 Hi, I'm Realtor Sara Maro with Cell State Peak Realty. Welcome to episode one of Proper Tea Time. Joining me today is Colin Argus from the Longmont Downtown Development Authority. And we're here to discuss that there are a lot of great areas of Colorado, but today we're going to be discussing why Longmont. As a Realtor, I've noticed lately how long-time residents and natives simply don't realize how expensive their hometown is getting until they decide to move. Let's face it, living in a great town has a cost. That's how supply and demand works. But what characteristics make a town a great place to live in the first place, and which of these assets impact our assets? In other words, how do these characteristics increase our home values? Is it the mountain views, the arts and rec, does the quality of schools and the crime rate and family-friendly vibe in the neighborhoods dictate our purchase prices, or does it really boil down to location, jobs, and median income? In a nutshell, Coloradans thought Boulder was getting expensive at $600,000 back in 2013, and those very neighborhoods only eight years later are valued at well over 1.5 million now. And while I'm not here with a crystal ball or even prepared to give educated predictions, one key indicator that Longmont is becoming the next bolder is that we're not building a lot of new homes here. We really don't have that much land for that, frankly. So we're sprucing up what we've got, and when you see a downtown revamp itself the way that we are, you realize, oh, we have innate value, and people want access to the face-lifted resources that we have. Homes do need to be built, and naturally developments are starting to spread outward. But what you're paying for when you arrive here, even in the outskirts, is largely due to all the development in the face-lift that we're doing right in the downtown area. And we're really not a metropolitan hub in look, feel, or cost here in Longmont, but that's really quite attractive in our post-pandemic world. Hi, Colin. Hi, Sarah. So let's start off by you telling us a little bit about what makes downtown's Longmont area so unique. Absolutely. There's a lot of old towns in this state. What's so great about ours? Yeah, well, thanks for asking. I feel like a couple of words that come up often when people ask about downtown or talk about downtown is real and authentic. And that relates to the people that are here. It relates to the small businesses that are here. We don't have a lot of chains in downtown Longmont, really. It's all a lot of locally-owned small businesses, and those small business owners are kind of the heartbeat of our downtown community, which is really great. So I feel like that's a big thing that sets Longmont apart from a lot of communities around here. We had a consultant who came in and spoke to us, and he works at communities all over the front range and even beyond Colorado. But he said Longmont really feels like one of the last kind of freestanding cities and freestanding communities along the front range that hasn't been swallowed up as a suburb of Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins. I think that's a point of pride as well. So why is ours? I've noticed ours is also larger in size, and therefore more entrepreneurs can come in and sort of space. Like, what can you do in Longmont that you can't do downtown elsewhere? Sure, yeah. So it's a unique downtown for sure. It's very, like you said, it's long and linear. It's big. It's expansive. And part of that is kind of dating back to the founding of the city, really, of the city of Longmont town of Longmont back then. But some settlers came over from Chicago and formed the Chicago Colorado Colony. And part of the land agreement was that they received a plot of land for their home, but then they also received space on Main Street to start their business. And so some of those businesses are still here today, or sorry, the buildings are still here today. So one example is the used book emporium. That's the oldest currently standing building in Longmont. They've still got a big hand crank freight elevator in the back. And then another one is MA's Love. Used to be actually JC Penney's meat market. JC Penney started the retail business and kind of learned the dry goods trade here in Longmont. So that's kind of a fun point of history in Longmont. But yeah, I feel like that kind of influenced the character and the historic charm that Longmont has. We are a certified historic district. We're also a Colorado certified creative district. So there's a lot of different things happening downtown, a lot of vibrancy, and yeah, a lot of things to enjoy. Awesome, thank you for sharing all of that. Would you speak similarly, since we're on that topic of entrepreneurship and business growth, could you speak to the current volume growth that we're seeing in Longmont? What's driving that? I've noticed some new really popular businesses coming into town, expansions, that sort of thing. What have you noticed? And how is that impacting the space we've got? Sure, yeah, yeah. There's definitely been an influx of people, but also businesses as well, especially over the last five or 10 years. There's been a lot of interest from developers, multi-use kind of development projects, but as well as just businesses that have moved here from other communities. There's been a few businesses that have found downtown Longmont from places like Boulder and Louisville. I just really liked the community-oriented aspects of downtown and of Longmont as a whole. So I think that's been a big draw for those businesses is the community feel. There's also a really strong entrepreneurial spirit here in Longmont, and people want to share their talents and their experiences and their knowledge with the rest of the community. So I feel like there's a good mix of people taking their dreams and moving forward with them and starting, but also people finding Longmont from other communities and feeling like this is the right place for them. So are you seeing, I've noticed there are several family businesses even, mom and pop shops, or are you finding there's young, is it a combination of young entrepreneurs coming here? Is it people who have owned forever? Is it both? Yeah, I think it's a mix of all that really. We've got, like you said, the mom and pop shops that have been here on Main Street for 30, 40, 50 years here in Longmont. And then there's other family-owned businesses that have relocated, like I mentioned. There's actually a couple new ones gonna be opening here in the near future on Main Street that are family businesses that have been in business for a long time that popped up here on Main Street. But then also, yeah, I feel like Longmont has a unique opportunity in the space that's available. There's a large variety of different types of spaces available. And I think, especially over the past year, the demand for space has changed a lot. There's been so many changes with office space and how people are looking at brick and mortar locations. So I think we have a pretty diverse offering of spaces available here in Longmont. Is it mostly craft breweries, restaurants, new IT tech? What are you seeing? That's a good question. Food and beverages has always been huge here in Longmont and the craft beverage scene for sure is probably one. Alive and well. Certainly alive and well. You could say that again. Within Longmont, we've got tons, even just within downtown, we've got, I don't know, six, seven breweries. We've got a couple distilleries. We've got a cidery. And yeah, Longmont certainly is a destination for craft beer and craft cocktails. And there's nationally recognized restaurants. We've had Guy Fieri get a stop here with his diners at Drive-Ins and Dives. And the Travel Channel, I think, featured Georgia Boys' barbecue. I know the roost was on Guy Fieri's show. There's just a bunch of really wonderful, unique craft food and beverage establishments here in Longmont. So that's always been a really strong component of the business community here in Longmont. That tech piece is also growing strong. We've had a couple different tech companies that moved here over the past few years and have taken office space above a bank downtown or just utilized unique properties for that as well. So again, it's a mix, so yeah, hard to say, but all of that is alive and well for sure. Now I know I'm the realtor, but let's step away from old town, downtown area for a second. Can you speak to what makes our neighborhood so desirable for families, for singles, and for seniors? I've noticed as a realtor, we're getting an influx of all of the above. What do you notice about the outskirts, if you will? Sure, sure. Well, downtown is definitely my area of expertise, but I also live here in Longmont. I grew up in Bertha just down the road, and so not a lot to do in Bertha back when I was growing up, so we came to Longmont a lot and have enjoyed it, and my wife and I have owned a house here since 2015. So yeah, Longmont has a ton to offer. I feel like one unique aspect is kind of, it's a pretty big city of close to 100,000 people now, but it's really got that small town charm, community feel. It's very welcoming and inclusive for anybody and everybody, so I think that's a big draw. It's also, we're so centrally located close to the mountains, close to Fort Collins, close to Denver, so it's easy access to really anything you wanna do, beautiful views. I mean, I live kind of close to McIntosh Lake, and I go out there and I'm just blown away with how lucky I am to live somewhere where you can see those views within 10 or 15 minutes of your house. Also, the city amenities that exist, they're always improving them, they're always thinking of others, but the museum, the library, multiple rec center facilities, there's so much to be done in Longmont and tons of programming for families and the senior center is very active as well, and there's a growing kind of nightlife along with the craft beverage scene. There's kind of a growing nightlife scene for those younger folks, so there really is lots to do for everybody and I think anybody could probably find what they like and something they'd like to do here in Longmont. Yeah, I definitely like the arts and rec aspect of things. I mean, it's nice being near Boulder, Denver and Fort Collins, but I almost feel like we're a standalone city on our, if I'm gonna play music or perform, I don't have to go to Fort Collins. I kinda like that. Absolutely. There's a live music scene here. Yeah, live music is another huge one in addition to the craft beverages and I think it's those kind of go hand in hand for the most part, but. Quite agree. Yeah, you know, there's a ton of awesome local talent here in Longmont. One event that I've worked on in the past is the Winter Walk About Music Showcase and so we've been able to showcase, I think we had close to 50 performances in 2020. We did an event in 2020, believe it or not. Oh wow, anything that happened then is a big breakthrough. So that was in February of 2020 before everything hit the fan. But yeah, it was really great to showcase all of the amazing local talented musicians here. And yeah, I mean. Thank you. I was wondering. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, thanks for playing. We look forward to having you back. Thank you, thank you. But yeah, even just a random brewery on a Wednesday night, you go in and there's a really talented live musician there. So music and creativity is a big part of the kind of Longmont spirit and Longmont as a whole. Wonderful. I know you just had a baby. I don't know a lot about this, the kid scene, but can you speak to, I'm known as a realtor, what makes our school system preferred over the school systems in the neighboring towns and in the area? Yeah, so. Why do people go so Nazi for that? Yeah. My little guy's only 11 months old today, actually, happy birthday, James, and he won't see this for years. Ah, happy birthday. Thank you. You haven't enrolled him anywhere yet? No, not yet. Not yet. But we're gonna hop on that open enrollment as soon as he's eligible, because that's... Is that a big draw? That's one, yeah. I believe that's one huge draw for the St. Mary Valley School District is that open enrollment choice. You don't have to live in the heart of Old Town to go to Central Elementary. You can live anywhere here. Right, you can find a place that works for you and a location that works for you at a price point that works for you, but also take advantage of the school system as a whole. And you know, they've also got this wonderful innovation center out by the museum that focuses on the STEAM STEM aspects, science, technology, engineering, mathematics. And there's a lot of IB opportunities, honors opportunities. So really, I think St. Mary Valley School District is rivals any top school system in the country for those opportunities for kids. Great. And you said you've owned your home in Longmont for a while. Which neighborhood are you in? We're right by Lou Miller Park. It's called Longmont Estates is our neighborhood. So just behind Longmont, I'm at a hospital there. Right, you said you're near the like highly desirable area. Yes, absolutely. I joke with my wife that when we were looking at, when we put an offer in, I was like, you know, if anything happens, I fall off the roof or something. I'll just crawl over the hospital. We'll be fine, it's great. But no, we love the neighborhood that we're in. It itself is just a great mix of wonderful people. They're so real, so welcoming, so kind. Mix of ages, you know, my one next door neighbor has been that lived there for 40, 50 years. Wow. With his family race, it's his whole family there, and now he's retired. My neighbor on the other side, she is a semi-retired and just moved in around the same time we did, but just really found Longmont to be the place that she wanted to be. And then we've also got some younger families that have moved in next to us. It's just really a great, great mix of people and everybody gets along really well. So that's a nice segue. You heard me say earlier that we don't really realize how quickly our properties are appreciating and gaining value until we look around and it's time for us to move. Could you speak to the fact that only eight years ago, some of the more desirable areas of Boulder, we thought they were expensive at 5,600,000, and now they're up around 1.5 million in a short period of time. First of all, do you see that sort of, from where you're standing and you're in your employment, do you see that happening in Longmont? And second off, how are we gonna deal with that? How are we gonna afford to live here? That's the question of the year, right? Yeah, it's hard to say. Housing costs are certainly rising all around the region and the state and the country for both good and bad. But I feel like Longmont is able to maybe stay a little bit more even than some of the other communities. I feel like prices are skyrocketing other places and prices are certainly rising here, but at kind of a more maybe sustainable amount. And I know, obviously we're working to address the supply and demand issue with lots of new builds. There's lots of new construction going on. As you mentioned, we don't have necessarily a lot of space to expand outward, but I think more efficient use of space and some of those new builds should help to address that. So I feel like Longmont has a good chance to be a little bit more, have a little bit more stability and be a little bit less volatile, but you're the expert. Thank you for that. Well, yeah, there's certainly talk of us being the next NYWA, the next gun barrel, the next Boulder and just, I guess we all just have to recalibrate if that happens and start making more money. Well, I know Boulder County is not gonna go down in desirability, that's for sure. It's gonna be a wonderful place to live for many years to come. So we've got that to look forward to for sure. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. You're very welcome. That's the proper tea.