Polis announced Tuesday that his office was to gauge support for a $28.5 million proposal that would connect the western side of the Capitol with Lincoln Veterans Memorial Park, creating a bridge across Lincoln Street.

Polis’ office has pitched the idea as a celebration of the state’s 150th birthday next year that will also showcase local artists and improve accessibility to the Capitol.

But criticism has mounted over the cost and need for such a bridge, which will alter the face of an iconic part of Denver.

The multiple-choice survey — available at — will also ask Coloradans if they want a scaled-down version of the bridge, or if they would like to see some other project, either a major proposal or several smaller ones, in Denver or elsewhere in the state.

It’ll also ask if they want anything at all.

“We want to, really, have public ownership of this decision, and have people across the state decide what they want to do,” Polis said in an interview Tuesday. Given the “level of passion” surrounding the bridge idea, the governor said he wants to make sure “it’s not just the loudest voices, but it’s all the voices here that are registering what they want.”

The survey will be open to all Coloradans through Monday, and Polis said the results will be publicly released later next week.

The survey includes four questions and requires respondents to enter their zip code to participate. Polis’ office said the survey can only be filled out by one person per IP address (that’s the unique identifier for a device connected to the internet).

The search for public support comes two months after Polis’ office released initial renderings of the bridge — the designs for which have already cost $1.5 million — and after an initial advisory committee signed off on the plans, albeit with some reservations.

The legislative committee that is next set to discuss the bridge has already signaled skepticism, with that committee’s chair — Democratic Rep. Tammy Story — describing the project as a “bridge to nowhere.”

Other groups have voiced opposition, too: The Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods organization in Denver announced its opposition in June. The preservation group Historic Denver came out against the project in May.

Polis demurred when asked if the survey was always planned or if it was sparked by skepticism for the project. He said a previous survey asking for input had “very few” participants.

“I think people are just starting to talk about this stuff, and so I think now’s the right time to get a sense of whether people see it, do they want it, do they not want it?” he said. “I think it’s exactly the right time to do it.”

The results of the survey will be “a big part of informing what we do,” Polis said, and he hoped there would be a “decisive” showing of support or opposition.

The website’s preamble to the survey includes just over 1,000 words of positive background about the project. (the video was released by the Mizel Institute, founded by megadonor Larry Mizel), alongside of the project by 9News anchor Kyle Clark.

The bridge’s construction has been pitched as a joint public-philanthropic endeavor: The bridge itself will cost between $18 million and $20 million. The governor’s office has about $8 million in funds available for the project, leaving the rest to be funded by donations.

Several million dollars more will be needed for extra landscape and grading work; artwork by Colorado artists; and upgraded crossings at Lincoln and Broadway, the governor’s office previously told The Denver Post. Money for the other components would likely come from state coffers, such as maintenance funds, lawmakers said.

There is an answer. Mizel and Mandarich are scheduled to leave the company they had steered for five decades on Dec. 31.

Sekisui completed its $4.9 billion purchase of Colorado’s largest homebuilder, best known as the parent of Richmond American Homes, on April 19, a fairly quick turnaround for what was the country’s largest homebuilder acquisition since 2017.

“We are grateful to the Sekisui House team, which has shown the utmost respect and professionalism to us and our valued employees throughout the acquisition process and during the initial months of our integration. This experience only reinforces our belief that our employees and our customers are in good hands as a part of the Sekisui House family,” Mizel and Mandarich said in a joint statement issued Tuesday evening to announce their departure.

The pair said that while proud of what they accomplished in the company’s 50-year history, including the construction of over 250,000 homes, they were “even more proud of the team we have built and what they will accomplish in the future as a part of the combined organization.”

Faced with accelerating population declines in Japan, Sekisui made a concerted push to acquire U.S. homebuilders starting in 2017 with Woodside Homes Co. It added Holt Homes in 2021, Chesmar Homes in 2022, and Hubble Homes in 2023.

Those plans took a big leap forward with the acquisition of M.D.C., which constructs about 10,000 homes a year, ranking it as the country’s 11th largest builder. Sekisui’s U.S. subsidiary plans to target about 15,000 home closings next fiscal year, which would rank it in the fifth spot.

“We thank them for their cooperation during the acquisition and invaluable guidance in transitioning MDC to our new ownership. Their accomplishments will positively influence our organization for years to come. We congratulate them for their excellent leadership and careers in our industry,” said Toru Tsuji, CEO of Sekisu House subsidiary SH Residential Holdings, in a statement.

Mizel founded Mizel Development Corp. (MDC) in 1972 and brought Mandarich on board in 1977 to oversee operations. The pair have had a tenure unrivaled among Colorado’s top public company executives and weathered several real estate cycles.

Sekisu House, based in Osaka, launched in 1960 and has delivered more than 2.6 million homes directly and through its acquired subsidiaries. It is known for its cutting-edge construction technology and energy-efficient designs.

Mizel, 82, is an active presence on Denver’s philanthropy scene and has been instrumental in establishing several Jewish institutions, including the Simon Weisenthal Center in Los Angeles, the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem and the Mizel Museum and Counterterrorism Education Learning Lab in Denver.

Based on the purchase price of $63 a share, Mizel’s 13.4% holdings in M.D.C. shares had an estimated value of $642 million, while Mandarich’s 8.17% ownership stake was worth $391.1 million, according to a proxy filing made with the in February.

The executive team at M.D.C. also received “golden parachutes” or cash and accelerated equity payouts tied to a takeover. In the case of Mizel, his parachute included $54.9 million in cash, made up of a $33 million transaction bonus and a severance payout of $21.9 million, as well as $29.2 million in accelerated equity awards, according to the filing.

Mandarich’s parachute was worth $67.6 million, with $40.9 million representing a transaction bonus and severance payout.

As part of employment agreements signed in April with Sekisui, Mizel’s departure will result in an $11 million payment and Mandarich will receive $10 million, according to an .

Sekisui House also agreed to donate $22.19 million to the MDC/Richmond American Homes Foundation in a lump sum on the April 19 closing date. That amount represented about five year’s worth of annual donations.

On Monday — 12 days after those rally comments — there didn’t appear to be any plans developing for the Republican presidential candidate to visit Colorado’s third-largest city. The only Trump event in the offing is a campaign fundraiser in Denver next week that is set to feature Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate.

Reached by email, a Trump campaign spokesperson would not comment on the record about the possibility of an Aurora event for Trump. Aurora city spokesman Ryan Luby said Monday that the city had heard nothing from Trump’s campaign about a potential visit.

Steve Peck, the chair of the Douglas County Republican Party, wrote in a text message that he hadn’t “received any communication that the Trump campaign is coming to Aurora,” though he said state party officials might know more. Dave Williams, the chair of the Colorado Republican Party and a Trump supporter, did not return a message seeking comment.

A message left for the Arapahoe County GOP was also not returned Monday afternoon.

Trump voiced his apparent desire to visit Aurora after he’d inaccurately described the immigration and gang situation in the city, including on a prime-time debate stage earlier in September. The city drew national attention in recent weeks amid claims that several dilapidated apartment buildings had been overrun by Venezuelan gang members. At times, Trump has claimed that the entire city of 400,000 has been taken over.

City leaders have said the gang’s presence is limited — and most of the identified members have been arrested — but they have said certain properties were “significantly affected” by gang activity.

The properties, owned by CBZ Management, have also been the subject of years of complaints by tenants and investigations by city inspectors over their conditions. Those complaints and inspections predate the gang reports, and tenants have laid much of the blame on CBZ’s owners.

Trump’s claim during his Sept. 18 rally in Uniondale, New York, that he would visit Aurora — as well as Springfield, Ohio, which was the subject of its own strain of anti-immigrant conspiracy theories — drew criticism from a number of elected officials in the Colorado city.

Several signed on to an op-ed in The Denver Post accusing Trump of coming to Aurora to spread “ugly invective and continued falsehoods.” Mike Coffman, Aurora’s Republican mayor, previously told The Post that he was excited to tell Trump that the more exaggerated gang-takeover narrative “is false.”

that Trump also has apparently dropped any plan to visit Springfield.

Though Trump may not come to Colorado, his running mate is.

Vance is set to attend an “evening reception” fundraiser on Oct. 8 in Denver, according to a flyer for the event. It is being hosted by former Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner and Republican megadonor Larry Mizel, a Denverite who co-hosted an Aspen fundraiser that Trump attended in August. (Mizel’s office previously said that Mizel “does not speak to the press.”)

Entry to the Oct. 8 fundraiser in Denver starts at $3,300 per person and rises to $50,000 per couple to be on the “host committee,” which includes a seat on a roundtable, plus a photo and a reception.

The Colorado Sun first reported the Vance fundraiser.

Saturday’s sold-out dinner costs $25,000 to attend, $100,000 to co-host and $500,000 to be featured as a host, . The fundraiser’s location in Aspen isn’t disclosed.

The event’s listed hosts include former ambassador and private financier Duke Buchan, billionaire oil and gas tycoon Jeffery Hildebrand, and Denver-based businessman and homebuilder Larry Mizel.

This week’s event was reported earlier by . Messages sent to event organizers, the Trump campaign, the Pitkin County Republican Party and the Orange County GOP were not immediately returned Monday.

Trump is running against Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee after President Joe Biden withdrew from his reelection race two weeks ago.

Mizel hosted Trump fundraisers in both Aspen and Denver in 2016, when he co-chaired Trump’s Colorado campaign. Reached by phone Monday, Mizel’s office said that he “does not speak to the press.” Mizel has substantially backed other Republican candidates in Colorado and nationally, and last year he donated to Trump challenger Mike Pence — Trump’s former vice president — before Trump sealed the Republican nomination, federal finance data show.

Several other hosts are also established Republican donors. Hildebrand has already given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates across the country this cycle, according to finance data. He and his wife, who’s also listed as a host of the Aspen event, gave $1.2 million to Trump in 2020,

Buchan, who was nominated by Trump to be ambassador to Spain and Andorra after Trump’s 2016 win, has given $162,500 to a pro-Trump PAC in recent months, election data shows.

He was tapped as the Republican National Committee’s finance chair in 2022, , and he donated more than $940,000 to Trump’s campaign in the 2020 election. His wife is also listed as a host.

Other hosts include Drew McKnight, co-CEO of Fortress Investment Group; businessman Warren Lichtenstein; John Phelan, the co-founder of a Florida-based private investment firm, and his wife; Diane and Tom Smith, of Prescott Investors; and Andrew McKenna, the former chair of the Illinois Republican Party whose father was the chairman of McDonald’s and owned a stake in the Chicago Bears.

But behind the scenes, the nonprofit institute, known as The CELL, has been at work updating its offerings to provide an interactive experience geared toward current security threats. The exhibit is focused on the factors that drive domestic and international terrorism and the impact of those threats on global security — along with educating visitors on what everyday people can do to prevent terrorist acts in their communities.

This week, the results of those efforts will be unveiled when The CELL, 99 W. 12th Ave., opens to the public for the first time since the waning days of 2019.

“We have legitimately changed every piece of content within this new space to include a bunch of immersive experiences where visitors can learn about the most challenging issues to global security and national security today,” Melanie Pearlman, The CELL’s president and CEO, said Tuesday during a media preview.

There was one element kept from the original CELL exhibit, Pearlman said. The first room of the exhibit houses a piece of mangled metal.

It’s wreckage from the south tower of the World Trade Center.

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people in three locations, were the impetus for the formation of the institute more than 15 years ago. Officials with the institute are quick to note, however, that their exhibit covers all types of terrorist activity taking place in regions across the globe, including right-wing extremism within the U.S.

Tuesday’s unveiling drew top-ranking public safety officials, including Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, representatives from the Colorado State Patrol and Denver leaders including Police Chief Ron Thomas and Armando Saldate, the executive director of the city’s Department of Public Safety.

Before Gov. Jared Polis helped cut the ribbon on the exhibit, he focused in his remarks on the importance of public education around identifying potential threats.

“In this powerful interactive exhibit is really a key part of a reminder to all of us that we need to work together to keep families, individuals and communities safe from a diverse range of threats,” Polis said.

In one segment of the exhibit, guests can select a setting, such as a game at Coors Field or a visit to Denver’s Union Station. They are then asked to identify suspicious behavior that might be observed at various stages.

Some of the behaviors highlighted in the scenarios include people filming security checkpoints or running away from bags after dropping them near entrances.

That video exercise goes hand-in-hand with some of the institute’s other programs. The CELL offers a speaker series and training that helps volunteers and civilian workers at large public events become more attentive observers on the lookout for suspicious behavior.

Last year, the organization provided training to 16,000 volunteers and stadium staff members ahead of Super Bowl LVII in Glendale, Arizona, Pearlman said.

The CELL exhibit first opened in 2008 on the ground floor of the Museum Residences building. Its entrance is located across from the plaza from the Denver Art Museum’s jagged, modern Frederic C. Hamilton Building. The CELL’s sponsors and supporters include The Denver Post and the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District.

CELL founder Larry Mizel said Tuesday that the redesign — which Pearlman pegged as a $4.5 million undertaking — was the result of contributions from several subject-matter experts.

“In response to the ever-evolving landscape of security challenges, a world-renowned team of global and national security experts convened to rebuild The CELL’s exhibit,” he said. “These experts spanned a diverse range of political, national and religious persuasions.”

Group tours will begin again on Thursday, and admission will be offered to the public starting on Friday. The CELL’s staff recommends that visitors buy tickets online for the exhibit, which can take an hour or more to complete. More information is available at .

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The homebuilder, founded by Larry Mizel in 1972 and parent of Richmond American Homes, announced the deal with Japanese homebuilder Sekisui House Ltd. on Thursday.

M.D.C is one of the country’s largest homebuilders and a major employer in Colorado with thousands of employees. For decades, Mizel has been a major force in Colorado’s business community and a high-profile philanthropist in the state and nationally.

A U.S. subsidiary of Sekisui will pay $63 a share in cash, a 19% premium to M.D.C.’s closing stock price of $43.09 on Wednesday. Shares of the company closed up $9.75 to $62.84.

Sekisui House, based in Osaka, has delivered more than 2.62 million homes worldwide since its start in 1960 and has been active in the U.S. for five decades through its brands Woodside Homes, Holt Homes, Chesmar Homes and Hubble Homes.

Sekisui House said adding M.D.C. will make it the fifth-largest homebuilder in the U.S. and allow it to construct more than 15,000 homes a year, pushing it way ahead of its target to build 10,000 homes a year outside Japan.

Japan’s population has fallen by about 3.7 million people over the past 13 years, according to the World Bank, and the country has an estimated 10 million homes sitting empty.

“This exciting acquisition of M.D.C. represents a significant advancement of the Sekisui House strategy to expand our U.S. presence and bring the value of our technology, innovation and philosophies to U.S. homebuilding and ultimately to our customers,” said CEO Yoshihiro Nakai in a news release.

Adam Agron and others at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck law firm in Denver, along with the Paul Weiss law firm in New York, represented M.D.C in the transaction.

The law firm Morrison Foerster LLP is acting as a legal adviser to Sekisui House.

Executive chairman Mizel started the company in 1972 as Mizel Development Corp., later M.D.C. Holdings, and took the company public in 1984. M.D.C. has built over 240,000 homes in its 51-year history and ranks as a top-12 homebuilder in the U.S., with revenues of $5.6 billion in 2022.

Richmond American Homes, its brand, is active in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington. M.D.C. also has subsidiaries offering mortgages, home insurance, title insurance and escrow services.

As other companies have come and gone over the years, M.D.C. has remained a constant on Colorado’s corporate scene, reflective of the ability of Mizel and longtime CEO David Mandarich to hold tight control and survive both rich and lean years in the construction industry.

“Our ability to navigate through varying housing market cycles while maintaining business resilience speaks to our strategic prowess, and has led not only to the creation of significant shareholder value, but also to an industry-leading dividend yield for our shareholders,” Mizel said in a statement.

Mizel cited Sekisui Houses’ “well-regarded” technology and processes and reputation for quality in the decision to join forces with it.

Mizel controls 14.8% of M.D.C. shares, putting him in line to receive $725.2 million, while Mandarich’s 7.9% ownership share should result in a payout for him of $387.1 million. Mizel received $18.5 million in compensation in 2022, while Mandarich received $15.7 million, according to a .

Mizel, 81, and Mandarich, 72, are expected to remain involved with M.D.C operations. The deal is expected to close in the first half of this year, pending regulatory approvals.

Jay McCanless and Brian Violino, analysts at securities firm Wedbush, said in a research note that the price Sekisui is paying lines up with the average book value they have assigned to domestic homebuilders. They lifted their price target for M.D.C. from $51 a share to $63 a share.

The last time the company’s shares, which trade under the ticker MDC, reached a price this high was in the first half of 2005, when a housing boom drove strong demand. M.D.C. was among the survivors of the crash that followed. And while the stock hasn’t been a big gainer in value over the years, the company has paid a robust dividend to shareholders.

The acquisition of M.D.C. Holdings comes as the U.S. housing market remains mired in a deep sales slump. A sharp run-up in mortgage rates that began in 2022 coupled with years of soaring prices and a stubbornly low level of resale homes on the market has kept many would-be homebuyers and sellers on the sidelines.

But while sales of previously occupied U.S. homes sank more than 19% through the first 11 months of last year, the market for new construction homes has held up better. Sales were up 3.9% year-to-date as of November, The Associated Press reported.

Mizel and Mandarich created “one of the soundest and best homebuilders in the county,” said Norman Brownstein, founder and chairman of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.

“For many, many years. M.D.C. has been the largest homebuilder in Colorado. It has created an immense amount of homes for people and communities. It has employed tens of thousand of people and has had a dramatic impact on the economy of Colorado,” Brownstein said.

The impact of the philanthropic work by the company and its leaders through the years has been profound, Brownstein said. Since 1999, Mizel and Mandarich have donated millions of dollars directly and through the MDC/Richmond American Homes Foundation, including $1.1 million raised alongside employees for victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Recipients of the funds have included National Jewish Hospital, Children’s Hospital, St. Joseph’s Hospital, Craig Hospital, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Denver, the Denver Zoo and Volunteers of America.

The Mizel Institute has also funded the Counterterrorism Education Learning Lab (CELL) and the Mizel Museum. Mizel founded Colorado Concern, a pro-business organization that has focused on issues in the state legislature.

Mizel was a founder of and is on the board of trustees of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. He was instrumental in developing and raising money for the Museum of Tolerance-Jerusalem, said Doug Friednash, a partner with Brownstein Hyatt Farber and Schreck and was chief of staff for former Gov. John Hickenlooper.

“He has had a profound impact and really left an indelible mark on the world through both the M.D.C. Foundation and through his personal giving,” Friednash said. “He’s well known nationally and in foreign countries like Israel, where’s worked hard to bring positive change.”

Friednash said he has known Mizel for most of his life. His late father and Mizel were friends. Mizel contributed to Friednash’s campaign for the Colorado General Assembly in the early 1990s.

Friednash, a Democrat, represented southeast Denver in the House for four years.

Mizel has been active in political circles. He hosted fundraisers for former President Donald Trump in 2016 and co-chaired the Republican’s Colorado campaign.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

The dual events of celebrating the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the state of Israel and the opening of the Museum of Tolerance-Jerusalem brought to mind the pressing need for dialogue and a shared commitment to tolerance. These are essential values for our thriving but imperfect democratic systems.

The strength and resilience of this tiny democratic nation, the only one in the Middle East, cannot be denied.

Israel is the size of New Jersey and with a population of 9.7 million people. Jews make up roughly 7 million of the overall population. Despite its size, Israel is an economic and military powerhouse. Israel’s technology and innovation are the envy of the entire world. Israel was ranked the fourth-best economy in 2022 among a list of OECD countries, according to The Economist.

Israel also has one of the most powerful militaries in the world. Israel was ranked as the 4th strongest military country according to a roundup for 2022 published by US News and World Report, behind the Russia, US and China. And, they need to be, as they are surrounded by deadly enemies, principally Iran and its proxies who play the leading role in funding terrorists who attempt to kill Israeli’s and disrupt Israeli life on a daily basis.

Israel’s military strength was seen across the country as more than 100 aircraft, including dozens of foreign pilots from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Italy, joined forces with the Israeli Air Force for an annual Independence Day flyover.

The day before its Independence Day, Israeli’s observed Memorial Day, as they remembered the price paid so they could have a sovereign Jewish state to defend its people. And, contrary to most Western reporting, Israel is a country where Jews, Christians and Muslims, live peacefully side by side.

I flew over the countryside and saw villages next to each other, experienced communities of mixed races and religions, and observed that all of these Israelis simply want peace. Against this backdrop, I was struck by the mission and vision of the Museum. Tolerance and constructive dialogue are desperately needed in today’s polarized world. Thanks in large part to Denver’s own, Larry Mizel, Israel is leading the way on that front too.

During this historic week of Israeli events, the Museum of Tolerance-Jerusalem, a unique $230 million structure was completed. The Museum will serve as both an multi-faceted educational institution and social laboratory.

Mizel, Chairman of the Musuem, was instrumental in developing and raising the funds to build this museum, which was a 23-year project. Built through private donations and substantial adversity, the intent of the Museum is to confront Israel’s most pressing issues such as extremism, hate, and social responsibility.

The Museum seeks to promote tolerance through regional stability, global harmony, unity and respect among people of all ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds, both in Israel and throughout the world.

I attended the Museum’s soft opening which culminated with a high level international conference that the Museum and the Jerusalem Post co-sponsored. Powerful words were spoken by Israel President Isaac Herzog and Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, who aptly said, “as a Jewish state and a democratic state, we have the responsibility to all communities of this land to ensure equality built on a shared future with mutual respect and understanding.”

Mayor Lion went on to say, that the museum teaches tolerance and will build connections and shared spaces for the people of Jerusalem in the east and west, Jews and Arabs, and secular and religious.

The event also featured Mansour Abbas, Chairman of the United Arab List in the Israeli Knesset, who has been credited for bringing the first Arab party into a governing coalition, emphasized the diplomatic role he and his party could play as a bridge for peace between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians.

Yes, Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and its Arab citizens sit in the Knesset and even on its supreme court.

To be sure, Israel has its challenges. For starters, they include resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as large protests erupting over Prime Minister Netanyahu’s plans to tighten control over its Supreme Court.

Knowing Israel’s DNA, you can expect this remarkable structure will become a convening place where leaders can work together to solve these types of issues as well as come to find that we have more that unites us than divides us.

Doug Friednash grew up in Denver and is a partner with the law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber and Schreck. He is the former chief of staff for Gov. John Hickenlooper.

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“During the initial stages of the pandemic in late March, especially when the stay-at-home orders were in place during all of April, no builder thought that demand would return the way that it did,” said John Covert, regional director for Zonda, a real estate analytics firm. “Sales rebounded sharply through the summer and early fall to the point where many builders will not only exceed 2019 sales but will likely have their best year ever.”

Zonda’s is up 95.3% in metro Denver compared to a 46.9% gain nationally in September. The next hottest markets in terms of the gain in contracts signed to purchase new homes are Jacksonville, Fla., up 73.3% on the index and Raleigh, N.C., up 69.6%.

“All of these markets are benefitting from positive net in-migration and are among the top markets in the country for millennials,” said Ali Wolf, chief economist at Zonda Economics, in comments accompanying the index report. “Builders in Denver are outselling the national average across all categories: entry-level, move-up and luxury.”

Beyond migrating millennials, builders also are seeing a flow of older adults escaping more crowded and expensive markets, especially in California, a move that the switch to remote work arrangements during the pandemic has made easier.

“We have seen a huge flight from markets where there is an affordability issue, like San Francisco and Los Angeles,” said Pat Hamill, founder of Denver-based Oakwood Homes. He adds Oakwood, whose communities include Green Valley Ranch and Reunion, is also picking up buyers from downtown areas that faced unrest in recent months.

The Federal Reserve is also keeping interest rates low to support the economy, improving affordability and fueling housing demand. Freddie Mac reported Thursday that rates for 30-year mortgages averaged 2.84%, compared to 3.75% last year at this time.

Years of price gains have left homeowners with large amounts of equity to roll into a new purchase, Covert said. The stay-at-home orders also coincided with the start of the peak spring buying season, which created pent-up demand once restrictions lifted.

Randy Carpenter, president of the Colorado division of KB Home, said traffic has returned to levels seen last year and those who show up are buying at a much higher rate. Home sales on the whole in metro Denver are up 37% compared to 2019, he said, quoting Zonda data.

“Since the pandemic, we have seen an increased number of buyers who are specifically looking for a new home. At KB Home, we are seeing buyers across all demographics,” Carpenter said.

Builders also successfully marketed improved interior air quality and technological features and design configurations that could accommodate remote workers, Covert said. And their timing was good in launching new communities, many of which offered relatively affordable options.

Purchases are mostly concentrated in the suburban ring of metro Denver, with Broomfield, Adams, Arapahoe, Douglas, and Elbert counties representing 69% of all housing production compared to 64% a year ago, Covert said. Add in southwest Weld County and nearly 80% of housing production is happening on the metro periphery.

“The uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 pandemic has not diminished the demand for new homes, and in many ways, it has increased home buying activity, thanks to the growing importance of where and how we live,” Larry Mizel, executive chairman of MDC Holdings, a national homebuilder based in Denver, told analysts during an earnings call on Oct. 29.

Net new home orders rose 89% year-over-year in the third quarter to $1.65 billion and that the average selling price increased by 10%, the company said. Robust sales have contributed to a backlog valued at $3.1 billion, which is up 47% from last year.

Basically, there just aren’t enough existing homes available for sale to meet demand. Hamill said the perception is that new homebuilders compete against each other, but in reality, they compete primarily against the existing home market.

Between 1985 and 2019, buyers had an average of 15,577 listings to select from at the end of October, according to the . Last month, there were only 4,821 listings for homes and condos, a decline of nearly 44% from a year earlier, and a record low for October.

“Low inventory is pushing buyers to consider newer developments outside their initial target location, even if that means waiting for homes to finish being built by going month-to-month in leases or pushing back a closing,” said Jenny Usaj, a Denver-area realtor.

When the inventory is too tight, buyers face bidding wars and must work harder to land a deal. Signing a contract on a new home can be much easier. But the trade-off is a much longer wait, which can feel like an eternity for buyers wanting to escape the confines of a tight space during the pandemic.

Hamill said Oakwood Homes is taking 6 to 9 months to complete homes after purchase. MDC Holdings reports that the time from sale to closing averaged 215 days in the third quarter, up from 198 days last year. Of that, construction time is running 142 days on average compared to 132 days.

Although new home sales are way up, the number of permits pulled this year for single-family homes is running about 4% below last year, said Rich Staky, interim CEO of the Home Builders Association of Metro Denver.

Part of that reflects obstacles created by the outbreak. Governments are slower in providing the required approvals. Expecting a big drop in construction, lumber mills shut down, creating severe shortages when demand quickly rebounded.

“I am 30 years in this business, and I have never seen the price increase that we saw in lumber,” Hamill said. He notes that appliances are taking 10 to 11 weeks to arrive. Even light fixtures became harder to obtain.

Skilled labor remains in short supply, a problem that has plagued builders for several years now. And while service workers displaced by the pandemic might be more open to switching to a higher-paying career in construction, training them takes time.

“There have been a lot of sales written, but there was a delay in getting starts going. Builders are going fast and furious starting new homes,” Staky said.

He expects the gap between sales and permits to narrow as builders tackle more of the backlog. But don’t expect builders to try and get ahead of the curve with speculative building, something they did in the mid-00s with disastrous consequences for the industry.

That downturn wiped out the more aggressive builders, and those who survived carry deep scars. They may be enjoying an unexpectedly strong market, but they don’t fully trust it yet.

“MDC’s policy as a concept is not to build specs, and the specs that are created are strategic as to particular subdivisions and fallout during the construction period. We consider it very advantageous to our business model to keep the spec count low,” Mizel said on the company’s earnings call.

Hamill said Oakwood pre-sells 99% of what it builds, and tries to keep a good handle on where the market is headed. When the new coronavirus first hit, he feared it would be 2008 and the Great Recession all over again.

Some homes under construction did end up without buyers because of people losing their jobs, but those were quickly claimed once the economy opened up again.

Builders have enough of a backlog to keep them busy even if new shutdown orders keep buyers away this winter, which is normally a slower time for purchases.

“They will adjust construction to the sales rates. I don’t think builders will be taking a lot of risks around those issues. There is not a lot of exuberance in the home building community,” Stacy said.

And Hamill said he remains concerned that what happened this summer and fall could be the anomaly, not the new normal.

“I do believe we will have some headwinds as we move forward. You still can’t have 22 million people unemployed without having some issues at some point,” he said.

The numbers are most stark in Colorado’s U.S. Senate race, which will help determine which party controls the upper chamber of Congress next year. John Hickenlooper, a Democratic challenger, raised $22.6 million and Republican Sen. Cory Gardner raised $7.8 million between July and September.

Hickenlooper’s record-breaking fundraising haul — the largest by any candidate in Colorado history — mirrors similarly historic fundraising totals for Democrats across the country. The Democrat also outraised the Republican in Colorado’s most competitive U.S. House race, for the 3rd Congressional District.

As he has done since entering the race last August, Hickenlooper pulled in large donations from wealthy donors, as well as a large number of small donors. A top Facebook lobbyist gave $2,800 and Twitter’s CFO donated the same amount, as did a Twitter attorney. Samuel R. Walton, heir to the vast Walmart fortune, also wrote a check for $2,800 — the maximum for individuals.

Hickenlooper, who has sworn off corporate political action committees, received $222,853 from other PACs. Donations of $5,000 came from PACs for at least 10 Democratic U.S. senators, as well as unions representing plasterers, cement masons, teachers, machinists and federal employees. Brady PAC, the gun control group, sent along $5,000, as did Planned Parenthood’s political action committee.

Gardner received $277,345 from PACs between July and September, including $5,000 donations from PACs for Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Josh Hawley, as well as the Republican Jewish Coalition, the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List, and the pro-Trump Committee to Defend the President.

Individuals donating to Gardner included Jerry Reinsdorf, billionaire owner of the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls, and several members of the billionaire McKee family, creators of Little Debbie snacks. Gardner also received donations from three executives at JBS USA, a Greeley-based meatpacking company that has been criticized for its labor practices during the coronavirus pandemic.

The 3rd District

Colorado’s closest federal race, according to polls, is in the 3rd Congressional District, which includes Grand Junction, the Western Slope, Pueblo and all the mountain towns in between. Democratic candidate Diane Mitsch Bush raised $2.6 million, and Republican candidate Lauren Boebert — a front-runner due to the district����ap decade-long Republican lean — raised $1.9 million last quarter.

At least nine billionaires donated to Mitsch Bush’s campaign, including Walton and Coloradans Pat Stryker and Kenneth Tuchman. U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and Gov. Jared Polis donated the maximum $2,800, as did both of Polis’ parents. Jackie and Miguel Bezos — parents of the world’s richest person, Jeff Bezos — also wrote $2,800 checks to Mitsch Bush’s campaign.

Mitsch Bush received $129,550 from political action committees, including several unions. A committee for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi chipped in, as did gun control groups Brady and Giffords, plus NARAL, an abortion rights group.

Boebert����ap single largest supporter, meanwhile, was Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, whose “20 for 20 Victory Fund” transferred $136,250 to her campaign coffers. She also received donations from some of the U.S. House’s most conservative members, such as Thomas Massie, Andy Biggs and Jim Jordan.

Three members of the Coors family gave a combined $6,100. Colorado billionaire Larry Mizel donated the maximum, $2,800, as did billionaires John and Amy Phelan, and Schlitz beer’s billionaire heir Dick Uihlein. University of Colorado Regent Heidi Ganahl donated $2,000 to Boebert����ap campaign.

Some of the less sensational accusations from former Speaker of the Colorado House Frank McNulty and state Sen. John Cooke were true or partially true and do raise important questions about how the state’s ban on elected officials accepting gifts should be interpreted and enforced. The results should prove instructive to Gov. Jared Polis going forward.

On Thursday, the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission finally released a “Report of Investigation” into the complaints and the board will hold hearings to determine whether Hickenlooper violated the state’s gift ban and disclosure rules.

As we’ve said before, the most sensational accusations are easy to dismiss. First, Hickenlooper personally paid for his airfare, his hotel and a separate $6,770 conference fee to attend the 2018 Bilderberg Meetings in Turin, Italy. Second, Hickenlooper flew on a private plane owned by Kimbal Musk (Elon Musk’s brother) so he could officiate Kimbal’s wedding in 2018 in Dallas. We think the Turin event was clearly a personal event that Hickenlooper paid out-of-pocket to attend. The second flight exceeds Colorado’s strict limit that elected officials not accept gifts that are worth more than $53 per year; however, we think it is clearly excluded from the gift ban because it was “given by an individual who is a relative or personal friend of the recipient on a special occasion.”

The ethics commission will have a much more difficult decision to make on three other flights — not because the governor was unethical but because the state’s gift ban has left reasonable room for varying legal interpretations.

Hickenlooper actually could have saved the state money by taking two flights on private airplanes to attend events where he spoke as the governor of Colorado. Those flights are better characterized as gifts to the state than as gifts to Hickenlooper. But there is an appearance of impropriety on both of those flights given that the planes were owned by Colorado companies: MDC Holdings, aka Richmond American Homes, which is owned by Larry Mizel; and PEM LLC, which is a consulting and investment firm owned by the governor’s former chief of staff Pat Meyers.

Finally, as we said in our editorial a year ago, “the flight that raises the most concerns for our board is also the flight that is the most sympathetic.”

Hickenlooper flew on a plane owned by Kenneth Tuchman, founder and CEO of TTEC (formerly TeleTech) in January 2018 from a private terminal in the suburbs of New York to Denver. Hickenlooper said he was helping his wife recover from a surgery she’d had at a hospital in New York. He had to fly back to deliver the State of the State address. Using TTEC’s plane allowed him to stay longer in New York than any of the commercial flight options. It was a gift, however, far exceeding $53. While some might consider that a “special occasion,” it����ap probably not what the letter of the law intended.

What����ap at stake here?

Hickenlooper faces a small financial penalty, a slap on the wrist, and also negative press ahead of his 2020 race for U.S. Senate.

If the commission’s decision goes too far one way it could open up several loopholes that could be abused by future administrations, too far the other way it could force future governors to miss out on personal experiences that are fun, meaningful or career advancing.

It’ll be a tricky needle to thread for the commissioners, but that����ap their job and a quick, decisive opinion is needed.

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