What’s Working: How Enstrom Candies almost left downtown Grand Junction ...Middle East

Tamara Chuang

Business/Technology Reporter

Quick links: Grand Junction’s economic development | Colorado Safeway grocery strike looms | Housing inventory still rising | Denver inflation below US | Job fair alert

GRAND JUNCTION — Before the pandemic, Doug Simons was planning to expand Enstrom Candies operations north of its downtown headquarters and closer to the highway.

“We’d actually designed a 125,000-square-foot facility. We were thinking about moving from downtown. And then COVID hit,” Simons, Enstrom’s president and CEO, said when a reporter popped in unexpectedly to talk about economic development earlier this month. “And it’s a good thing it did because, in some regard, we came to our senses. I was like, ‘Why would I give up a location that in a couple of years, we will have been operating here for 100 years right here in downtown?’”

The 96-year-old family-owned business known for its buttery toffee is, instead, expanding eastward on Grand Avenue, less than 2 miles away, said Simons, who coincidentally will celebrate 50 years with the company during Enstroms’ centennial year in 2029.

Construction is underway on a 50,000-square-foot warehouse and shipping center that will also house departments that had to move out of the headquarters building due to space constraints. The expansion is expected to be completed next March.

Simons and his wife, Jamee — granddaughter of the company’s namesake Chet Enstrom — sold the business to their two sons three years ago. But the couple is still active, and not just at the company. They’re continuing to invest in the community and were the first name Grand Junction Economic Partnership Executive Director Curtis Englehart mentioned when asked about private investors in the city.

“We have some very successful business people who are very savvy and hungry to do more who live right here,” Englehart said. “Look at Enstrom’s, a fourth-generation-run company. They’re doing a big expansion right now and are very tight in the community and want to see Grand Junction thrive.”

New jobs, affordable housing and retaining college grads

The property where Enstrom’s $20 million expansion is being built was a larger 38-acre piece of land Simons already owned. Earlier this year, he sold 22 acres to the city, which plans to use the land for affordable housing. The Salt Flats development at 28th Street and Grand Avenue, expects to include 324 to 500 rental units and for-sale homes.

According to a news release, the city of Grand Junction bought the land to address the housing shortage, especially for workers who earn less than $100,000 a year. The city used a mix of housing grants totaling around $5.2 million, which is also being used to pay for infrastructure and reduce development costs.

Simons, who also serves on the GJEP board, said he wants the community to thrive economically so he also supports economic development efforts with his own money.

“We had other suitors looking at this parcel, but with this, the push by the city for workforce housing, they were the best partner to help with that and take care of some of the infrastructure, which was going to be expensive for us,” Simons said. “It wouldn’t be practical for us to move and it doesn’t make historic or emotional sense for us.”

The region has attracted several new companies, such as civil engineering firm Morgan Mining from Knoxville, Tennessee. Morgan was awarded a state tax incentive of up to $10.9 million if it makes good on plans to add 900 new jobs in eight years.

Outdoor recreation manufacturer Goose Geer left California for Grand Junction and stands to get job growth tax credits of more than a half-million dollars if it adds 49 jobs.

Englehart said the company hasn’t been able to persuade all of its staff to relocate away from the beach, but it’s had success hiring Colorado Mesa University grads.

“There’s actually good opportunities for them to stay here whereas before it was like, ‘I love it here, college was awesome. I’d love to stay, but there’s not a job for me,’” he said. “We’ve also heard from the business side, ‘Man, I’d love to hire a CMU graduate but I don’t know where to start.’ I think a lot of those kinds of communication barriers and access barriers have been removed and we’re retaining a lot more of our workforce, while continuing to attract a new one.”

Not just sweets

Investing locally was also a way for Simons to keep his two sons nearby. While they grew up working at the candy company, Jim and Doug Jr. both went to University of Denver and weren’t very interested in returning to Grand Junction after graduating more than a decade ago.

“They decided to come back anyway and it’s been amazing to watch them get involved with the community,” Simons said. “We’re blessed to have our sons in our business and, ultimately, that’s what we’re trying to create. For years, the kids were leaving. There was nothing to do. Well, that’s changing because of the influx of new businesses and the efforts of GJEP, our kids are staying and getting good jobs here.”

Six years ago, Simons and his sons started another company, Hybrid Confections, a candy-adjacent business for gummies.

The original plan was to manufacture CBD gummies to jump on the trend of the nonintoxicating compound of the cannabis plant. But the market dried up amid regulations and other challenges. Hybrid shifted the business to nutraceutical gummies, which are dietary supplements with some health or medicinal benefit.

That business, located nearby in the city, works with North American Herb+Spice on the formulas, can produce as many as 600,000 gummy candies per shift and employs staff to run three shifts a day. It’s a white-label manufacturer and makes products for other brands.

“It’s actually been a tough six years but now we’re coming out the other side,” Simons said. “We just did a $3 million expansion of that facility and we just purchased a $400,000 bottling line” to take bottling of the gummies in house.

The Simons have their charities but they’re not taking a dime of incentives to stay put and expand in Grand Junction.

“We sold Grand Junction to the world as a great place to retire. Our population is aging. We’ve got this wonderful university and the lights go out at nine o’clock because everyone’s gone to bed,” said Jamee Simons, who stopped in to meet Doug for lunch. “Well, that doesn’t work. We need to grow the young people.”

Colorado Safeway grocery workers prepare to strike

With no breakthrough between management and King Soopers union workers last weekend, a second set of grocery workers at Safeway stores in Colorado said they have seen no progress and have canceled their extended contract, which ends around 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.

That paves the way for a grocery worker strike at area Safeway stores, which union members authorized two weeks ago and could lead to Colorado’s second grocery strike this year. The King Soopers worker strike lasted nearly two weeks in February, and ended after both sides agreed to a “100 day period of labor peace.” But in an update, King Soopers officials said the peace has ended with “little meaningful progress” on a contract. However, stores remain open as the two sides look for future negotiation dates.

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 represents workers from both Safeway and King Soopers stores. The Safeway stores that could be impacted are in Denver, Boulder, Broomfield, Castle Rock, Conifer, Estes Park, Evergreen, Fountain, Grand Junction, Idaho Springs, Parker, Pueblo, Salida, Steamboat Springs and Vail. By canceling the contract extension, a strike can proceed as early as Sunday morning, according to union officials.

In a statement, UFCW Local 7 president Kim Cordova said the big grocery chains want workers to “take concessions on healthcare and retirement, while continuing to refuse to take meaningful steps to address chronic understaffing in grocery stores,” she said. “These companies can afford to do better.”

In an email, Safeway officials said the company is “committed to productive discussions with UFCW Local 7.” The company’s roughly 100 Safeway and Albertsons stores in Colorado remain open.

Colorado home prices flat, inventory rising

May apparently didn’t provide the spring lift that home sellers had hoped for, according to the Colorado Association of Realtors monthly update. Statewide, active listings increased 27% in May from a year ago to 31,268 while the median price of a single family home fell 1.2% to $590,000.

In the seven-county Denver metro, the number of homes that sold fell 3.4% in a year to 5,085 homes, while the median sales price was down 0.9% to $580,000. That includes single family homes and condos, which resulted in nearly 18,000 listings available at the end of May, up 25.5% from a year ago.

The condo and townhouse market felt the brunt of the negative month though. Alone, this housing category saw the number of homes sold drop 8.1% from a year ago while the median sales price fell 3.2% to $401,500. With 5,217 condos available, that’s nearly six months of inventory, up 52.8% from a year ago.

The Denver area is near a 15-year record high, said Cooper Thayer, a Denver Realtor, who attributed the slump to “a lack of buyer motivation stemming from higher costs has kept homes on the market longer, causing a ‘pile-up’ effect.” >> See May data for Colorado, Denver metro, elsewhere

Sun economy stories you may have missed

➔ As A Special Place shutters, a new operator plans to reopen in outraged Grand Junction neighborhood. The nonprofit that tested a new housing law with supportive housing for people with criminal and mental health issues was open for less than six months, but another health care provider is swooping in. >> Read story

Land managers defend budget cuts, plans to sell Colorado public lands at Congressional hearings. A new provision to the Trump administration’s Big Beautiful Bill requires the Forest Service and BLM to sell up to 3.3 million acres of federal land in 11 Western states for local housing >> Read story

➔ Costs will spike, 100,000 Coloradans will lose health coverage if Trump spending bill passes, regulators say. The Colorado Division of Insurance says 110,000 people could drop off coverage as subsidies decrease and programs meant to hold down prices falter >> Read story

➔ Colorado must redo its affordable broadband plan to adhere to new federal rules. The state was nearly done finalizing grants. It now must restart the process after the federal BEAD program was criticized for high costs of building fiber instead of cheaper options. A beneficiary is Starlink, which was founded by Elon Musk. >> Read story

➔ Colorado outdoor businesses are struggling under tariff uncertainty. At a Denver U.S. Senate committee hearing on small business last week, three Colorado outdoor entrepreneurs told Sen. John Hickenlooper their businesses were threatened by the Trump trade war >> Read story

➔ Finding a fit: Social skills are key for college grads entering a challenging job market. Colorado job openings are flat, as the tech economy softens and federal policy impacts job prospects. Social capital nonprofits help a diverse workforce find employment. >> Read story

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Other working bits

➔ Denver-area inflation for May was up 2.2% in past year. That puts the region slightly below the national inflation rate of 2.4% in the same period, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Blame food prices again, including meat, up 8.3%; beverages, up 3.6%; and dining out, up 5% from a year ago.

The cost of shelter, like rent or a homeowner’s equivalent of rent, had a smaller increase of 2.5% but that expense has a bigger impact on consumers since the cost of rent is typically more than groceries. Gasoline prices fell 4.4% in a year. The biggest hike? “Other goods and services,” which include “tobacco and smoking products, haircuts and other personal services, funeral expenses,” according to the BLS. This was up 14.3% from a year ago in Denver.

➔ A free job fair you don’t want to miss. The upcoming GlobalMindED conference may be for ticket holders but for two hours Wednesday, the job fair is free to attend. The organization, which matches mentors and students as they search for careers, anticipates dozens of employers at the event, which is set for June 18 at Sheraton Denver Downtown starting at 1:30 p.m. No registration required but bring a resume! >> Details

Got some economic news or business bits Coloradans should know? Tell us: cosun.co/heyww

Thanks for sticking with me for this week’s report. Please share your 2 cents on how the economy is keeping you down or helping you up at cosun.co/heyww. ~ tamara

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