Editor’s Note: Once among the nation’s fastest-growing economies, Colorado today confronts mounting challenges that threaten its momentum. This series reveals how a state once defined by prosperity is navigating economic cliffs and ridges. We explore the impact that increased regulations, tariffs, shifting tax policies, the high cost of living and widening urban–rural divides have on businesses, workers, and communities. The series also highlights the push to leverage Colorado’s outdoor economy — one of its most valuable assets — for renewed growth, while working to attract industries like quantum and aerospace.

Every day that Philip Guerin opens the doors of his small, family-owned business in the City and County of Denver, it costs him $882 – an expense he’ll have to cover regardless of whether he makes a single retail sale that day.

It’s just the cost of doing business in Denver, he said.

Of that amount, nearly $600 is allocated to various city taxes and fees, including Denver’s mandated minimum wage, multiple special district and local improvement charges, as well as the city’s occupational privilege tax.

The owner of Myxed Up Creations, a local vape and cannabis lifestyle shop on East Colfax, said that over the three decades he’s been in business, he’s pretty much “seen it all.” 

From “endless” construction to recessions to pandemic-related shutdowns, Guerin said keeping his small business alive in the Mile High City has been an honor – but it is also becoming more of a challenge each year.

Guerin is not alone in his frustration with the increasing level of evolving regulation placed on businesses.

“As the sixth most regulated state in the nation, Colorado’s regulatory climate continues to be a top concern for businesses statewide,” wrote the Colorado Chamber of Commerce in May. “Small businesses, in particular, consistently identify the state’s high regulatory burden as a significant barrier to doing business.”

A survey of 169 members of the Colorado Chamber of Commerce – conducted by Oklahoma City-based research firm Cole, Hargrave, Snodgrass and Associates in late 2024 – revealed that 71% of respondents believe the state’s business climate is more costly or burdensome than that of other states. Only 5% hold the opposite view. 

But while fees and taxes go along with the standard complications of doing business in a major metro area, Guerin said so far, the most costly blow to his business came directly from the Denver City Council.  

In 2024, the Denver City Council passed two sweeping amendments to the city code.

The first placed a series of zoning restrictions on the construction of new retail gas stations. 

The second, which took Guerin and other local retail vape shop owners by surprise, imposed an outright ban on the sale of flavored tobacco products within the City and County of Denver.

So-called “soft enforcement” of the law began this summer. Fines and license suspensions for retailers found selling the flavored tobacco products will commence on Jan. 1, 2026.

Guerin, who also serves as president of the Rocky Mountain Smoke-Free Alliance Board of Directors, argues the city’s ban unfairly targets legitimate resellers of the products and will ultimately cost many family-owned businesses, like his, their livelihoods. It will also the city more than $13 million in tax revenue, he said.

The city’s new law doesn’t just impact vape shop owners. It also pulls flavored tobacco products from the shelves of hundreds of local convenience stores.

“The logic with this is just wrong,” Guerin told Colorado Politics. “We already have a law that prevents the sale of flavored tobacco to minors, but nobody wants to talk about that – or the fact that even with the ban, cigarettes will remain on the shelf.”

Guerin, along with vape shop owners Ellen Rochelle, Shanna Finch, Kristen Hensel and Russel Hensel, spent more than $240,000 to gather the signatures to place the question on the 2024 ballot. 

Denver’s flavored tobacco fight even attracted the attention of Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City.

Bloomberg, known for his anti-tobacco stance, has sought to advance policies that discourage the use of tobacco and tobacco-related products through his organization, Bloomberg Philanthropies.

His contributions to Denver Kids vs. Big Tobacco to keep the ban in place totaled just under $5 million, according to Denver Searchlight, the city’s online database for campaign and finance disclosure.

On Nov. 4, Denver voters overwhelmingly supported keeping the city’s ban in place.

Supporters of the ban suggested the product’s colorful packaging and sweet and candy-like flavors target young people, in particular, and serve as a gateway to long-term substance abuse.

They also argued that the economic impact of such products in Colorado amounts to $2.2 billion in annual healthcare costs, $4.4 billion in smoking-caused productivity losses, and $415 million in estimated Medicaid costs, which translates to a $772 per household tax burden.

Restrictions considered in Denver, Aurora

Similarly, the Aurora City Council has moved forward with an ordinance that, if passed, aims to address the density of “high-risk” businesses in low-income communities.

The “Socioeconomic Sales and Services Impact Permit” ordinance, proposed by then-Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky, would require permits for such shops to address what officials called “predatory” businesses.

Existing businesses would be grandfathered in.

City officials argued that when concentrated, those businesses – such as pawn shops, vape and smoke shops, rent-to-own stores, marijuana retail stores, convenience stores that sell alcohol or tobacco and bail bond services – “detract from a balanced retail environment and can trigger a downward spiral of blight,” according to council documents.

Meanwhile, in February, the Denver City Council passed legislation to prohibit the construction of new retail gas stations within a quarter mile of an existing retail station, a quarter mile of light rail stations, and within 300 feet of a protected or “low-density” residential neighborhood.

Councilmembers argued that the move is designed to preserve more land for housing and to support the city’s goals of creating more “walkable” mixed-use developments near transit stops.

The city’s new restrictions do not apply to gas stations that aren’t open to the public, such as fuel services for government fleets, transit vehicles, or rental car agencies.

However, for investors and developers like Oklahoma-based convenience store giant QuikTrip, which already had several projects on the desks of city planners, the biggest sticking point was that the zoning code made the restrictions retroactive to May 13, 2024.

QuikTrip filed a lawsuit in Denver District Court, alleging the city’s recently amended code violates state law that prohibits “ex post facto and retroactive laws.”

The lawsuit, filed March 17, sought injunctive relief to bar the application of the city’s new zoning amendments to development applications submitted before Feb. 18, which was when the new code was approved by a 12-1 council vote.

According to court documents, the injunction would permit QuikTrip to proceed with its plans for four new gas stations within the city of Denver.

“The (code) amendments will not be a mere procedural or remedial action by the city,” wrote Denver land use attorney David William Foster in an earlier letter to city attorneys. “The amendments are substantive changes to law that will retrospectively attach a new disability to the use of property.”

Foster, whose firm represents QuikTrip, added: “Put simply, an applicant for a gas station within one of these regional categories will, under the amendments, go from having a viable project to a prohibited project. They will lose their entire project.”

“Developers and their lawyers are an interesting breed,” District 6 Councilmember Paul Kashmann said at a public hearing on the matter in February. “They tell compelling stories about property rights and stealing my investment, but they build projects not caring at all about its effect on adjacent properties. They build projects that the neighborhood doesn’t want. They build projects that block sunlight, create noise and create traffic. None of these gas stations are the result of community meetings, where people said, ‘Yeah, we want a gas station.’”

The company stated in its filing that it has already spent more than $750,000 on planners, engineers and architects to prepare concept designs for the city, legal costs for applications, expenses to extend necessary contracts and environmental spending tied to developing the four properties.

The company said it also fears it could be liable for additional monetary losses, including property devaluation and lost profits from the development of the convenience store gas stations.

In July, a judge dismissed the case, ruling that the company, because it had not yet received final city permits for its planned projects, had not established a “vested” right to build; therefore, the court said, the city leaders acted within the scope of the law.

According to court documents, QuikTrip filed a notice of appeal on Aug. 21, 2025.

Denver Council taps brake on soccer stadium funding

After months of anticipation, Denver rejoiced this summer when the National Women’s Soccer League announced it would call the city its home.

Along with the excitement of the new franchise came plans from the city to commit to a subsidy to build a new 10,000-to-12,000-seat soccer stadium near Interstate 25 and Broadway Avenue on the former site of Denver’s Gates Rubber Factory.

The Denver City Council approved an intergovernmental agreement in May for $70 million, a majority of which will be used for buying the land upon which the stadium will be constructed.

The remaining funds would be earmarked for infrastructure around the stadium, such as creating a new public park, fast-tracking plans to expand Santa Fe Drive to five lanes and investing in sidewalks, street crossings and access to the South Platte River.

A study done by the city estimated that a new women’s soccer team could inject up to $2.2 billion in economic impact over the next 30 years.

But in early November, a city council committee voted to delay the $70 million agreement for the city to purchase the Santa Fe Yards site by 30 days. That delay, the councilmembers said, would allow the city to better understand how the money would be allocated.

The city council must approve that financing by the end of the year

As part of its bid to secure for Denver a franchise from the National Women’s Soccer League, the team had promised to have its stadium built in time to play by March 2028.

If it fails to meet the bid promise, the team could face fines from the league.

Last Wednesday, the group of councilmembers that reviews new measures affecting development near the banks of Denver’s primary waterway finally approved the package that would allow the city to buy the land at Santa Fe Yards and finance infrastructure improvements. The full council still needs to vote on it.

The city committee took the action after team officials said they are now looking at options to build in jurisdictions outside of Denver, specifically citing “challenges we have faced with the Denver City Council Process.”

The team recently announced that it has already sold out of its inaugural season tickets.

Denver Gazette reporters Kyla Pearce and Bernadette Berdychowski contributed to this story.

Read more from the Fiscal Rockies series:

Q&A: Colorado Chamber of Commerce CEO sees warning signs for state economy, despite strengths

Can you afford to live in Denver?

After years of leading the nation, Colorado’s economy shows signs of cooling

Q&A with Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce | ‘Getting harder, more expensive to do business’ in Colorado

Regulatory layers turn cost of doing business in Colorado into ‘death by a thousand cuts’ 

Site selectors praise Colorado workforce — but flag regulatory hurdles

‘Evolving’ regulatory landscape among Colorado cities is pricey, problematic, small businesses say

Q&A with the Colorado Springs Chamber & Economic Development Corporation | Struggling with workforce shortages, high cost, regulatory uncertainty 

Once a step ahead, Colorado’s economy cools, burdened by rising costs and regulations