Bravo! Entrepreneurs Celebrating excellence in Northern Colorado Section B $1 May 7-20, 2010 Vol. 15, No. 16 NEWS www.ncbr.com Home sales, construction pick up “We’re seeing days on the Daily starts new Optimism grows for rebound in residential market market being much less,” said phase at Re/Max Sharianne Daily with Re/Max Future looks bright By Steve Porter developers, builders and real Northern Colorado. Alliance. “You feel the excitement to former president [email protected] estate agents as homebuilding “I think activity in general is again with the pace of home of The Group Inc. and home sales start to take a picking up,” said Andrea sales.” Page 2A The sound of hammers and long-awaited step forward. Schaefer of The Group Inc. Real That also includes the pace of saws in residential neighbor- “We’re feeling cautiously opti- Estate, who’s focusing on selling home construction. In the most hoods is getting louder as a mistic this year that homebuild- houses in Sidehill development recent report from the city of home-building industry nearly ing is starting to turn around in in southeast Fort Collins. “We’re Fort Collins’ sales tax division, dormant in 2009 begins to revive Northern Colorado,” said Dottie averaging around two closings a March building permit activity in the spring of 2010. Weber, executive officer of month, which is really good for See HOME SALES, 28A And that’s bringing smiles to Homebuilders Association of new construction.” Low crop prices, Office space going, going, gone drought make a AuctionPoint helps Agriculture takes a hit in 2000 commercial brokers challenging year sell properties online Page 3A By Steve Porter [email protected] SPECIAL The year 2000, the cusp of the REPORT new millennium, brought with it New retail spaces a host of hopes and fears, but for stalled for now Northern Colorado farmers and Front Range Village ranchers the year was one of shifted Fort Collins, drought and economic challenge. Centerra the region Ironically, 1999 had been one Page 19A of the wettest years in Colorado history, but the fall of that year was dry across most of the state and the winter of 1999-2000 fol- LISTS lowed with below-average snow- Region’s largest fall and above-average tempera- tures, according to a 2003 report Distributors/ by Colorado State University- distribution centers based atmospheric scientists Page 15A Nolan Doesken and Roger Pielke. The drought hit its zenith in 2002, when Gov. Bill Owens Call centers observed, Page 15A “It looks as See Then…and Now if all of By Dennis E. Curran Colorado Property & casualty Page 17A insurance firms is burning Page 18A today.” Even by the summer of 2000, drought was in full swing across the Privately-held state. Crops withered and grasslands companies Illustration by David Badders for cattle grazing virtually stopped Page 22A growing and turned brown. See AGRICULTURE, 16A Wednesday May 19 Tickets: www.NCBR.com | 221-5400 5:30-7:30 p.m. 2A | Northern Colorado Business Report www.ncbr.com| May 7-20, 2010 Daily launches new career phase at Re/Max Alliance as a 6-year-old when her family moved Future looks bright to Loveland from Iowa so her father could take a job at Hewlett-Packard.“My to former president dad was one of the first 200 employees at HP in Loveland,” she said. of The Group Inc. A brief stint in banking focused on residential real estate and home mort- By Steve Porter gages and at a title company soon led her [email protected] into the world of real estate sales. She began her association with The Group in FORT COLLINS — Sharianne Daily 1982, shortly after its founding in 1976. loves real estate. Especially Northern The Group was somewhat of an odd- Colorado real estate. ity at the time, with its ownership cul- This year, the former president and ture and new ideas about selling proper- CEO of the region’s largest residential ty. Daily said she’s familiar with all of the real estate company — The Group Inc. talk about the company in those early — is marking 35 years in the industry days. and still feeling passionate about it. “People would say that’s a cult — that “I’m buying and selling again and kind of thing — but results speak for loving it,” said Daily, who resumed her themselves,” she said. real estate career last month when she Overtheyears,TheGroupgrewtobe joined Re/Max Alliance as a sales broker. the region’s largest real estate company. She was terminated from her position at Daily notes that when she became presi- The Group in November. dent in 1994 The Group had 45 sales- Daily, who spent 27 years at The people and last year had 206. Group and the last 14 as CEO and presi- Courtesy Tamy Newman, Northern Exposure Daily said she never regretted going dent, said she has no hard feelings about into a management position at The being let go. “Bitterness isn’t going to get NEW CAREER CHAPTER — Sharianne Daily, former president and CEO of The Group Inc. Real Estate, began Group.“I was asked about what my goals you anywhere, it just isn’t,”she said.“This a new chapter in her three-decade-plus career in Northern Colorado real estate at Re/Max Alliance in were at the company, and I’ve always is real estate, what I know and love, and I April. been goal-oriented,” she said. “I said I’d believe there is a reason for everything.” the real estate industry, but she’s not explored a lot of things — going into the like to be president and responsible for For Daily, the reason she was fired looking for excuses. “There was a deci- medical field, leaving Colorado, maybe the daily operations of The Group.” was all about the numbers. “I was termi- sion that we needed to change the lead- going to Mexico or Alaska,” she said. So that’s what she became, and she nated because The Group’s production ership, and I took full responsibility “But my heart and soul is in real estate loved it. “It was a great position,” she numbers had gone down for three years because that was my role.” here in Northern Colorado.” said. “I enjoyed it wholeheartedly. The in a row, so I was eliminated,” she said. Daily, 52, said she took some time off mission statement was to have fun, help Daily said the slide in home sales cor- after her termination to reflect on her Practically a native people and make money. Who wouldn’t responded with a general downturn in future path. “When I left The Group, I Daily arrived in Northern Colorado See DAILY, 24A There are financial parasites within every business that would like nothing better than to feed off of your blood, sweat and tears. We’re not your average accountants. We know what’s infesting your investing. Contact Jan Daugaard at 970-685-3429. KCOE.COM May 7-20, 2010 | www.businessreportdaily.com Northern Colorado Business Report | 3A THE Water cluster brings industry together EYE workers with average annual wages of more Firms, city, CSU than $74,000 and offer a wide variety of technologies. Phone app partner to advance Fort Collins first identified its key indus- Water Cluster debuts try clusters in 2005 – semiconductor chip, local innovation clean energy, bioscience, software and the The Fort Collins Water Cluster will be formally works like creative economy. Josh Birks, economic introduced at the Rocky Mountain Innovation By Kristen Tatti advisor for the city, explained that the soft- Initiative Innovation After Hours event on May 13. ware cluster was further focused on GIS voicemail [email protected] For details, contact Kelly Peters at since the Front Range was pretty much the [email protected]. FORT COLINS — Business leaders, birthplace of the technology. However, the Colorado State University and the city of local industry has matured, with many for texts Fort Collins are hoping to open the flood- companies focused on applying the already gates for economic development and job advanced technologies in new ways. The Eye is always looking growth through the formation of a water A cluster around water didn’t pop up on for ways to keep on the cluster. the radar sooner because many of the com- man and CSU professor, pointed out that straight and narrow. To Early meetings have already identified panies fall under a different industry head- the university is one of the premier sources reduce the temptation to more than 100 companies operating in ing — software, GIS, engineering and of water expertise, anywhere. text-message while driving some capacity in the local water industry. instrumentation to name a few. The idea “The university has been working on — which, as we all know is The companies employ more than 3,000 condensed after Wade Troxell, city council- See WATER, 29A now illegal as well as ill- advised — Iconosys Inc. in Laguna Hills, Calif., recently FOCUS released the SMS Replier-Lite application. The app uses the phone’s GPS to know when the vehicle is moving and will automatically respond to Office space going, going, gone received texts with a user- defined response such as: “I’m driving, I’ll call or text youbackassoonasIarrive AuctionPoint helps at my destination.” Iconosys touts the GPS commercial brokers functionality as the differ- ence between their app and sell properties online competitors’ apps. SMS Replier automatically kicks By Kristen Tatti on when it registers the [email protected] vehicle is traveling more than 15 miles an hour.