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DaVita, Arrow Electronics, Charter Communications, VF Corp, and Gusto are major employers in Colorado. And while they operate in very different industries, they share something in common.

They either relocated to the state or boosted hiring after receiving assistance from Job Growth Incentive Tax Credit program, which the General Assembly approved in response to the Great Recession, which cost the state 137,600 jobs in 2008 and 2009.

From the first award in 2009 through this summer, employers have contracted to provide up to 48,000 jobs in return for up to $788.4 million worth of state tax breaks. So far, those 169 awards have generated $242 million worth of state tax credits tied to the creation of 21,000 jobs, according to a Denver Post analysis of numbers provided by the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade.

“From the state’s perspective, the direct positive fiscal impact comes from job creation, from workers paying state sales tax and state income tax,” said Jeff Kraft, director of business funding and incentives at OEDIT. In return for each job created, the state provides employers a credit against corporate income taxes tied to half of the payroll taxes generated.

The program has made a big difference in attracting companies more focused on hiring than making big capital investments, which the state’s once-dominant incentive, the Enterprise Zone program, emphasizes, with several of the companies recruited now fixtures in the economy. However, the businesses associated with the JGITC have mostly set up shop along the Front Range, and the influx of higher-wage workers may have exacerbated the sharp rise in housing costs, something the state is trying to remedy so it can remain competitive.

The first “mega” deal the JGITC helped bring to the state in 2009 was DaVita, a kidney dialysis company that relocated from El Segundo, Calif. The company has established a large presence in the Central Platte Valley, while also drawing its share of controversy over the years.

DaVita was awarded $5.3 million in state tax credits in 2009 in return for bringing 500 jobs to the state, a promise it delivered on. The company came back in 2014, winning approval for another $3 million tied to the addition of 215 jobs, of which 94 have been added and $918,000 in tax credits claimed.

It applied again in 2015, winning an award of $12.7 million tied to the addition of 800 jobs. The company reported adding only 438 of those jobs and has claimed $6.1 million of that award.

Charter Communications has been awarded and claimed more Job Growth Incentive Tax Credits than any other company, using them to support a major employment hub in metro Denver despite the state not being a major market for its Spectrum cable services.

The company, based in Stamford, Conn., received approval for $59.1 million in job growth incentives between October 2013 to March 2017 and has claimed $52.9 million following its creation of 2,200 jobs, which works out to $24,300 per job.

Companies can only claim credits based on the jobs listed on the initial application. Charter created 3,300 jobs tied to those three awards, putting the state’s payout closer to $16,030 per job. And it has continued to grow, with 5,500 employees located in the state.

“This powerful incentive has helped us rapidly grow two dynamic organizations at Charter in an extremely competitive tech employee marketplace: Our product and technology team, which drives innovation in broadband, video and the fastest-growing mobile service in the country, and our network operations group, which is responsible for fast, reliable and secure connectivity for more than 32 million customers across 41 states,” said Adam Falk, senior vice president of state government affairs at Charter, in an email.

Comcast, another cable provider, also turned to the JGITC between January 2012 and January 2016 as it expanded, receiving approval for $26.6 million in awards tied to the creation of 1,693 jobs. The company claimed $14.5 million in tax credits tied to the creation of 1,058 jobs in its first two awards, but nothing in its third in 2016, which was for a customer call center in Fort Collins.

“Comcast didn’t collect any of the tax incentive credits for this project because it did not meet the job requirement threshold for any of those incentives,” said Leslie Oliver, a spokeswoman for the company.

Fidelity Investments was looking to add 400 jobs in Denver when it requested $8.1 million in incentives from the state. It added those, plus another 681 beyond that initial request.

“We currently have about 2,400 associates in Colorado,” said Kacey Brister, a senior manager of external communication at the Boston-based money manager.

Jobs over capital

The JGITC was designed to offer an alternative to the Enterprise Zone program, which for years was the state’s dominant economic development incentive tool. That program rewarded substantial capital investments but was hit or miss when it came to job creation.

Installing a natural gas pipeline or a wind farm are both capital-intensive projects typically located in rural areas, the kind of investment that aligns well with the Enterprise Zone program.

They require a lot of labor on the front end but can be operated by a handful of people over time, reducing the payback the state, not to mention taxpayers, would receive. Also, over the years the enterprise zone boundaries expanded to cover 70% of the state, diluting the original mission of the program to help economically distressed areas.

A Denver Post analysis found that in 2010, companies that claimed $75 million in enterprise zone tax credits had only created 564 jobs, which works out to a cost of $133,00 per job. The state regularly gave incentives to companies that ended up downsizing and shrinking the tax base.

The JGITC offered an antidote. Companies only receive a tax break if they create and retain the job pledged. And the payout per job so far is roughly $11,547, a fraction of what the Enterprise Zone program cost per employee in 2010.

The credit has also proven to be far more attractive to capital-light service and technology firms that have become a bigger part of the economy, and whose workers are more likely to want to live in the heart of the action rather than in a sparsely populated or distressed area.

Kraft said the JGITC program also shows “breakage” all along the way, which has reduced the state’s obligation. Of the 351 awards granted, only 170 have resulted in signed incentive contracts with the state. And of the $788.4 million granted in incentives under those contracts, companies have requested only $242 million in tax breaks.

More recent awardees are just starting their hiring programs, so some of that gap comes down to a timing issue. Some companies simply don’t hit their hiring targets and fade away, while others lose track of the incentives they are eligible for or don’t bother to claim them.

And a tax break only works if taxes are due. The incentive isn’t of much use to startups and other companies losing money. Companies are more likely to lose money in a recession, which lines up with when the state would prefer not to give out tax breaks.

Because of the privacy rules around tax returns, Karft said OEDIT doesn’t know what share of the $242 million granted in tax credits has actually been used to offset taxes. Estimates that upward of half of the credits earned, already a fraction of those awarded, are claimed to offset any state income tax liability.

Because of the breakage that happens all the way along the program, Kraft said the JGITC program is estimated to generate about $2.20 in additional tax revenues to the state for every $1 ceded in a tax break, meaning it pays for itself and then some.

How the incentive works

In its current form, the Job Growth Incentive Tax Credit provides qualified employers a state tax credit equivalent to 50% of the payroll or FICA taxes they generate for each job created and retained for a year. The amount of the initial award is based on how many jobs are expected to be created and the average annual wage those jobs pay.

Wages must be equal to or higher than the average for the county where the jobs are being located. That threshold was lowered in 2014 from the original hurdle of 110% in an attempt to speed up the job recovery.

The situation must be competitive, meaning that employers must be considering at least one other state or country besides Colorado. And the employer applying can’t have already committed to a location in Colorado, say by signing a lease, buying real estate or hiring new staff for the new project.

“They (applicants) push hard to get a sense if it is viable for them to locate in another state. We want to make sure they are in a competitive situation,” Kraft said.

As the economy improved last decade, OEDIT became pickier about what industries it would consider for credits, and as the economy has shifted over time, the program has continued to maintain its appeal to different industries.

When tech companies were relocating out of California or expanding out of countries like Israel and New Zealand, applications came in from that direction. With software in a downturn and battery cell and semiconductor manufacturing getting a boost from federal tax incentives, more manufacturers are now filling up the pipeline.

Sean Gould, deputy director of financial analysis, business funding and incentives at OEDIT, said a lot of screening takes place on the front end, noting the application itself can be arduous, with 60 to 70 questions and a competitive analysis of other locations required.

Most companies that start down the path of an application complete it. And with some rare exceptions, applicants who come before the Colorado Economic Development Commission win approval. But the follow-through after approval is a mixed bag.

Of the 351 JGITC applications that the commission has approved from 2009 through this summer, eight were inactive, 32 were in limbo, and 57 chose another state or decided to not pursue hiring plans.

About seven in 10 of the approved applicants, or 254 going back to the start of the program, were active and chose to hire in Colorado. But of that group, 170 had entered into incentive contracts with the state, and those companies had only claimed a third of the tax credits available to them.

Some of that is a timing issue. Recent recipients are still in the hiring phase and haven’t claimed credits. Other times, executives want to show they obtained the best relocation deal possible, and the award represents more of a psychological triumph than a financial one.

And events can overtake the best-laid plans.

In November 2019, Southwest Airlines was approved for $12.5 million in job growth incentives tied to the creation of 1,013 jobs. Four months later, the pandemic grounded airline travel. Airlines were looking at furloughing and firing, not hiring. Southwest hasn’t reported any jobs added under that award.

Chekr, a tech company that provides background checks, received approval for $27.8 million in JGITC incentives in March 2019 based on a plan to create 1,472 jobs in Denver for a second headquarters.

The award was one of the largest made, but so far Chekr isn’t reporting any jobs created, even though the company maintains a Denver office, according to its website.

About a year after it won its incentive award, Chekr faced lawsuits tied to allegations it approved background checks for ridesharing drivers who assaulted their passengers. Its growth plans didn’t pan out.

An argument against incentives

Because of its popularity, the JGITC program has created imbalances that the state has tried to address by creating other incentive programs. Despite a concerted effort to distribute the awards more evenly across the state, most of the jobs created under the JGITC have been concentrated in a narrow corridor from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs.

The program normally requires a minimum of 20 jobs to qualify for credits, but that threshold goes down to five if the jobs are located in an Enterprise Zone. That hasn’t been enough to spread out the awards, which skew larger and urban.

To boost hiring in more sparsely populated areas, the state launched the Rural Jumpstart program in 2016. It is an incentive program on steroids, providing multiple tiers of state and local tax breaks.

Although it is hard to prove a one-to-one correlation, the influx of higher-paying jobs likely contributed to the region’s disproportionate rise in rents and home prices. Natives found themselves increasingly priced out as workers from California and other higher-cost states moved in to claim higher-paying jobs that could support the higher housing costs.

OEDIT, in its focus on bringing jobs to the state, wasn’t as focused on where those workers would live until that became a problem in recruiting. To address that, the state has rolled out the Innovative Housing Incentive Program to support firms developing innovative construction techniques and providing modular and other affordable housing options.

Whereas a homebuilder or general contractor might have had trouble accessing the JGITC early on, they are now being welcomed with open arms. On Thursday, the state approved $4.9 million in job growth credits to a construction firm based in Greeley looking to add 589 new jobs, most likely Hensel Phelps.

Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First, which describes itself as a watchdog on state and local incentives, said incentive programs gloss over the fundamental question of whether they “cause something to happen that wouldn’t happen.”

One way that manifests is when local companies with decades of history in the state and no intention of ever leaving apply for credits under the JGITC program by threatening to take their headquarters elsewhere. That said, they may also be put off that state tax breaks are supporting out-of-state companies moving in, while they are excluded.

LeRoy said that payroll-based incentives shift more of the tax burden from corporations to individuals and reduce the revenue stream of state governments. Colorado, which offers a 50% payroll credit, isn’t the most egregious, but it was bad enough to be included in a 2012 study the group did on the topic.

In the aggregate, state and local taxes constitute only 1.8% of corporate spending, LeRoy said. Other costs, such as labor, energy, real estate and transportation weigh much more heavily on the bottom line when it comes to determining where jobs will be located.

And yet states continue to battle each other, essentially engaging in job piracy and bleeding out potential revenues to snag jobs that may have come their direction anyway based on more important considerations, like a skilled workforce, he said.

“It is microscopic to the companies, but not to the state budget,” he said regarding the diverted taxes.

Kraft counters that Colorado tries to avoid being on the high end of the scale when it comes to incentives. But it has to be competitive, and the JGITC program has provided a way to do so without throwing cash from state coffers on the table.

“It is a way of showing a company you want them there and it really gets some of them to come. And you aren’t using scarce General Fund dollars,” said Kraft.

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Even with inflation still hanging around, a survey of Denver-area holiday shoppers shows they “plan to spend like it’s 2019 again.”

A survey by Deloitte found that Denver shoppers expect to spend an average of $1,902 this holiday season, which is up 15% from 2022 and 15% higher than this year’s national average.

Rachel Smeak, the Denver-based managing director of Deloitte Consulting, said shoppers’ anticipated spending is returning to pre-pandemic levels.

“What was a bit surprising is that consumers plan to spend like it’s 2019 again,” Smeak added.

Nationwide, people reported planning to spend an average of $1,652 on gifts this year, surpassing pre-pandemic figures for the first time, according to Deloitte’s survey.

The National Retail Federation is also predicting a robust holiday shopping season. The survey by the organization and Prosper Insights and Analytics estimates that 182 million people plan to shop in stores and online. The number is up 15.7 million from last year and the business association’s highest estimate since it began tracking the data in 2017.

In the Denver area, some of the spending will be on holiday decorations and clothing rather than gifts, with 80% of the respondents planning to make those purchases.

Consumer spending has been charging along despite inflation and speculation about whether the U.S. Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases to bring down prices will cause a recession. The Wall Street Journal reported that Americans spent 0.01% less in October, but economists had expected a larger decrease.

However, inflation has somewhat tempered spending plans, Smeak said. About 74% of Denver-area shoppers are budgeting for fewer gifts, from 10 in 2022 to nine this year.

And 41% of the Denver-area respondents who have student loans said they’ll cut back on holiday spending this year.

“We’re seeing a lot of folks being very focused on promotional events, particularly on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which is pretty consistent with last year,” Smeak said.

Deloitte’s national survey found that people plan to spend an average of $567 during Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping events, a 13% jump from 2022.

In Denver, retailers are also looking at Small Business Saturday this weekend to help launch their holiday season. The event was founded by American Express in 2010 and has been cosponsored by the Small Business Administration since 2011.

Entrepreneurs in the River North Art District are planning events and encouraging shoppers to go local when looking for gifts and ideas for the holidays.

“We really consider ourselves to be one of the premier locations for small businesses and those more creative maker spaces as well,” said Charity Von Guinness, executive director of the RiNo Art District.

Von Guinness said RiNo businesses like Green Spaces Market and Empire Collective, are cooperative marketplaces that offer shoppers opportunities to patronize local artists and makers.

“We’re just encouraging everyone in Denver to be buying more local and just really enjoying the district,” Von Guinness said. “On top of all of these great cooperatives spaces, where you can go around to so many different vendors and retailers, are small food and beverage locations.”

Kimberlee Ward is one of the business people in Green Spaces. She founded her company, Eternal Balance Candle Co., in 2019. She’s offering people 35% discounts on Small Business Saturday to encourage people to not just shop via keyboard.

“Being able to come in and smell the candles really gives you the ability to choose something special for the people in your life. I get multiple people that come in and say, ‘This reminds me of my mom’s house or my grandma’s house,’ ” Ward said.

Divine Ramazani, the creative director at Green Spaces, said the market and the different vendors plan promotions for Small Business Saturday.

A holiday market is planned Dec. 9 in the art district. More than 20 vendors and artists will be featured at “It’s a RiNo-Ful Life!” at 29th and Larimer streets.

Online holiday shopping and e-commerce in general exploded during the coronavirus pandemic when stores closed or limited the number of customers. Deloitte’s Denver survey, which had responses from 401 residents, said shoppers planned to do 66% of their buying online, compared to 63% nationally.

“That’s pretty high participation in the online shopping arena. But that’s very consistent with where we’ve been and is kind of leveling off instead of that continuous increase that we have been seeing for several years,” Smeak said.

Ramazani would like to see more people venture out to Denver’s small-business districts this holiday season. “I definitely understand the convenience of online shopping. It does make our life easier.”

But walking into a store and talking to the business people and other customers is part of what makes communities stronger, Ramazani said. “I feel like that adds to the story and the product. I feel like it gives you more of a connection to what you’re buying.”

Updated at 11:38 a.m. Nov. 22 to add data on holiday spending.

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Need help with your holiday gift list? The big stuff is all on you, but we’ve got a few ideas for stocking stuffers, and many of them are local. You’re welcome.

Oso Rojo Hot Sauce

Grab a three-pack of delicious hot sauces from Denver’s Oso Rojo Hot Sauce, which you can build to your tastes from a selection of a six total. We recommend the Habanero Jellyfish, Habanero Mustard and Orange Ginger. $21 per three-pack. osorojohotsauce.com/s/order — Lily O’Neill

B Fresh Gear

Some of the freshest gear in Colorado these days is also some of the most retro. B Fresh Gear, which was founded in Denver in 2012, sells 1980s- and ‘90s-style windbreakers, fanny packs, sunglasses, visors and other apparel emblazoned with loud graphic designs, neon colors and an early digital feel. One of the coolest items: a wide-ribbed corduroy hat with an 8-bit Tecmo graphic of an NFL quarterback dressed in orange and wearing No. 7 on his jersey. The hat puts a new-old spin on the nostalgic glory days of John Elway and the Denver Broncos. $33. bfreshgear.com — Jonathan Shikes

Casa Bonita Sopaipilla Scented Candle

When Casa Bonita reopened in May, it came with a new gift shop offering some creative and quirky souvenirs. One of the most popular is an all-soy, 8-ounce custom-made candle produced in Denver by Wooly Wax to mimic the aromas and flavors of the restaurant’s most famous dish: the honey-covered sopaipillas. Scents of honey, caramelized sugar, citrus and cinnamon mingle together in a way that will make you close your eyes and imagine Black Bart’s Cave. $28. shop.casabonitadenver.com

Joy Bombs

These Joybiles cannabis products look and taste exactly like Skittles and each candy has a manageable 2.5 mg of THC. They are also sold in smaller packages sometimes so they are extra cute. $20-$27 per 40 pack (total of 100 mg THC per package) at dozens of Colorado recreational and medical dispensary locations. joyibles.com/joy-bombs — Tiney Ricciardi

Tingly Crisp from Pho King Rapidos

If you’re a fan of chili oil — that lightly textured, spicy and often nutty addition that melds with Korean, Vietnamese, Thai and other live-giving foods, share the flavor of Pho King Rapidos’s Tingly Crisp. As the name promises, the $14 bottle of handmade hot sauce is perfect for Asian and Latin food, full of tang and bright personality but not overpowering. Bonus: It’s vegan, relying on sichuan peppercorn, lemongrass, thai chili, red chili flake, garlic, onion, brown sugar and salt for its profile. Visit pkr-denver.com (the main site) or bit.ly/3SI4ldl (the ordering link). — John Wenzel

Uncle Tim’s Cocktails

Toast the craft-distilling aficionado in your life with a sample pack of pre-batched tipples from Uncle Tim’s Cocktails. The Denver company sells so-called “series” of miniature libations, such as the Negroni and Manhattan, which feature true-to-form classic recipes along with original takes. The Negroni series, for example, includes a classic rendition, a white Negroni and a Boulevardier, all ready to drink over ice. Each series includes three, 100 ml bottles for $30. Uncle Tim’s Cocktails is also debuting an Old Fashioned series in November just in time for the holidays. If you want to try before you buy, head to Uncle Tim’s tasting room at 1150 S. Lipan St. in Denver. Bottled cocktails, including sampler series, are also available for purchase at uncletimscocktails.com. — Tiney Ricciardi

Indie bookstore gift cards

For the readers in your family or friendship circle, a gift card to Denver’s Tattered Cover Book Store (make that a digital card) or any one of dozens of independent bookstores across Colorado will fit nicely in that stocking. Check out this list of some of them to help you choose (bit.ly/40DXdR0), and read up on local authors, book reviews and more Colorado literary news at denverpost.com/things-to-do/books. Various gift-card values available. tatteredcover.com — Barbara Ellis

“Iron Flame” and more Colorado fiction

It’s easy to find Colorado authors making national headlines these days, such as fantasy-lit megastar Rebecca Yarros, who has a new book out called “Iron Flame.” It’s also high time to introduce yourself to even more of our New York Times best sellers and buzzy, critically acclaimed titles (some just now in paperback). That includes national award winners Kali Fajardo-Anstine (“Woman of Light”), Vauhini Vara (“This Is Salvaged”) and Mario Acevedo (genre anthologies, “Cats in Quarantine”), as well as classics from Coloradans Kent Haruf (“Our Souls at Night”) and John Williams (“Stoner” and the recently adapted “Butcher’s Crossing”). $15-$35 at local retailers. — John Wenzel

Colorado Wildflower Seed Mix

There’s nothing like wildflower season in Colorado. Catching a meadow or forest trail in full bloom is truly a breathtaking moment. But these moments can be fleeting, which is why it’s also fun to plant your own. Boulder’s BBB Seed has been operating for nearly 40 years and sells wildflower seed mixes that you can buy online or in small and mostly independent retail stores around the state. Each mix includes annuals and perennials designed to grow in our climate, like blue flax, purple coneflower, Shasta daisies, baby blue-eyes and blue columbines. $6-$42. bbbseed.com/product/colorado-wildflower-mix — Jonathan Shikes

Vinyl Me Please, please?

Based in Denver, the fast-growing Vinyl Me Please makes and annually sells dozens of reissued, all-time classic titles as well as new albums and critical darlings from tons of musical genres, ranging from Dolly Parton and Stevie Wonder to Taylor Swift, OutKast, and Caroline Rose. While a double LP won’t necessarily fit in a stocking, a gift card ($10-$500) or subscription to its high-end, record-of-the-month club (starting at $128 for three months) certainly will. It’s sure to thrill your resident audiophile, especially if you pair it with a portable, rechargeable turntable from Denver-based Victrola ($60 and up). vinylmeplease.com or victrola.com — John Wenzel

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The good news this Thanksgiving is that the price of turkey and eggs is down significantly this year. The bad news is the price of just about everything else is up.

The bird flu swept through the country’s turkey farms in 2022, driving up the cost of the Thanksgiving meal centerpiece. The flu also helped boost the price of eggs.

The toll on turkeys and overall inflation resulted in a record price tag of $64.05 for a holiday meal for 10 people in 2022, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. The average total for this year’s meal tab is expected to be $61.17, slightly lower but well above the average of $53.31 in 2021 and up a whopping 25% compared to 2019, the farm bureau said.

Shoppers might not know the precise percentages involved, but they’re experiencing the increases with every trip to the grocery store. Families having trouble making ends meet are particularly vulnerable as prices stay elevated, and food banks and anti-hunger programs are feeling the strain.

“Even though turkey’s down, the overall food price inflation is up this year. You’re going to see people probably spend a little less this year than last year,” said Dawn Thilmany, a professor of agricultural economics at Colorado State University and director of the Northwest and Rocky Mountain Regional Food Business Center.

Overall prices at the grocery store are 2.5% higher, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Thilmany said some of the increases per category are 4% for dairy and 8.5% for fruits and vegetables, which includes fresh and some processed items.

USDA figures in September showed that turkeys cost about $1.27 per pound, compared to $2 around Thanksgiving 2022. The price of eggs has dropped 14%.

“Turkey and eggs are about the only products I can think of that are lower than last year,” Thilmany said.

Farmers are feeling the effects of inflation, too, American Farm Bureau Federation President Vincent “Zippy” Duvall said in a statement.

“Growing the food families rely on is a constant challenge for farmers because of high fuel, seed, fertilizer and transportation costs, just to name a few,” Duvall said.

For food banks and nonprofits, the pressure of inflation was aggravated by the end earlier this year of the emergency increases in SNAP benefits, or food stamps, put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Erin Pulling, president and CEO of Food Bank of the Rockies, said the average family of four saw a $370 drop in assistance per month.

“What we’ve seen at some of our mobile food pantries is an increase of 40 to 60% (in people) over what it was several months ago before the SNAP decrease took effect,” Pulling said.

Hunger Free Colorado has experienced a big jump in calls to its hotline. The organization, which provides services and information statewide, normally receives roughly 300 calls a day, said Alejandra Ospina Estefan, associate director of client services.

After the expiration of the temporary increases in benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — SNAP — the number of calls a day surged to more than 500, Estefan said.

“That’s significantly higher than our pre-pandemic number and showcases the need that still exists in the state,” Estefan said. “People are having to make difficult choices right now between buying groceries and covering other bills like housing, medication.”

While the cost of individual turkeys might be lower this year, the Food Bank of the Rockies paid 46% more for the birds than last year, Pulling said. The food bank bought 13,500 turkeys, or five truckloads, for this year’s meals.

The rising need combined with higher food prices and overall cost-of-living increases have tripled the food bank’s monthly costs to $1.5 million from $300,000 to $400,000 when the emergency SNAP assistance was still in place.

Another factor is that the percentage of food funneled to food banks from the Department of Agriculture has dropped. About 13% of the Food Bank of the Rockies’ provisions come from the USDA, compared to 30% before the pandemic. Pulling said it’s a matter of the federal agency’s resources not stretching as far as they previously did.

The food bank, which partners with about 800 organizations in Colorado and Wyoming, distributed enough food in 2018 to provide 145,000 meals each day. The current volume is enough for 181,000 meals a day.

Pulling said the food bank is fortunate because it continues to see “an outpouring of support” in volunteers and financial donations. “Because of the generosity of the public, we have not had to scale back the number of people we’re serving and the amount of food we’re distributing,” she said.

It’s likely not what advocates or consumers want to hear, but Thilmany doesn’t expect food prices to return to pre-pandemic levels any time soon.

“The reason they’re not going to go down is that we’ve had some pretty strong movement in this country to pay better wages,” Thilmany said. “There’s good news behind that. We’re seeing households do better.”

But people on fixed incomes and families struggling to pay the bills are having a rough time keeping up, Thilmany added.

“There are going to be some sectors that use a lot of labor that are going to have to charge more and we’re all just going to have to settle into a new normal,” she said.

In September 2022, a nearly century-old home in South Park Hill sold for the first time since the 1950s.

The new owners paid $2.5 million, records show — for the land. They’d like to demolish the structure and build something much larger, plans indicate.

But a handful of Denver residents are pushing to mandate preservation of the home.

The property in the 5000 block of E. Montview Blvd., along one of the neighborhood’s stately corridors, is Denver’s latest setting for an owner-opposed landmark application. Three women who live nearby, with the help of the nonprofit Historic Denver, submitted the application earlier this month.

“If this home is capable of being designated as a landmark, anyone buying or selling a home in Denver should be concerned,” said Mark Rinehart, who owns the home with his wife.

The application comes months after the Denver City Council approved an owner-opposed landmark application for just the second time ever. A subsequent lawsuit filed by the owner of that home in City Park West, a developer who hoped to build apartments, was recently paused.

Records show that Mark and Marianne Rinehart bought the two-story, 3,200-square-fot Park Hill home through a trust last year. Prior to that, another couple, now deceased, had owned it since 1959. The home is fenced off and unoccupied.

Mark Rinehart is a founder of Legal TV Leads, which helps personal injury attorneys with television advertising, according to his LinkedIn profile. He previously worked in advertising for Denver’s Fox31/KDVR.

A contractor working for the couple requested a demolition permit over the summer, records show. Following a regular process, city staff that reviewed the demolition request set aside time in case anyone wanted to lobby the city to name the structure a landmark.

Landmark designation effectively prevents demolition of a structure. The city generally sees a handful of owner-opposed landmark applications a year. Most don’t result in designation, but in some cases the owners and preservationists reach some sort of compromise, like in the case of the Tom’s Diner building along Colfax.

Owner-opposed landmark designation applications must be filed by at least three Denver residents. The one in Park Hill was filed by Margaret McRoberts, Trish Leary and Bernadette Kelly. Each indicated they live within a mile. Kelly and the CEO of Historic Denver, which helped draft the application, did not respond to separate requests for comment Friday.

The home dates to the mid-1930s. The applicants pointed to the home’s previous occupants, prominent location, architectural style and original homebuilder as reasons to preserve it.

The original residents were Harry Eugene Huffman and his wife Christina Mae. Huffman owned and managed movie theaters in the Denver area, according to the applicants. He later moved to the “Shangri-La” mansion he built at 150 S. Bellaire St. in Hilltop.

The Park Hill house was then owned by Robert and Betty McClennan Hawley. He was a lawyer, and she was a socialite and philanthropist, according to the applicants. Then came Universal Tractor Co. owners Alston McCarty and his wife Ann, who had the property for more than 60 years. The home was sold to the Rineharts after their deaths.

The home exemplifies the “simplified Italian Renaissance Revival” style, and was built by Douglas M. Sugg, according to the applicants.

“The home has been a prominent and familiar building along Montview Boulevard for over 89 years,” they wrote.

Denver’s landmark process only takes into account the exterior of a structure. Reached by BusinessDen, however, the first thing Rinehart did was email photos of the interior of 5013 E. Montview.

The photos show cracked walls and stained, deteriorating ceilings. The roof was not properly maintained, Rinehart said, which resulted in leaks and mold. The electrical system needs to be replaced, he said. The foundation has settled. An addition isn’t level with the rest of the home.

“As you can see from the pictures, it would take considerable work and expense to make the home safe to live in, much less structurally sound,” Rinehart said by email. “Because of the roof issues and water damage, I don’t even know how much of the original structure could even be salvaged.”

Plans submitted to the city earlier this year indicate the Rineharts want to build a new two-story brick home on the 0.43-acre lot. It would be about 7,500 square feet counting finished basement space, plans show. An outdoor pool was initially proposed, but later nixed.

Rinehart said nothing has been finalized, but the goal is to build a “forever family home” that “fits the character of the neighborhood and is consistent with the beautiful homes around it.” The family has lived elsewhere in Park Hill for over a decade.

Denver’s process for owner-opposed landmark applications requires those seeking preservation to attend mediation sessions with the property owner before filing. Three sessions were held, but the two sides “were unable to come to an agreement on a compromise between complete demolition and preservation of the original contributing structure,” according to the application.

Even if the physical condition of the home isn’t considered, Rinehart said he doesn’t think the home is worthy of being a landmark.

“It was built as a spec home by a home builder who was not well known for any style of architecture or unique home building qualities, and was lived in for a brief moment in time by someone who ultimately built a much more notable home in Denver: the Shangri La house,” he said.

The application will be reviewed by Denver’s Landmark Preservation Commission, which will decide whether to send it to the City Council for a vote.

Another owner-opposed landmark application could come in soon. Three individuals, including a Historic Denver employee, have signaled they might submit one for the home at 3601 E. 26th Ave., which faces City Park Golf Course in the Skyland neighborhood. They have until Nov. 27 to do so.

This story was reported by our partner BusinessDen.

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Tom’s Starlight, a midcentury-style cocktail lounge that inhabits a former diner on Colfax Avenue, has closed barely a year after opening.

Co-owner Tom Messina confirmed the closure via text Monday, stating that the space, which is a historic landmark, is still available for lease. Tom’s Starlight was listed for lease earlier this month.

“We hope someone will come in and do right by the space. GBX, my partners and me are very proud of what we’ve done in preserving the building,” Messina said by text. “After 45 years in the business I am ready for retiring and spending time with the family.”

Tom’s Starlight made its debut in September 2022 after being known as Tom’s Diner for decades. The new concept traded its traditional 24-hour diner look and eats for a midcentury modern atmosphere that specialized in cocktails.

Messina originally planned to sell the building several years ago, but preservation activists helped get it listed on the National Register of Historic Places after learning it would be demolished by the prospective buyer.

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