9 last week from 534.4. The gauge is still down 34 percent from the same time last year.
ARAPAHOE COUNTY
Carmen Systems now part of Jeppesen
The Boeing Co. said Wednesday it has completed its acquisition of Gothenburg, Sweden- based Carmen Systems, making Carmen part of Arapahoe County-based Jeppesen Sanderson Inc. Jeppesen is a subsidiary of Boeing Commercial Aviation Services.
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS
Resort logs 8 percent rise in skier visits
Steamboat Ski Resort in Steamboat Springs experienced a nearly 8 percent growth in skier visits this season to a total of 1.05 million skiers and snowboarders, parent company American Skiing announced Wednesday.
Overall, the Park City, Utah-based company hosted 3.7 million skiers at its seven ski resorts, a decline of 6.9 percent from the previous winter, due in part to adverse weather conditions at its eastern resorts.
American Skiing posted a 23 percent income rise for the third quarter of fiscal 2006, up $5.6 million, to $29.4 million.
DENVER
KFx signs contract for shipment of “K-Fuel”
KFx Inc. said it has signed a contract for the first train shipment of its treated “K-Fuel” coal from Wyoming to a FirstEnergy power plant in Ohio.
KFx’s treatment process removes moisture and pollutants from coal, reducing its weight and facilitating shipment of higher energy-content coal with reduced sulfur content.
