Talk to anyone at the Downtown Denver Partnership about sprucing up the 16th Street Mall, and the conversation will eventually get stuck on the Fontius building - specifically, how it's been an eyesore for 20 years. The green sign adorning the vacant building is infamous. But with the recent news that Evan Makovsky will redevelop the block that includes the former shoe store, there's hope.

Partnership member Denver Pavilions is trumpeting the plan - and the man - by handing out buttons emblazoned with the words: "EVAN, an urban hero."

A rap on the knuckles

Business Week magazine noted recently that high-profile white-collar crime is fading, at least temporarily, but that CEOs are still getting into other kinds of trouble deserving of a trip to the principal's office.

Example: Whole Foods' John Mackey, who posted anonymous online insults aimed at Boulder-based Wild Oats, which Whole Foods is trying to acquire.

Mackey used the screen name "rahodeb," a scramble of Deborah, his wife's name. In one instance, he called Wild Oats "a mediocre company with a terrible track record."

Business Week asked a real high school principal what Mackey's punishment would be if he sent the missives while attending the principal's school: "If students misuse the school computer, online privileges are pulled. In more severe cases of cyber-bullying, students may face detention or suspension. Many students use thinly veiled aliases, sometimes adolescents give themselves credit for being much savvier than they are."

Betting on Beckham

When it comes to David Beckham, Tim Leiweke, president of Anschutz Entertainment Group, has put his money where his hoped-for sold-out crowds are.

Anschutz owns the Los Angeles Galaxy, which signed the soccer superstar earlier this year.

Lieweke told listeners on a Los Angeles radio talk show that he would make a donation to the Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA for every Los Angeles Galaxy game sold out for the rest of the season or any match drawing more than 30,000, according to the Los Angeles Times.

"I'll donate $5,000 for each one," Leiweke said, which could add up to as much as $120,000 if Beckham is as big a draw as Leiweke contends, according to the Times.

Moving on up

Never mind the Left Coast, where celebrities buy the homes of other celebrities all the time.

Colorado's own Hank Ridless bought a 16-acre Litchfield County, Conn., estate owned by film and theater producer Scott Rudin, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Rudin produced The Truman Show, The School of Rock and The Queen on screen and The Year of Magical Thinking and The History Boys on Broadway.

Ridless made his name on a different type of marquee. He is the founder of Circle Graphics, a Longmont large-format digital-printing company that specializes in billboard prints.

Ridless paid $4.25 million for the estate - 20 percent less than the asking price - which includes a 4,000-square-foot, three-bedroom colonial house; several gardens; two ponds; and a pool and pool house, the Journal said.

Assistant Business Editor Jane Hoback and Deputy Business Editor Gil Rudawsky write about local business news that doesn't necessarily end up in quarterly reports. They can be reached at business@RockyMountainNews.com.