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DaVita named 2011 Deal of the Year

The Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation named DaVita the Deal of the Year award winner at its Annual Meeting and Awards Luncheon on April 7, 2011, recognizing the company for its significant economic impact to the region through new job creation and capital investment.

DaVita, a Fortune 500 provider of kidney care services, announced it would move its corporate headquarters to Denver from El Segundo, Calif., in May 2009. In July 2010, DaVita shared plans for its new headquarters facility in downtown Denver near Denver Union Station. DaVita will invest $90 million to develop the 270,000-square-foot, 15-story building. 

DaVita has already created more than 300 new jobs in Denver. The company has potential to grow to 900 team members at its new headquarters. The new building, to be completed in 2012, will also serve as the site for DaVita University, where thousands of the firm's staff will train annually.

2012 Major Relocations and Expansions

(by date of announcement - most recent first)

  • National Bank Holdings Corp. announced on May 18, 2012, that it will move its corporate headquarters from Boston to Colorado. Company officials say a "positive business experience, educated workforce, and strategic location" led the company to move its headquarters to Colorado. The company will have offices in Greenwood Village and Denver.
  • Seagate Technology announced in May 2012 that it is expanding its workforce in Longmont. The company has hired 86 new full-time employees this year with 100 additional positions to be added.
  • Raytheon's Information and Intelligence Systems (IIS) division, based in Aurora, announced in April 2012 that it has accelerated hiring as a result of its work on two government satellite contracts totaling $2 billion. Company officials expect to add 100 new employees by the end of 2012.
  • SEFE Inc., a startup focused on generating power from static electricity, announced on April 16, 2012, that it has moved its corporate headquarters from Arizona to Boulder. Company officials say the move serves a strategic purpose, simplifying operations by bringing the headquarters to the company's recently opened Science and Technology Center, also in Boulder.
  • United Natural Foods announced on April 12, 2012, that it will build a $45 million distribution center in Aurora. The company expects to add 500 new positions at the new facility, to be completed by mid-2013.
  • Gov. John Hickenlooper joined Joe Clayton, CEO of DISH, one of the nation's leading pay-TV providers, and Michael Kelly, president of Blockbuster, in announcing in April 2012 that Blockbuster will relocate its new worldwide headquarters to the Meridian International Office Park in Douglas County, Colo. The expansion will bring more than 150 management positions to the metro Denver area over the next five years.
  • Cooper Lighting, a division of Ireland-based Cooper Industries and a manufacturer of incandescent florescent and LED lighting for business and consumers, announced on April 17, 2012, that it will invest $1.2 million to improve a 190,000-square-foot facility in Aurora, where it expects to create 650 new jobs over the next 10 years.
  • IMA Financial Group broke ground on its $32 million, five-story building located next to Denver Union Station on April 11, 2012. The new headquarters building will allow IMA to grow from about 200 employees in Denver to 300 to 400 over the next 10 to 15 years. Construction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2013.
  • The TriZetto Group, a healthcare technology company, broke ground on April 5, 2012, for its new 186,000-square-foot, world headquarters building at DTCMeridian in Douglas County. TriZetto officials say rapid growth is driving the company to build the new facility, which will open in the spring of 2013. TriZetto expects to add up to 750 new jobs at the facility within five years.
  • SCL Health System, announced in March 2012 the relocation of its corporate headquarters from Kansas to Metro Denver. SCL will create 750 new jobs over the next four years in Denver and Broomfield.
  • FedEx SmartPost leased a 200,000-square-foot industrial building at the Aurora Majestic Commercenter in April 2012, with plans to move in by July. Company spokespeople say the larger facility will allow the company to meet higher demand in the region and will likely hire more staff at the new facility.
  • Niagara Bottling of California announced in March 2012 that it would build a new 177,000-square-foot bottling plant in Aurora. The company will create 36 new jobs and invest $30 million on the new location.
  • GE Energy announced in March 2012 that it will expand its operations in Longmont by investing $565,000 in an additional 26,000 square feet of space. GE will add 20 additional staff members as a result of the expansion.
  • Micron Technology, a global manufacturer of advanced solid state semiconductor solutions located in Longmont, announced expansion plans in March 2012 for a new engineering and design center where it expects to add 70 new employees.
  • Covidien PLC, a leading manufacturer of medical devices, opened a new 63,000-square-foot research and development center on March 6, 2012, in Boulder. The R&D Innovation Center is one of 24 worldwide, and will have 160 employees and 18 laboratories.
  • UE Compression, a designer and fabricator of custom gas compression systems, announced expansion plans in March 2012 to build a new 100,000-square-foot manufacturing and business operations building in Commerce City, where it will add 65 new employees.
  • Precast Concepts announced expansion plans in March 2012, by purchasing land adjacent to its existing campus to expand its existing building in Commerce City by 48,000 square feet. The company will add 12 new positions to support its StoneBilt and Distinctive Mold divisions.
  • Cummins Rocky Mountain LLC announced plans in March 2012 to expand its campus in Commerce City by constructing a new 35,000-square-foot facility housing a training center, services center, and a potential manufacturing facility. Cummins plans to add 73 new employees.
  • ReadyTalk, a leading provider of audio and web conferencing and webinar services, announced on March 1, 2012, that it would relocate its headquarters in downtown Denver to new space at the LEED-certified 1900 Sixteenth Street, where it will occupy two floors. The company, which currently employs 140 people, has experienced significant growth, plans to expand to 200 staff members by the end of the year.
  • Leptron Industrial Robotic Helicopters, a a manufacturer of most technologically advanced unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) industrial helicopters for use in a variety of industries, opened a sales office in Golden in February 2012.
  • Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, located in Jefferson County, opened its new GPS III Processing Facility on Feb. 21, 2012. The company, which partnered with the U.S. Air Force to invest $80 million in the manufacturing plant, will build up to 32 new GPS III satellites in the next two decades at the 50,000-square-foot plant, and employ up to 100 people at peak production.
  • The Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters announced in February 2012 that it will build a new office and training facility at Stapleton's Enterprise Park in Denver. The organization purchased 13 acres of land, choosing the site due to access to freeways and Denver International Airport.
  • Southwest Airlines announced in February 2012 that it will open a new pilot crew base in October 2012 as well as a new flight attendant crew base in the fourth quarter of 2012 at Denver International Airport. The new crew domicile, to be located on Concourse C, will be home to at least 250 pilots and 400 flight attendants.
  • Trimble, a leading provider of advanced positioning solutions and GPS technology, announced plans on Feb. 14, 2012, to build a 125,000-square-foot building in the Westmoor Business Center in Westminster. The company currently employs 370 people, and Trimble officials say the new building can accommodate up to 550 employees.
  • Northwestern Mutual - Denver and The Cunningham Financial Group announced on Feb. 2, 2012 plans to add nearly 200 new jobs throughout 2012. The new positions include 75 financial representatives and 108 financial representative interns.
  • Frontier Airlines announced on Jan. 27, 2012, that it would move its corporate headquarters from Indianapolis back to Denver. The airline has placed its president and CEO and new senior management team in Denver.
  • HealthSouth Corporation announced on Jan. 25, 2012, its plans to construct a new 49,000-square-foot inpatient rehabilitation hospital in Littleton. The 40-room hospital will employ as many as 90 people by the third year of operation. Officials estimate the construction process will create 300-400 jobs.
  • DaVita announced on Jan. 27, 2012, that it would open its new research center at the St. Anthony Central Hospital campus in Lakewood. Set to open in the third quarter of 2012, the new facility will be used for drug development and to test new products and therapies in the area of kidney dialysis, employing 58 executive and medical professionals. DaVita, a Fortune 500 provider of dialysis services, relocated its headquarters to Denver from California in 2009.
  • Thornton Tomasetti, an international engineering firm with 25 worldwide offices, announced on January 30, 2012, that it opened a new office in downtown Denver. With several projects underway in Denver, the firm located in the region to better serve clients in the western central region and mountain states.
  • DCL International and H+H Umwelt announced a partnership in January 2012 to form AeriNOx Inc., a new environmental engineering company based in Boulder. The new firm will specialize in reducing exhaust gas emissions from industrial processes and stationary engines and boilers operating in the United States and Canada.
  • HITT Contracting Inc., one of the largest U.S. general contractors, announced in January 2012 the company would open a new office in Golden. Building upon its existing base of clients in the Metro Denver region, the company's Colorado office will provide construction services for corporate interiors, mission critical, law firms, hospitality, healthcare, federal, and commercial mixed-use projects. The new Golden office will be the sixth U.S. office opened by HITT Contracting Inc.
  • Merrill Lynch announced on Jan. 19, 2012, that it would locate its Heartland Market headquarters in Denver. The location will allow the company to serve this growing market, which in addition to Colorado, includes Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
  • Teletech announced on Jan. 17, 2012, plans to hire more than 500 people at a new customer-support call center in Greeley. The new center will occupy 50,000 square feet in a space formerly occupied by a Kmart store.
  • NeoMedia Technologies, Inc., announced on Jan. 5, 2012, that it would move its corporate headquarters from Atlanta to Boulder. A global leader in mobile barcode scanning solutions, NeoMedia officials said Boulder's growth as a center for high tech and mobile along with a strong agency community will allow the company to grow its business at a local and international level.
  • Head USA, a marketer of skis, snowboards, and other sports equipment and clothing, announced in January 2012 that it will move its Winter Division to Boulder from Norwalk, Conn. The company says Colorado was a natural choice since it has 20 percent of all U.S. skier visits as well as major resorts and retailers. The company will locate 12 employees to Boulder in spring 2012.

2011 Major Relocations and Expansions

(by date of announcement - most recent first)

  • Oil States International, Inc. announced on December 15, 2011, that it has acquired a manufacturing facility north of Denver, in Johnstown, Colo. that will provide additional construction capacity for both the U.S. and Canadian remote site accommodation markets. The company expects to create 249 new jobs over the next five years. The manufacturing facility is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2012 with production starting by midyear.
  • Mass Megawatts Wind Power Inc. announced in December 2011 that it has started production of its wind-power units in a manufacturing facility in Morrison, Colo.
  • Denver-based Gart Companies announced on December 2, 2011, that it would merge its Bag'n Baggage with California travel catalog-sales company Magellan Travel Supplies. The equal partnership merger will be based in Denver, with each company operating independently.
  • The Coleman Company, an international leader in the innovation and marketing of outdoor products, announced Dec. 1, 2011, it is opening a new office in the Denver West area in unincorporated Jefferson County.  The company will occupy a 36,500 square-foot log cabin office building that was originally built for them in the mid-90s. The Coleman Company will relocate some sales, marketing and product teams from Wichita to the new office as well as hire from the local marketplace.
  • Southwest Windpower, the world's leading manufacturer of distributed generation wind turbines, announced Dec. 1, 2011, the opening of a location in Broomfield, Colo. The Flagstaff, Ariz.-based company is opening the facility to focus on development of a wind testing site and commercial sales. 
  • Sunetric, a Hawaiian solar design and installation company opened an office in Denver in November 2011. The company has two other mainland offices in Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.
  • Global Healthcare Exchange (GHX), a Louisville-based software company that automates supply ordering for hospitals and healthcare industry suppliers, announced in November 2011 plans to add 100 staff members over the next 12 months, bringing employment at its headquarters to more than 400.
  • Latisys announced Nov. 21, 2011, a significant expansion to its data center presence in the Denver market with the addition of a second regional facility. After expansion and build-out, total capacity of the new high-density data center facility will exceed 82,000 square feet, more than doubling the current Latisys footprint in Colorado. Latisys is a leading national provider of colocation, managed hosting, managed services, disaster recovery and private cloud solutions to medium-sized businesses, enterprise customers and government agencies. 
  • DaVita, a leading provider of kidney care services, announced in November 2011 that it would expand two portions of its business in Metro Denver. DaVita Clinical Research will expand in the region by adding medical, technical, and scientific jobs at a facility that will attract the world's leading healthcare innovators, including pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device companies. DaVita will also create an inbound call center in the area focused on helping patients locate dialysis services. Company officials estimate both projects will bring as many as 200 new jobs to Metro Denver. DaVita moved its headquarters from California to Denver in 2009.
  • GE announced in October 2011 plans to build the nation's largest solar panel manufacturing facility in Aurora. When completed, the advanced manufacturing facility will create 355 jobs in Colorado over the next three to five years. Colorado already is home to GE Energy’s thin film solar pilot line, where joint technology advancements from GE’s Global Research Center and PrimeStar Solar have been validated and tested. GE completed the acquisition of Colorado-based PrimeStar earlier this year. GE leadership noted that locating in Colorado would allow the company to deliver technologies faster and commercialize industry-leading panel efficiencies sooner.
  • Arrow Electronics, Inc. announced in October 2011 that its Colorado operations will become the company's global headquarters, effective Nov. 15, 2011. Arrow Electronics, a Fortune 140 company, serves customers in 52 counties and had 2010 sales of $18.7 billion. This will be the highest ranked Fortune 500 company to ever call Colorado home. Arrow Electronics is currently headquartered in Melville, N.Y., and has had a significant presence in Englewood, Colo., since 2000. With 12,700 employees worldwide, Arrow brings technology solutions to a breadth of markets, including telecommunications, information systems, transportation, medical, industrial and consumer electronics.
  • Intrawest ULC, which operates resorts in North America including Steamboat and Winter Park, announced an expansion of 50 new jobs in October 2011 at its new headquarters in Denver. Company spokespeople say the company will eventually add 115 people at its LoDo building.
  • MinuteKey Inc. a developer of key-copying vending machines, received $10.6 million in private investment and announced in October 2011 that it will hire 20 employees in software development and other areas during the next six months.
  • OtterBox, a leader in the production of premier protective solutions for global handheld manufacturers, wireless carriers, and distributors, opened a new 53,000-square-foot headquarters building in Fort Collins in October 2011.
  • Tendril Inc., a smart-grid technology company, announced in October 2011 plans to add 100 workers in 2012 due to increased demand for its software that helps utilities and consumers manage energy consumption more efficiently.
  • Magellan Petroleum Co. announced in September 2011 plans to move the corporate headquarters from Portland, Maine, to Denver because of Colorado's reputation as one of the centers of the U.S. oil and gas industry.
  • Comcast Corp. announced in September 2011 a 35,000-square-foot expansion of mixed-use space in the Inverness Business Park to create a new operations center. The new center will have 110 employees, replacing three operations in Comcast's western U.S. region.
  • Regulus Pharmaceutical Consulting Inc., a Boulder-based biotech consulting firm, announced in September 2011 that it will double its workforce over the next year due to growth planned as a result of a recent capital infusion into its parent company.
  • Convergys Corp., an Ohio-based call center outsourcing company, announced in September 2011 that it will hire 150 customer service agents in Metro Denver to staff its expanding business lines.
  • Lincoln College of Technology opened a new, $23 million campus in Denver in September 2011. The new 212,000-square-foot campus will enable the college to add more instruction areas and double the number of students it can serve.
  • Kaiser Permanente announced in September 2011 plans to open a new state-of-the-art member-services call center in Denver. The company expects to hire 140 staff for the new facility.
  • RavenBrick, a developer of energy-efficient window film, announced in September 2011 that it will construct a manufacturing facility in Denver. The $3 million plant will be complete in early 2012 and employ 30 people.
  • Cimation, a spinoff of Houston-based Audubon Engineering, announced in August 2011 that it will open an 8,000-square-foot office in the Denver Tech Center. The office will provide project management, communications design, control room management, cyber security, and design/drafting services.
  • Bridgepoint Education Inc., a San Diego-based provider of postsecondary education services focused on providing higher access to higher education, announced in August 2011 that it has leased 80,000 square feet of additional space in downtown's Denver Tabor Center to accommodate its expanding presence in Colorado. Bridgepoint opened operations in 151,331 square feet of space in downtown Denver in April 2011 and plans to hire 500 staff at its two Denver locations.
  • AdamWorks, LLC, a global provider of advanced engineering and manufacturing solutions, announced expansion plans in August 2011 at its manufacturing facility in Centennial by leasing an additional 18,455 square feet. AdamWorks' key market areas include unmanned vehicles, commercial space and transportation, aerospace and defense, and renewable energy.
  • PENTAX Imaging Company, a leader in the worldwide photographic industry, announced in August 2011 the location of its national headquarters to downtown Denver. The company will locate 40 employees in its leased space in the Colorado Plaza Towers.
  • Avago Technologies, a  leading supplier of analog interface components for communications, industrial, and consumer applications, announced plans in July 2011 to expand its existing facility in Fort Collins. The retrofit will accommodate $57.5 million in wafer manufacturing equipment, creating 92 new positions.
  • Intrado announced expansion in Longmont in July 2011, adding 70 employees in a range of positions. Intrado—which helps manage 911-emergency networks for telecommunications companies—is growing as it deploys a new emergency contact system with photo, video, and text message capability. 
  • Leprino Foods, headquartered in Denver, announced in August 2011 that it will open the first phase of its 500,000-square-foot plant near Greeley in November 2011. The $270 million plant is expected to create 500 new jobs in Weld County.
  • Cummins Rocky Mountain opened its new $13.5 million, 88,000-square-foot Rock Mountain Master Rebuild Center in the summer of 2011 in Commerce City. The facility, Cummins' largest diesel engine remanufacturing plant in North America, will add more than 70 new jobs in the city.
  • Abound Solar, a developer of robust, industrial scale thin-film photovoltaic modules, announced in July 2011 two expansions for its Northern Colorado operations in Loveland. Abound expanded from 7,500 square feet of office space to 14,267 square feet and added 8,000 square feet to its Certification and Reliability Laboratory. As a result of the facilities expansion, Abound will add 50 new jobs at the sites by the end of 2011.
  • Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. opened its expanded Aerospace Manufacturing Center in Westminster in July 2011. The $14.6 million expansion added 28,000 square feet to Ball's existing 160,000 square feet for high-volume antenna manufacturing of the F-35 Lightning II military aircraft. Ball will add 200 employees at the site by full production of its $677.2 million contract from Lockheed Martin to manufacture 48,000 F-35 antennas.
  • The Colorado Association for Manufacturing and Technology (CAMT) announced in June 2011 the selection of a site and developer for the Aerospace and Clean Energy (ACE) Manufacturing and Innovation Park. CAMT is partnering with United Properties to develop the former 167-acre Agilent campus into a multitenant campus that can house more than 70 companies with a focus on scale‐up stage aerospace and clean energy manufacturing and technology companies.
  • Westmoreland Coal Company announced in June 2011 that it would relocate its headquarters from Colorado Springs to Englewood. The company notes that it is making the move north to be closer to other mining and energy companies.
  • DaVita, a Fortune 500 provider of kidney care services, leased extra office space in Lower Downtown Denver in June 2011 due to rapid growth. The company leased 20,000 square feet to accommodate 100 employees until its new $90 million, 270,000-square-foot headquarters is complete.
  • Gordon Holdings, Inc., parent company of Polystrand, Inc. and Gordon Composites, Inc., announced plans in June 2011 to move its corporate headquarters and expand its Montrose, Colo.-based Polystrand business to Douglas County. Company officials made the move to accommodate growth and have access to Denver International Airport and rail. The company purchased 15.6 acres in the HighField Business Park for its new 120,000 headquarters and manufacturing facility where will create as many as 240 new jobs.
  • Intrawest ULC, a leader in developing and managing experiential destination resorts, picked a site in Lower Downtown Denver for its new headquarters in June 2011. The company announced in early 2011 that it planned to move its corporate headquarters from Vancouver, Canada, to Denver.
  • eWise, a global payments and online financial management solutions provider, received  $14 million in venture capital in June 2011. eWise’s technology powers global brands such as U.S. Bank, and this funding enables the company to accelerate its plans to transform the payments landscape. eWise moved its corporate headquarters from Sydney, Australia, to Denver in April 2011.
  • SolarCity, a California-based residential and solar panel leasing company, opened its second Colorado location in Parker in May 2011 with 21 new staff. The new facility has warehouse facilities, a truck fleet, and space for the company's administrative activities.
  • CNA, one of the country's largest commercial insurance providers, hosted a grand opening for its new 50,000-square-foot Western Service Center in Lone Tree in June 2011. CNA officials say they chose the region because of the quality of the workforce. CNA will employ 300 workers at the center.
  • PricewaterhouseCoopers expanded in the region in May 2011 with a new 40,752-square-foot office location in Denver, where it added 65 staff members.
  • Alpine Access, a Denver-headquartered customer service outsourcing firm, announced in May 2011 that it opened a 22,000-square-foot technology and operations lab in the Denver Tech Center. The company will hire 50 new employees for the lab, which will provide IT services and operations support for home-based customer care professionals.
  • DCP Midstream LLC announced in May 2011 that it will build a new $270 million, 110 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) natural gas processing plant in the town of LaSalle in Weld County. The new plant, which will in service by mid-2013, will augment DCP Midstream's prominent position in the Denver-Julesburg Basin, where it currently owns and operates seven natural gas processing plants with a combined capacity of 400 MMcf/d.
  • SMA America, LLC leased a second facility in the Enterprise Park at Stapleton, signing a 10-year lease for a 148,902-square-foot building in April 2011. SMA is the world leader in solar inverter technology and manufacturing.  
  • Altius Space Machines located its headquarters in Louisville in April 2011. The aerospace company develops reusable orbital transportation through the demonstration and commercialization of critical spaceflight technologies.
  • RingCentral Inc., a San Mateo, Calif.-based company that sells cloud-based computing phone systems for businesses, expanded in Greenwood Village in April 2011, leasing space in the Denver Tech Center. The company will immediately hire 15 new sales positions, with plans for as many as 100 new hires within a few years.
  • MedPro Imaging Inc., a Wisconsin-based provider of new and refurbished ultrasound solutions, announced in April 2011 its expansion in Longmont with a 5,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art ultrasound transducer repair facility. The company will also manufacture turn-key ultrasound transducer repair packages at the facility, which will employ up to 20 people in two years.
  • Mitomics, a world leader in the research and development of molecular tests addressing significant unmet needs in oncology, including those related to prostate, breast, lung, and skin cancers, and other disease states, established a state-of-the-art CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments) lab in Aurora in March 2011.
  • GeoIQ, a leading provider of location analysis software for managing and analyzing real-time location data, announced in March 2011 that it has opened an office in Denver. The company says the region is a proven hot spot for emerging geospatial technology, allowing GeoIQ to grow its presence in the Western region of the U.S.
  • Bridgepoint Education Inc., a San Diego-based provider of postsecondary education services focused on providing higher access to higher education, announced in January 2011 that it will open a new location in Denver, anticipating adding 500 new jobs at the site. In March 2011, the company signed a lease for 151,331 square feet in the Park Central building located in downtown Denver.
  • OnCore Manufacturing Services is expanding in Longmont, constructing a new 58,800-square-foot building in the Clover Basin Business Park. The company, which builds precision components for the telecom, consumer electronics, medical, and defense industries, expects to expand to 180 employees within two years.
  • SolidFire, a firm specializing in cloud computing platforms, received $11 million in Series A funding to prepare for a product launch later in 2011. The company opened an office in Boulder where it will be hiring for engineering, marketing, and sales roles.
  • HOK opened a new office in Denver. The architecture firm, headquartered in St. Louis, is working on several projects in Metro Denver including the ConocoPhillips campus in Louisville and buildings at the Anschutz Medical Campus. The company plans to hire 70 new staff members in Denver.
  • Rivet Software, a premier provider of standards-based business reporting and analytics software, announced it is expanding its workforce at its Denver headquarters, adding 40 new staff.
  • VanDyne SuperTurbo Inc., a spinoff of Woodward Co., has expanded its operations in Fort Collins, leasing a new 5,000-square-foot headquarters facility with a new 3,000-square-foot multibay engine research facility. The company designs, develops, and produces SuperTurbochargers for the global automotive market and heavy-duty manufacturers.
  • Halliburton will add 300 new employees in Fort Lupton as it brings a new $20 million facility online within two years. The company is drilling wells in the Niobrara shale formation in northeast Colorado.
  • Walker Component Group Corp., a company that makes electrical components for companies such as Motorola, Mitsubishi, and General Electric, is expanding in Denver after landing a four-year contract with Vestas to supply cables used in turbines' nacelles. Walker has hired 25 additional staff and plans to hire 25 additional workers in four months.
  • Google Inc., headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., announced its second expansion in seven months, leasing 16,000 square feet of new space in Boulder. Google officials say the company has aggressive growth plans for the site. Google already employs 100 people in Boulder.
  • Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. announced in January 2011 plans to add 250 full-time employees to work on $1 billion in new contracts the company won in 2010, including the Worldview-3 project and the Joint Polar Satellite System-1 weather satellite.
  • Truila.com, a top site for homebuyers, sellers, and renters, based in San Francisco, announced in January 2011 that it would open a 16,000-square-foot-office in Centennial to expand its sales force and services. The new office will open in February 2011 with 25 employees initially and plans to add up to 100 staff by the end of the year. The company says it evaluated 35 sites across the country, but chose Denver because it is a technology hub with a highly educated workforce and a strong talent pool.

2010 Major Relocations and Expansions

(by date of announcement - most recent first)

  • Westwood Professional Services, a consulting firm for land and energy development projects, opened a new office in Loveland in December 2010. The company located in Colorado to service the growing energy industry. Westwood has eight employees with plans to add 30 positions in the next five years.
  • DISH Network announced that it will add as many as 600 call center jobs in Metro Denver by the end of 2010. Positions will be added at a Littleton call center—which currently employs about 1,100 workers—and at a 900-worker center in Thornton to support a growing volume of customers.
  • Microsoft expanded its operations in Boulder by 6,000 square feet in late 2010, occupying a total of 32,000 square feet. The office focuses on online mapping technology, including Bing maps.
  • Comcast Corp. leased a 61,436-square-foot building in Englewood in October 2010 for a new call center employing 400 people, 200 jobs of which will be new. The call center is scheduled to open fully staffed in the first quarter of 2011 and will serve Comcast business customers in its West Division.
  • Alpha Shirt Company, a supplier of imprintable apparel and accessories to screenprinters, embroiderers, promotional products distributors, athletic dealers, and other businesses, is opening a 63,500-square-foot distribution warehouse in Denver to better serve Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, and South Dakota. Alpha is part of the Broder Bros., Co. family.
  • Solar Energy Systems (SES) LLC, headquartered in Brooklyn, N. Y., announced in October 2010 further expansion in Colorado, creating its fourth office in the Denver area. The company, doing business in Colorado as Solar Energy, LLC, says Colorado has emerged as a strong solar market.
  • SkyFuel Inc., a leading supplier of utility-scale concentrating solar power (CSP) systems, announced in October 2010 that it would move its corporate headquarters from Albuquerque to Unincorporated Jefferson County in west Metro Denver. The company will consolidate the headquarters with an existing research and development center in Jefferson County.
  • GE Analytical Instruments, a division of General Electric Co. announced it would expand in Boulder in October 2010. The company will add around 24 new staff and subleased 19,000 square feet to expand its manufacturing capabilities for producing equipment to test water quality.
  • Rally Software expanded in Boulder in October 2010, moving to a 65,645-square-foot building to accommodate rapid growth. The company offers software development tools for the software industry.
  • Martifer Solar USA, a Los Angeles-based leader in turnkey photovoltaic solutions, announced in September 2010 an office expansion in Denver. Martifer chose the state due to its renewable energy incentives and 30 percent RES standard. The office will work to finance, install, and maintain residential, commercial, and government installations.
  • Trimble Navigation, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., and the Hilti Group, based in Liechtenstein, Germany, announced a joint venture in September 2010 for the building and construction market—Intelligent Construction Tools LLC—to be based in Westminster
  • Sharklet Technologies, Inc. announced in August 2010 that it has relocated its operations from Alachua, Fla., to Aurora. The company will be housed at the Bioscience Park Center, a biotechnology incubator in the Fitzsimons Life Science District adjacent to the renowned Anschutz Medical Campus. Sharklet developed and is commercializing SharkletTM, the world's first micro-pattern designed to control the growth and transfer of bacteria including Staph. a, MRSA, E. coli, and a host of others that adversely impact human health.
  • juwi, a Germany-based renewable energy company, announced in July 2010 that it will move its wind energy headquarters from Cleveland to Boulder in September 2010. The move will bring 20 jobs to Boulder, where juwi already employs 30 people at its U.S. solar headquarters.
  • CPC, a national leader in clinical trial management, is moving its headquarters from downtown Denver to the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora to administer the University of Colorado School of Medicine's stem-cell research trials. CPC is the first tenant at the new University Physicians Inc. building in the Colorado Science + Technology Park at Fitzsimons and expects that the new partnership will lead to future job growth.
  • TriZetto Group Inc., a Newport Beach, Calif., healthcare software company, announced in July 2010 that it will move its corporate headquarters to Greenwood Village. With technology solutions touching nearly half the U.S. insured population today, TriZetto employs 1,900 people at 11 offices throughout the United States.
  • Vestas Technology R&D Americas, Inc. leased 47,675 square feet in the Centennial Valley in Louisville in July 2010 for a new engineering and product development division. Vestas spokespeople say the company will employ 75 to 125 new employees at the site in the first year of operation. The division will work to improve technology for existing turbines and develop the wind power systems of the future.
  • DaVita, a Fortune 500 provider of kidney care services, announced in July 2010 plans for its new headquarters facility in downtown Denver near Denver Union Station. DaVita will invest $101 million to develop the 270,000-square-foot, 15-story building. The company currently employs 200 people in Denver, but company officials say the new facility will initially house up to 450 employees, with capacity for up to 900 staff. The new building, to be completed in 2012, will also serve as the site for DaVita University, where thousands of the firm's staff will train annually. DaVita announced it would move its corporate headquarters to Denver from El Segundo, Calif., in 2009.
  • Children's Hospital Colorado launched a $228 million, 350,000-square-foot expansion project in July 2010 to add 124 beds to its existing facility in Aurora. Hospital officials anticipate adding 500 new jobs as a result of the expansion.
  • Abound Solar announced it will add 300 jobs as part of a $400 million stimulus-funded loan guarantee it received in July 2010 to increase production of its thin-film photovoltaic modules at its existing manufacturing plant in Longmont.
  • American Zephyr Corp., a small, lightweight wind turbine company and subsidiary of Japan-based Zephyr Corp., signed a lease for 7,360 square feet in the Colorado Technology Center to establish its U.S. headquarters in Louisville in June 2010. The company is moving its existing operations from New York and Westminster and plans to employ 30 people locally within a year.
  • Cbeyond Inc., an Atlanta-based telecommunications firm, announced in June 2010 that it is expanding its Denver presence by opening a customer call center in the Denver Tech Center. The call center, which is scheduled to open in September 2010, will ramp to employ 200 technical support staff over the next several years.
  • Catholic Health Initiatives announced in June 2010 that it will add 200 IT workers, including application developers and database administrators, as part of a $1.5 billion program to enhance clinical information technology across its network of 72 hospitals in 18 states. Most of the hires will occur in Denver.
  • The Judge Group opened a technical staffing division in Denver in June 2010 to help companies recruit engineering, accounting, and other technical positions. The office will hire account managers and recruiters for the new division.
  • Taptu Ltd., a United Kingdom-based mobile search engine company, announced in June 2010 that it will open its first U.S. office in the Denver Tech Center. Company officials say the Denver office is being created in response to its growing American audience and to help drive business development, marketing, and product management in the U.S.
  • The Federal Bureau of Investigation moved into its new 220,000-square-foot facility at Denver's Stapleton development in June 2010. The $100 million building is LEED certified.
  • Hewlett-Packard announced plans in May 2010 to grow in Fort Collins, investing $64.4 million to expand engineering lab space at its existing plant in the city. The company will create 100 new jobs paying an average salary of $90,000 as a result. The city of Fort Collins approved $1.6 million in use and personal property tax rebates over a 10-year period.
  • Bye Energy Inc., an integrator of alternative energy technologies for business and general aviation aircraft, has located its corporate headquarters to Centennial Airport. The larger facility provides space for its Green Flight Project, which will enhance development of a commercial and electric-hybrid propulsion system for light general aviation application. 
  • Cummins Rocky Mountain, LLC plans to build its largest remanufacturing plant in Commerce City, creating 70 new jobs. Construction on the new facility, its largest diesel engine remanufacturing plant in North America, began in June 2010.
  • Naxcer Composites Group, specializing in new manufacturing technologies for composite materials, announced the completion of its latest manufacturing facility in June 2010. Located in Louisville, the 32,000-square-foot space will be ISO certified by August 2010.
  • Massachusetts-based Oxford Global Resources, a technology and engineering consulting firm, opened an office in Westminster in May 2010 to deliver personalized service to its high-tech clients in and around Denver, while creating high-tech jobs for local IT consultants. Company officials call Metro Denver a key market and a major technology hub.
  • Rivet Software, a Denver software company that develops tools to help businesses comply with new SEC standards for financial reporting, in May 2010 announced expansion plans to add 40-80 new employees in addition to 100 hired over the past year. The company anticipates more growth as businesses begin to use the SEC’s new financial reporting standard, extensible business reporting language (XBRL).
  • Questar, a Salt Lake City-based energy company, announced it will spin off its oil and natural gas exploration and production unit to create a new company–QEP Resources. QEP will be headquartered at an existing office in Denver and will continue to employ the 165 workers currently housed at that location. Employment at the Denver office could also increase by roughly 20 positions once the spinoff is complete.
  • The University of Colorado Hospital announced in May 2010 a $400 million expansion Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora that will add a new patient tower with 600,000 square feet to its existing facility. The expansion will create 1,400 new high-paying positions at the facility and 600 construction jobs.
  • Education Corporation of America, announced the location and launch of Ecotech Institute, the first and only college focused entirely on preparing America’s workforce for careers in renewable energy and sustainable design in April 2010. Once its flagship Colorado campus, located in Aurora, is fully established, Ecotech plans to expand across the U.S. to help fuel rapidly growing industries in the clean energy sector.
  • United Launch Alliance (ULA), a 50-50 joint venture owned by Lockheed Martin and The Boeing Company to provide reliable, cost-efficient space launch services for the U.S. government, announced it will expand its headquarters campus to 2,000 employees working in three office buildings totaling 466,000 square feet in Centennial. ULA currently employs 1,700 people in Metro Denver.
  • Boulder Wind Power has located its headquarters in Boulder. A former National Renewable Energy Laboratory engineer launched the company to focus on design, development, and production of a direct-drive technology to make wind turbines more reliable. The company plans to hire up to 30 workers initially.
  • Dot Hill Systems, a manufacturer of storage arrays and data management software, completed the relocation of its corporate headquarters from Carlsbad, CA to Longmont in April 2010. The company renovated its existing space in Longmont to accommodate additional employees and expand laboratory space.
  • Aluwind, a Danish manufacturer of aluminum components for the wind industry, announced in March 2010 that it will locate its first American manufacturing plant in Castle Rock. Aluwind is a supplier to Vestas Wind Systems and expects to have 30 employees (with plans to add 50 to 75 additional staff) providing customers with manufactured goods by July. The company is starting with about 50,000 square feet of manufacturing space with plans to expand to 80,000 square feet.
  • Lockheed Martin Corp. opened a new 25,000-square-foot cybersecurity intelligence center for the federal government in Denver in March 2010. The $17 million facility features large open space for collaborative cybersecurity work by Lockheed, its partners, NASA, and other federal agencies.
  • Raytheon Company, based in Aurora, received a $887 million contract from the U.S. Air Force in February 2010 to develop a new element of the Global Positioning System. The company will add 300 high-paying jobs--100 new employees this year at its 2,200-employee Aurora campus--where work focuses primarily on software development, and another 200 workers added in 2011.
  • CNA, the seventh-largest U.S. commercial insurer, opened its new Western Service Center in Denver in February 2010, with full operational functionality by the second quarter of 2011 to handle claims and policy procession, and house a call center and billing and collections functions.
  • Anheuser-Busch Inc., parent of Budweiser and the nation's largest beermaker, is adding a regional sales offices in Denver as part of major organizational changes to its sales and marketing functions. The company already has a significant Colorado presence, including a major brewery in Fort Collins.
  • The University of Colorado Hospital announced it in January 2010 that it will create 150 jobs on the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora as part of a $67 million project to implement an integrated, patient-centered electronic medical record across all clinical areas. The average salary of staff working on the implementation is $74,000 a year.
  • Scottrade, a leading branch-supported online investing firm purchased a 204,000-square-foot office building in Westminster's Westmoor Technology Park in January 2010. The building will serve as a secondary business operations center. The company plans to hire 285 people in the next five years.
  • Centura Health announced in January 2010 plans for a $23.6 million, 40,000-square-foot medical office building and 20,000-square-foot emergency room in Castle Rock. The new facility is slated to break ground in summer 2010.
  • General Dynamics Information Technology, a business unit of General Dynamics, opened an enterprise data center in January 2010 in Westminster to support a project with the Department of Homeland Security. When fully staffed, the unit will employ 100 workers at its new LEED-certified facility.
  • Kidrobot, a premier creator of limited edition art toys and apparel, announced in January 2010 its decision to move the company's corporate headquarters from New York to Boulder. The company plans to be operational in Boulder by April 2010 and will move half its New York staff and plans to create 20-25 new jobs locally.
  • Mywedding.com will locate its corporate headquarters in Castle Rock, adding 20 high-paying jobs. The company, with offices in Seattle and Portland, is adding this location to facilitate its continued growth. The company offers easy-to-use local guides, free wedding websites, and online tools.