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Denver seeing a welcome change

Rocky Mountain News - December 23, 2006

A "new set of eyes" on your community often reveals sea changes that have occurred so subtly that you missed them. In some ways, 2006 may have been one of those years where the external perception of Denver and Colorado changed but went unnoticed by those of us who live here.

For the past 30 years the business community has grudgingly accepted the idea that metro Denver is a "district town" - the place where corporations might have a regional office but never consider having their corporate headquarters located here.

While mergers and acquisitions have absorbed a number of local corporate headquarters in 2006, especially in the energy field, a number of major decisions in the last 18 months indicate that we may be undergoing a different type of sea change, in fact a "C" change - corporate headquarters:

First of all, we are pleased to have two Fortune 500 corporate headquarters where once there was only one. Financial services giant Western Union spun off First Data, and to our great joy they have chosen to remain here.
Molson Coors chose Denver as its corporate headquarters. Qwest, while putting one of it downtown buildings on the market, remains a mainstay in the region.
Rio Tinto Minerals, a premier mining company best known for its production of Borax, moved its operations from Valencia, Calif. Our regional approach to economic development was a major selling point. When Rio Tinto executives met with Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, he said, "If you're here to have me tell you why Denver is a better location than any other metro Denver city, you've come to the wrong place. We want you here, in the region, at a place that makes the best sense for you. We all benefit wherever you locate."
Enerplus, a Canadian oil royalty trust, chose downtown Denver as its U.S. headquarters following a trade mission to Calgary led by Gov. Bill Owens and Hickenlooper.
Frontier Airlines' new regional jet company, called Lynx, will locate its headquarters in metro Denver.
ProLogis, the world's largest builder and manager of industrial buildings, stayed in metro Denver despite efforts to move them to Dallas or Chicago. They also built a new, energy-efficient headquarters building off Pena Boulevard.

Colorado is now the nation's second largest aerospace economy, nosing out Texas this year after passing Florida in 2005. The United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing for commercial satellite launch services, chose the southern part of metro Denver as its new corporate headquarters. Its plans to bring 300 to 400 workers from Huntington Beach, Calif., to the region and hire up to 600 more aerospace workers from the local market pushed Colorado into second place.

Today the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. is working with three other corporate headquarters relocations, all focused on making our region their new home. In our history of dealing with these unique opportunities, we have never had so many corporate headquarters looking at our region.

Truly there is a "C" change occurring. We attribute this to the investments we have made such as T-REX, FasTracks, Stapleton, Lowry, Fitzsimons, the new wing of the Denver Art Museum, the passage of Referendum C, coupled with unified business, civic and government groups, and an aggressive economic development program.

The world took notice, too. More than 6,000 development and planning leaders, members of the Urban Land Institute held their fall convention here. Due to the many new developments in this region, the focus on the conference was on Denver's vision and infrastructure projects. Major international media reports about metro Denver as "the next great city" have proliferated. The largest newspapers in China, Japan and South Korea ran stories. British, German and U.S. "gatekeeper" media did profiles on our efforts with T-REX, sustainability, innovation in energy, arts and cultural tourism, and the vision of orderly development brought about by FasTracks.

On other fronts, our global reach increased when Lufthansa announced nonstop service to Munich, which will begin in March 2007. The "Southwest effect" of our newest tenant at DIA and United Airlines' emergence from bankruptcy have driven 17 straight months of record traffic at DIA, our $17 billion economic engine. Frontier Airlines now provides low-cost service to Canada.

Plans are under way to expand DIA's terminal and parking. Designed to accommodate 100 million passengers at full build-out, DIA is fast-approaching the 50 million mark. The new terminal will house the FasTracks rail station, allowing passengers quick and dependable access to the $400 million-plus expansion of Union Station.

What happened in 2006? Something extraordinary. Metro Denver became a "world-class city." How's that for a "C" change?

Tom Clark is executive vice president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp.