West Slope city on the rebound: stung by the oil shale crash, Grand Junction leans on outdoor appeal, Western feel.

• Author: Jackson, Margaret
• Position: REAL ESTATE ROUNDUP

THE BOOM AND BUST in the energy industry on Colorado's Western Slope has taken its toll on Grand Junction, which stands in stark contrast to other parts of the state that have come back from the Great Recession.

The area is still 3,000 jobs short of its pre-recession level, so now it's focused on bringing new industries to the region to combat the erosion of jobs, specifically in the oil and gas industry.

"For a long time, the economy over here was really humming along," said Sam Suplizio, a broker with Bray b Co. Commercial in Grand Junction. "We recovered nicely from some of the things in the '80s that were so devastating--there was the oil shale crash. Now, we'd like to diversify. The whole energy extraction thing is great, but when it goes away, we really feel the effect."

The loss of energy companies has had a noticeably negative impact on the community's real estate market, particularly industrial properties. While office and retail appear to have bounced back, industrial properties are selling at a fraction of what they were commanding six years ago. The apartment market also has remained strong, though the lack of jobs and the city's overarching economic sluggishness make it difficult to break ground on new multifamily projects.

According to Bray's 2nd quarter commercial real estate report:

* A national retailer is planning a new location

* FedEx Ground is building a 48,000-square-foot facility

* City Market is looking at building a new store on property it owns at North 12th Street and Patterson Road

* The Pilot and Loves truck stops have been completed

"Jobs on the retail level are coming in, but that doesn't lend itself to a vibrant, stable economy," Suplizio said. "It's still precarious and fragile. If a new restaurant comes in, that's super. But somebody else is going out of business. The town is not vibrant enough to support that."

Though the unemployment rate is relatively low at 6.3 percent, the number of jobs that left the region sucked the money those workers spend with it.

There are, however, opportunities for investors--particularly in industrial properties that were abandoned when the oil and gas industry relocated employees to Texas, Oklahoma and North Dakota.

"Industrial land prices dropped about 50 percent when oil and gas pulled out, and they're still there," said Dale Beede, a broker with Coldwell Banker Commercial Prime Properties in Grand Junction, who estimates the region has lost about 20,000 jobs since 2008...