Siedler-Keathley in front of hospitality renaissance

During her 20-year hospitality career, Sharon Siedler-Keathley has marketed some of the area’s finest hotels and resorts. Her background includes work for The Broadmoor Hotel, Marriott and Cheyenne Mountain Conference Resort. As interim general manager for the Renaissance Hotel, she’s hard at work promoting group and leisure business. Siedler-Keathley is already booking room nights and events for [...]

• Small proposes big tax hike
• Military spending vital to Springs economy
• Providers hold no hope for health care legislation
• People on the Move
• Springs losing V.C. battle

Time for some serious Springs re-branding efforts

Historically, local recessions have been times of ferment and change in Colorado Springs. During the 1970s, business and political leaders focused on economic development and created the Economic Development Council. One of the first such organizations in the United States, the EDC was amazingly successful in recruiting companies and creating primary jobs. The EDC’s success was driven [...]

• As generations change, so does historical relevance
• Our so-called city leaders aren’t even faking it that well
• City likely can’t fix economic troubles by relying on kindness of voters
• Government’s record of salvaging industry not that promising
• Time to play hard ball, not beg and grovel at altar of the USOC

Truth be told, there really is no easy exit strategy

As soon as entrepreneurs buy or start up a business, they should have an exit strategy. Reality, however, is that many business owners only realize this much farther down the road — say, about the time they realize they don’t want to run a company every single day for the rest of their lives. Trekking in the [...]

• Disability financial planning takes extra thought, care
• Sometimes it’s tough to tell when a ‘bank’ isn’t a bank
• Investor emotion beginning to shift toward glass half full
• No safety in buy and hold anymore
• Odds are better that market will go up rather than down

Don’t sweat the bulge, you might live longer

Those few extra pounds you’ve been meaning to lose? Think again. They might be unsightly, but they could add to your longevity. That’s according to a 12-year study that will be published in Obesity, an online health journal. Underweight people and those who are extremely obese are at increased risk of dying, but carrying a little extra [...]

• Health care costs ‘tug-o-war’
• Kaiser donates $2.4 million to shore up rural care
• ‘Hassle’ causing doctors to avoid new Medicare patients
• True cost of disability staggering
• More people using Medicaid

Real Estate: Optical Engines expanding

Optical Engines Inc. has just leased 5,000 square feet of office/research and development space at 842 Sierra Madre St. Based in Chicago, the company that integrates laser technology with low power consumption controls, chose to move one of its division here based on quality of life, said Lloyd Riphenburg, who, along with Charley Conrad of Olive [...]

• New Renaissance Hotel taking shape
• Two million dollar commercial deals closed
• Monument, Falcon lead likely development rebound list
• USA Discounters setting up shop at Mission Trace
• Charter school leases move-in ready space

Retail roundup: Entrepreneur finds rare Manitou market niche in bike shop

For several years, Colorado Springs resident Tim Chase had been looking at Manitou Springs, largely a tourism business market, as a potential spot for an enterprise. He just didn’t know what type of business might fit in among the rows and rows of boutiques and restaurants. He has owned several businesses, worked as a business consultant and labored [...]

• Zeezo’s move part of Bijou shakeup
• Retail roundup: J. Jill staying in Shops at Briargate
• Velez already benefiting from move to Old Colorado City
• Retail Roundup: Recess in Old Colorado City, Othos at Chapel Hills
• Retailers slogging through roller coaster of feast and famine

Bold tax plan; really bad timing

We were pleased that Vice Mayor Larry Small took the time to work up a spread sheet showing what a radically revised local tax system might look like. Few politicians are bold enough, or foolhardy enough, to attach their names to a proposal whose centerpiece is a nearly 600 percent increase in the city property [...]

• Texting and e-mail becoming harder habits to break
• Losing a phone number, embracing midlife woes
• Time for some serious Springs re-branding efforts
• The only public speaking fear is the ‘public’ part
• Time we started working together to solve community’s problems

Older employees’ better coping skills mean better engagement

Our younger workers are most affected by the current economic crisis even as our older employees are able to handle the trials of this difficult economic time. These findings were reported in a study by Boston College’s Sloan Center on Aging & Work. According to the report, “The Difference a Downturn Can Make,” part of the Center’s [...]

• How you should be using social media
• Stimulating the local economy
• Expect government focus to shift to preventing drug abuse and crime
• ‘Crowdcruiting’ — hiring managers doing more with less
• Don’t let the State Games of America pass you by