Best of Colorado Business Choice 2016 personal development winners

Here are the Best of Colorado Business Choice 2016 awards in the personal development category:

BEST NONPROFIT

The Denver Hospice

Over the last 37 years, more than 70,000 patients and their families have turned to The Denver Hospice during difficult times.

The organization and its team of medical experts provide care for the elderly at the end of their lives; for those who are struck by illness; and comfort and grief counseling to family and friends. The Denver Hospice is on call around-the-clock with palliative care physicians, nurses, certified nurses’ aids, social workers and chaplains.

Hospice doctors work closely with patients’ doctors to determine a plan for care. Medicare pays for hospice services, and most insurance plans, HMOs and managed care plans include hospice coverage, but The Denver Hospice also has programs to care for indigent and uninsured patients.

thedenverhospice.org

Runners-up: Junior Achievement Rocky Mountain, Dumb Friends League, United Way (Mile High United Way)

BEST COLLEGE/UNIVERSITY

University of Colorado-Boulder

The University of Colorado-Boulder has 29,000 students from all over Colorado, all 50 states, and around the world. CU-Boulder offers top-ranked academic programs, and students, faculty and staff are involved in research and community-based programs that are impacting Colorado and the rest of the world in many positive ways. In 2014 CU-Boulder was named 19th most entrepreneurial university. Students also try to help the community, everything from volunteering for the Peace Corps to Leeds School of Business students offering free tax preparation services under the Internal Revenue Service-sponsored Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program.

www.colorado.edu

Runners-up: Colorado State University (CSU), University of Denver (DU), University of Colorado-Denver (CU Denver)

BEST FITNESS CLUB

Cherry Creek Athletic Club

In 2015 Cherry Creek Athletic Club began a multi-phase renovation. The premium club, which offers 140 group exercise classes each week, added a  hot yoga studio and a new cardio area, remodeled the lobby, and installed an ink! Coffee location. The next phase will add a  high intensity training area for personal trainers and people who take their workouts very seriously. When the renovation is complete the facility will encompass approximately 130,000 square feet. “Our club is a step above,” says Clayton Millice, vice president of Millice Group Ltd., the real estate group that owns Cherry Creek Athletic Club. “It’s a different model. It’s a premium health club where people go every single day.”

http://cherrycreekclub.com/

Runners-up: 24 Hour Fitness, Colorado Athletic Club, Lifetime Fitness

BEST PLACE TO MOVE/OPEN A BUSINESS

Denver

Not only does Denver rank in various surveys as the best place to live in the country, it consistently tops lists like Forbes’ Best Cities to Start a Business.

The city’s Office of Economic Development provides plenty of support to entrepreneurs, including the Commons on Champa, a public campus for entrepreneurship created specifically to serve Denver’s startup and small-business community.

Consulting firm KPMG estimates business costs for all industries in Denver are 1.6 percent below the national average, and costs for software and video game developers are 4.3 percent below average.

The state also has a fund that offers cash to eligible companies that create permanent jobs that last at least a year, and Denver offers financing programs that provide up to 50 percent of a project’s costs for setting up shop in certain parts of town.

www.denvergov.org/content/denvergov/en.html

Runners-up: Fort Collins, Salida, Boulder, Glenwood Springs, Grand Junction