Colorado Feasibility Studies

Feasibility Study Company writes independent feasibility studies to lender standard for Colorado projects: for the owners and developers who propose them and for the SBA, USDA Rural Development, EB-5 and bank lenders who decide whether to fund them. As a Colorado feasibility study company it starts each engagement from the state's own dated record, and the first entry in that record is where the latest year's population change came from.

On January 27, 2026 the State Demography Office summarized the Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 figures. Colorado held 6,012,561 residents on July 1, 2025 ¹. In the twelve months to June 30, 2025, net domestic migration was negative: 12,100 more people left Colorado for other states than arrived from them. Net international migration was +15,356, and the office gives total net migration as +3,256 ¹. Births numbered 65,380 in that year, up 4.6% on the year before and the most since 2017 ¹.

That split is the reason this page opens on population rather than on payrolls or prices. In the latest Census year the flow between Colorado and the other states ran outward, and migration added to the count only through arrivals from abroad. An absorption schedule that leans on in-movers from other states is resting on a component that was negative in the year a reviewer will check.

The components also point to different products. A child care center or a pediatric practice draws directly on births, and the 65,380 count ¹ is the state figure its study cites. An apartment project that depends on newly formed households from abroad needs evidence of where those households settle, and the research behind this page found no Vintage 2025 county population figures for Denver, El Paso, Larimer, Weld, Mesa, Pueblo, Boulder or the resort counties. A study takes its county's own estimate and components from the Census county tables before it states a trade-area population.

The market sections below therefore lean on employment and wages by county, which BLS publishes quarterly, and on listing and permit series, rather than on county population. For a household-driven project the order of evidence is: the state components above, the county job and wage record in the market section, and then the site's own trade area.

The Colorado Tourism Office's research for 2025, released on July 28, 2026 and prepared by Dean Runyan Associates and Longwoods International, put travel spending in the state at $29.2 billion, a record and up about 2% on 2024, as KJCT reported the next day ³. SnowBrains' account of the same research gives 96.8 million visitors, up 1.4%, and $1.91 billion of state and local tax revenue generated by tourism, up 1.9% ⁷. It also gives tourism-supported jobs at 187,860, down 0.6% ⁷. Worker earnings from tourism were $10.5 billion in the same account ⁷.

The figures arrive through news reports because the Tourism Office's own research page refused the connection when this page was prepared. They are secondary readings of a primary study, and a lender's reviewer may ask for the Office's report itself; a study cites both.

Three points carry into a hotel, short-term rental, campground or restaurant study. Spending and visitor counts both rose in 2025, by about 2% and 1.4% in the two reports, so a revenue model has both a volume and a spend figure to cite. Tourism jobs fell while spending rose, which bears on how an operator staffs a property and at what wage, and the county wage figures in the resort section show what a mountain payroll costs. And the spending is concentrated: SnowBrains puts the Denver metro's travel spending at about $14.2 billion, 48.5% of the statewide total in the article's own reckoning ⁷. Denver's own market record is on the Denver feasibility page; the rest of the state's visitor economy is spread across the mountain counties, the Pikes Peak region and the Western Slope.

A skier-visit count for the 2025 to 2026 season from a named publisher was not found; the estimates in circulation do not name their source and are not printed here. Statewide hotel occupancy, average daily rate and revenue per available room for 2025 or 2026 were not found either. A lodging study in Colorado sources its competitive set's performance from a paid STR report or the operator's own records, and states which.

Between April 2024 and March 2026 Colorado enacted a run of laws that override parts of municipal zoning for housing. They change what can be built on a site, how much parking it must carry and how fast it can be approved, and so they change the inputs of a residential or mixed-use pro forma before the market is read at all. Each law below is cited to its General Assembly page; where the research recorded only the dates, the page says so and the study reads the act.

Apartments and mixed use near transit

HB24-1313, signed and effective on May 13, 2024, sets an average zoned density goal of 40 dwelling units per acre for transit-related areas in eligible communities, requires transit centers to allow a net density of at least 15 units per acre, and applies to places with a population of at least 4,000 ²⁴. It moved $35 million from the general fund to a transit-oriented communities infrastructure fund from July 1, 2024 ²⁴. The goal reports on affordability, displacement and housing opportunity are due December 31, 2026 ²⁴. For a site near a rail station or a high-frequency bus stop in a covered community, the zoning a study assumes is the zoning the city adopts to meet that goal, and a study dates its entitlement assumption to the adopted code, not to the statute.

HB24-1304, signed May 10, 2024 and effective August 7, 2024, prohibits covered local governments from enforcing minimum parking requirements in areas within one-quarter mile of certain transit stops from June 30, 2025 ²⁵. A project in such an area sets its parking ratio on demand and on the lender's view of it, and the study shows the ratio's effect on rent, absorption and construction cost.

Small sites, accessory units and the HOME Act

HB24-1152, signed May 13, 2024, requires municipalities of 1,000 or more residents to allow a single accessory dwelling unit from June 30, 2025, and funded a fee reduction and encouragement grant program with $5 million ²⁶. HB24-1007, signed April 15, 2024 and effective July 1, 2024, prohibits residential occupancy limits ²⁷. Together they bear on build-to-rent and small infill projects whose rent model counts bedrooms rather than households.

HB26-1001, the HOME Act, was signed and took effect on March 25, 2026. It applies to qualifying properties of up to 5 acres, bars subject jurisdictions from refusing residential development below 3 stories or 38 feet on height grounds, and requires them to allow qualifying residential development by administrative approval after December 31, 2027; a jurisdiction actively updating its code has until June 30, 2028 ⁶. For a sponsor with a qualifying parcel, the approval path, and so the carrying period before construction, depends on which side of those dates the application falls.

Affordable housing: acquisitions, planning and Proposition 123

HB24-1175, signed May 30, 2024 and effective August 7, 2024, gives local governments rights of first refusal on existing affordable housing of 5 or more units, rights that end December 31, 2029 ²⁸. A buyer of an existing income-restricted property reads the notice and offer periods into the acquisition timeline, and the lender's commitment allows for them. SB24-174, signed May 30, 2024, requires a statewide housing needs assessment by November 30, 2027 and local housing action plans by January 1, 2028, and moved $10.5 million from the local government severance tax fund into a technical assistance fund for that planning ²⁹.

The Division of Housing reported on August 26, 2026 that 2,000 homes had been approved in communities fully compliant with Proposition 123, and that the current commitment cycle ends December 31, 2026; the same update discussed a draft Qualified Allocation Plan for 2027 to 2028 ³⁰. A tax credit project in Colorado states which allocation plan it was scored under and whether its jurisdiction's Proposition 123 commitment is current.

SB26-001, the workforce housing and housing tax credit law, was signed March 25, 2026 and took effect August 12, 2026 ³¹. HB25-1272, on construction defects and middle market housing, was signed May 12, 2025 and took effect August 6, 2025 ³². The research recorded only the dates of both laws; their terms, the credit's size and the defect-claim changes that bear on condominium financing, are read from the acts themselves before a study relies on them.

Hotels, commercial property and the property tax

The property tax law of the 2024 extraordinary session, HB24B-1001, signed September 4, 2024, sets the assessment rate for commercial and agricultural property at 25% for tax year 2026, with most other nonresidential and personal property at 26%, against 27% for most nonresidential property in 2025; from 2027 most nonresidential property is assessed at 25% ³³. For tax year 2024 it set lodging property at 27.9%, less a deduction from actual value, and it limits growth in local government property tax revenue to 5.25% a year of the reassessment cycle from 2025 ³³. A hotel, shopping center or industrial building budgets its tax line from the rate for its class and year and the county's mill levy, not from the prior owner's bill.

What was not found

No statewide short-term rental statute enacted in 2025 or 2026 was confirmed on a primary page; search listings indicate that the proposals found were not enacted, which no primary page confirmed. The state sales, lodging and corporate income tax rates could not be read from a dated Department of Revenue page. Changes to certificate of need or liquor licensing rules were not found. A study for a short-term rental, a bar or restaurant, or a health facility reads the county's and the city's own ordinances and the state agency's current rule for the site, and dates each.

The sequence matters for a site in a burned or flooded county. KUNC reported on April 14, 2026 that Colorado would not receive FEMA aid for the 2025 Lee and Elk fires and mudslides in Rio Blanco County or for flooding in western Colorado: FEMA first denied the request in December 2025 and denied the appeal ⁹. The article put damage to roads and other infrastructure from the western flooding at almost $14 million ⁹.

The 2026 fire and flood season went differently. On September 15, 2026 FEMA announced more than $90 million of approvals for Colorado communities, of which more than $28 million was Public Assistance and more than $62 million came through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, including a Front Range wildfire mitigation project ³⁶. On September 28, 2026 it approved more than $784,000 of initial Public Assistance funding to help the state manage the program after the Aspen Acres Fire and other wildfires and flooding ⁸. The Boulder, Colorado Springs and Greeley sections name the local projects in the September 15 release.

Acres burned and structures lost in the 2026 Aspen Acres and Gold Mountain fires, the state hazard mitigation plan's figures and 2026 hail loss totals were not found. A Colorado study therefore reads hazard at the parcel: the flood map panel and any letter of map revision, the insurer's wildfire score for the address, and, for a site in a county named in a 2026 release, whether a public mitigation project upstream or nearby is funded and when it is scheduled. Public money that reaches a county repairs roads and drainage; it does not insure a private building.

Denver stands as its own page, the Denver feasibility study page, because its record holds enough current figures to be read alone; none of its figures are repeated here. The seven sections that follow run from Colorado Springs north to Larimer, Boulder and Weld, then south and west to Pueblo and Mesa, with the resort counties last because they are four counties rather than one metro.

Larimer County's average weekly wage was $1,627 in the first quarter of 2026, up 11.5% over the year, the largest wage increase among the nine large Colorado counties in BLS's release ². Its covered employment was 167,827 in March 2026, down 0.4% ². The Fort Collins-Loveland metro's mean hourly wage was $33.95 in May 2025 ⁴⁵. A preliminary jump of that size is checked against the revised release before a study builds a payroll budget on it, because one quarter's change in a county average can reflect a few large employers.

Housing: building permits in Larimer County authorized 2,436 new private units in 2025 ⁴⁶, and the Fort Collins metro's median listing price was $567,500 in September 2026 ⁴⁷. A current multifamily report for Fort Collins was not found; the only broker apartment report located was from 2024 and is not used.

The commercial figures below are published for Northern Colorado, a region that covers the Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley submarkets, and they are labelled that way. CBRE's office figures for the first half of 2026 give a direct average asking rate of $16.81 per sq. ft. NNN, flat on the prior period, at a total vacancy of 8.1%, with no completions in the half ⁴⁸. Its industrial figures give net absorption of 189,000 sq. ft. excluding one large new distribution facility, which by itself supplied two-thirds of the vacancy decline since year-end 2025, with approximately 80,000 sq. ft. under construction ⁴⁹. Matthews' small-bay reading for the first quarter of 2026 gives an asking rent of $14.30/SF, up 2.0% over the year, with 446,965 SF under construction and a vacancy of 9.5% ⁵⁰.

The industrial reading carries a caution a lender will see. One building moved the regional vacancy rate, so a study for a flex or small-bay project uses the absorption figure that excludes it and Matthews' small-bay series for its own product, not the headline vacancy change. BEA's 2023 GDP for the Fort Collins metro, 26,974.178 (millions of dollars) in a FRED series now marked discontinued ⁵¹, is a scale reference only. Permit and certificate of occupancy reports from Fort Collins, Loveland and Larimer County, hotel and tourism figures and airport passenger counts were not found.

Weld County had 122,224 covered jobs in March 2026, down 0.3% over the year, at an average weekly wage of $1,446 in the first quarter, up 5.3% ². The Greeley metro's mean hourly wage was $32.11 in May 2025 ⁵⁷. The Greeley metro is Weld County alone, which runs north to Wyoming and east to Nebraska; a site near either line may draw customers from across it, and the figures here stop at the Colorado border.

Building permits in Weld County authorized 2,993 new private housing units in 2025 ⁵⁸, against 2,436 in Larimer County ⁴⁶. In September 2026 the Greeley metro's median listing price was $499,999, with 1,608 active listings ⁵⁹. A for-sale or build-to-rent study in Weld reads its pricing against that median and against the new supply the permits imply, because buyers choosing between new and existing homes see both.

The Northern Colorado broker figures in the Fort Collins section include Greeley submarkets, but they are regional and are not printed again here. Greeley-specific office, industrial and retail reports were not found, nor were Weld County oil and gas production data, meatpacking or agribusiness plant announcements with job counts, or Greeley zoning and impact fee changes. FEMA's September 15, 2026 release lists more than $1.8 million for stormwater drainage in Kersey, a Weld County town ³⁶. BEA's 2023 GDP for the Greeley metro was 28,181.144 (millions of dollars), in a FRED series now marked discontinued ⁶⁰.

Mesa County had 66,300 covered jobs in March 2026 and an average weekly wage of $1,178 in the first quarter, with no over-the-year change published for the county ². The Grand Junction metro's mean hourly wage was $30.08 in May 2025 ⁶⁴. In September 2026 the metro had 988 listings active ⁶⁵. BEA's 2023 GDP for the metro was 9,147.468 (millions of dollars), in a FRED series now marked discontinued ⁶⁶.

Mesa County runs to the Utah line. The metro is Mesa County alone, so the figures here stop at the state border; a highway, lodging or retail project drawing on traffic from Utah sources that side from Utah's own series. With 988 listings active ⁶⁵, the for-sale market is thin enough that a small new subdivision can change local supply, and a study counts the competing lots and homes directly.

The western flooding of 2025 that FEMA declined to fund damaged roads and infrastructure on this side of the state ⁹. Broker reports, Grand Junction and Mesa County permit reports, Grand Junction Regional Airport passenger counts, energy, agriculture and tourism employer figures with dates, and local rule changes were not found.

Colorado's public lending record is thin in the sources this page could read. SBA's fiscal 2025 totals for Colorado, CHFA's 2025 production, the state's SSBCI allocation and deployment, USDA Rural Development's Colorado announcements and FDIC deposit totals were not found on dated primary pages. A Colorado feasibility study consultant therefore leans on the program rules, which are national, and on the market evidence above, which is local.

SBA 7(a) and 504

The governing procedure is SOP 50 10 8.1, effective October 1, 2026 ⁶⁸. Under it, a standard 7(a) loan has to clear a debt service coverage of 1.15x, and a 504 borrower in business two years or less, or buying special-purpose property, puts in 15% equity, rising to 20% when it is both ⁶⁸. For studies, the governing text is 13 CFR 120.160(b): SBA may require professional appraisals, a survey, or a feasibility study ⁶⁹. A new resort-county lodge, a Colorado Springs flex building for a startup operator or a child care center in Weld County is the kind of project where a lender asks for one. For those tests, see SBA 7(a) and 504 lending.

One Colorado lender's year shows the scale of community lending. The Colorado Enterprise Fund, a CDFI, reported deploying $18,085,922 to small businesses in its fiscal year ended September 30, 2025, including 46 loans, $7,829,700 under SBA 7(a), and more than $442 million to over 9,800 businesses since 1976 ⁷⁰. These are one lender's figures, not a state total.

USDA Rural Development

Whether a Colorado site can use USDA's business and community programs is set by the program's eligibility map for the exact address, and it is checked there rather than assumed from a county name; a town in a metro county can qualify and a resort town in a rural county may not. Business and Industry, Community Facilities and REAP activity in Colorado for fiscal 2025 was not found. How the programs test a project is on the USDA Rural Development page.

Conventional and institutional lending

A bank or life company loan on a Colorado apartment, industrial or hotel asset is underwritten on the broker and county figures in the market sections, and on the legal changes in the rules section, which a credit committee will ask about by name: the parking prohibition near transit, the HOME Act's approval dates, the assessment rate for the asset's class. The page on conventional and institutional lending sets out what such a lender reads in a study.

EB-5

An EB-5 project in Colorado needs a job count the program accepts and, for the reduced investment, a targeted employment area designation for the site. The job model draws on the county wage and payroll figures in this page's market sections. The EB-5 page explains how the study supports both.