Developer with strong ties to Northern Colorado dies in crash

DENVER — Bruce Deifik, a Colorado real estate developer, investor, casino owner and former Greeley resident, died Sunday in a single-car accident. He was driving back to his Denver home after the Colorado Rockies game, according to reports from the Associated Press and the Denver Post.

Deifik, 64, was active in the Northern Colorado development world and was part of a group that at one time owned the former Hewlett-Packard Co. facility in Greeley. Deifik, along with fellow investors Greeley lawyer Jeff Bedingfield and Fort Collins commercial real estate broker Rhys Christensen, unloaded that property in 2007 for $8.36 million, according to BizWest reports from that time.  

Christensen and Deifik also partnered on an investment involving the 2016 sale of the Continental Plaza office building in Fort Collins for $11 million.

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Deifik, along with Greeley business leaders David Calvin and Carroll Miller, owned a controlling interest in Greeley-based bank 1st Choice Financial Corp. when it was purchased by Wells Fargo & Co. in 2000. Wells Fargo absorbed the bank’s $420 million in assets and locations throughout Northern Colorado.

Prior to his death, Deifik was in the process of transferring ownership of Atlantic City casino Ocean Resort to New York hedge fund Luxor Capital, according to multiple media reports. Deifik, who bought the property in 2018, is estimated to have lost about $70 million of his own money trying to resurrect the troubled casino, formerly called Revel.