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Monday Business Briefs: Offseason slow for retailers, Aspen Expeditions expands

Business down in May

Business during the offseason month of May was down 5.9% for Aspen retailers compared with May 2018, according to the city’s monthly sales tax consumption report issued last week.

Retail sales in May were $25.5 million, pushing the total for the first five months of the year to $331.3 million, a 6.9% improvement over January-through-May of 2018, the report said.



Industries experiencing at least 15% declines in May were accommodations ($3.5 million, down 18.7%), sports equipment and clothing ($885,290, down 16.7%), liquor ($369,964, down 21%), utilities ($2.3 million, down 21.6%) and marijuana ($359,214, down 23%).

May accounts for roughly 3.4% of the year’s total sales tax collections, according to the report.




Other than the utilities segment, Aspen’s 11 other industries included in the report posted revenue gains for the first five months of the year over the same period in 2018.

Aspen Expeditions expands

Aspen Expeditions Worldwide recently announced its acquisition of Kling Mountain Guides, a mountain guide services in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado.

“With extensive permits in the Durango and Silverton areas, including the famed Weminuche Wilderness, we are thrilled to bring this experience and diversity into the AEW fold,” Aspen Expeditions said.

Aspen Expeditions is located at the base of Aspen Highlands.

Housing authority picks IT firm for automation project

The Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority has selected global IT services company Hexaware as the vendor to implement the automation project known as the Housing Information Management System (HIMS).

As part of its public outreach and education efforts, APCHA also officially rebranded HIMS to “HomeTrek” to help increase public awareness and engagement.

“We are excited to begin negotiating a contract with Hexaware to modernize APCHA,” Mike Kosdrosky, APCHA’s executive director, said in a statement. “HomeTrek will be the most innovative change to the housing program since it was created.”

HomeTrek will eventually give customers and decision makers 24/7 real-time access to information and data concerning APCHA’s inventory of over 3,000 units, including up-to-date information about housing availability, prices, rents and affordability.

APCHA’s current systems are mostly outdated, paper-based and are not automated.

“Hexaware’s mission to automate everything, cloudify everything, and transform customer experiences makes them the ideal partner for APCHA on its journey to automation,” Kosdrosky said.

Hexaware was one of eight companies to submit a proposal.

A selection team made up of over 10 representatives, including from the city, county, APCHA and subject matter experts, scored and evaluated proposals.

Once a contract is negotiated and approved by elected officials the project design and implementation will officially kickoff.