I just spent a weekend in Birmingham, the largest city in Alabama. According to locals I met, Birmingham has been hampered in its economic development by the horrible legacy of Jim Crow and also by a lack of vision and poor decision making among civic leaders. Birmingham lost out on the southern Delta Airlines hub to Atlanta due to a lack of support from local business and government officials. This helped Hartsfield Airport and metro Atlanta become regional powerhouses sucking corporate headquarters, economic activity and regional prosperity away from Birmingham. Birmingham also lost out on the SEC football championship game, which it hosted for the first two years, to Atlanta.
In contrast, the City of Denver and its citizens have made a string of public investments and good decisions. However, with a reckoning day approaching for the FasTracks project, the question is, will the region's voters and taxpayers step up to save the comprehensive region-wide network, or will the project collapse due to financial pressure and regional political squabbles and be limited to a few discrete lines? If Denver falters in its drive to improve its infrastructure and bolster its economic competitiveness, other cities are waiting in the wings, to take over Denver's role as the primary economic hub in the Intermountain West. That other Delta Airlines hub city, Salt Lake City is a serious threat.
Metro Denver must keep its forward looking vision and track record of public investment and find a way to fund the full FasTracks system and avoid the mistakes of Birmingham.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Denver Post: Colorado Companies' Get Green Job Tax Credits
The Denver Post reported that six Colorado companies got green federal tax credits totaling $75.2 million: Abound Solar, Advanced Energy Industries, Coolerado Corp., ReflecTech, Hexcel Corp., Vestas Blades America Inc., and Vestas Towers America Inc.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Colorado State Spending on Higher Education: When Frugality Becomes Parsimoniousness
Colorado taxpayers and voters have a well deserved reputation for frugality and keeping taxes relatively low which can be a positive factor when companies make site selection decisions. However, frugality can turn into parsimoniousness. Two recent publications I noticed have led me to think this is occurring with regard to state funding of higher education in Colorado. 1) A Denver Post article talking about CU Denver's Medical School accreditation being imperiled by the dearth of state sponsorship.
2) Colorado's ranking is 47th among the 50 states on per pupil state spending on higher education according to the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation's Annual Report, Toward a More Competitive Colorado.
Despite the economic pressures of the current recession, public officials and voters would be well-advised to keep the long-term future in mind and raise more public funds to invest in higher education and other key infrastructure in Colorado.
PMC Technology Wind Energy Company Coming to Golden
This blog entry from John Rebchook's Inside Real Estate News is a month old but its worth reading. Denmark-based wind energy component manufacturer PMC Technology is locating its North American HQ and first operations facility in Golden, near the NREL, the Colorado School of Mines and not far from Vestas, a big customer, in Brighton. The cluster grows.
See Margret Jackson's article from The Denver Post here.
See Margret Jackson's article from The Denver Post here.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
500 IBM Jobs for Boulder
In what is most certainly very happy holiday news for the regional Denver economy, IBM announced it is bringing 500 new customer-service-related jobs by 2014 to its Boulder campus. Given the prevalence of layoffs, outsourcing and overall downsizing in corporate America this is very good news and is a signal of IBM's ongoing commitment to its Boulder site location. IBM will receive a token contribution of $35,000 in tax rebates from the city of Boulder.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Denver in 1982: More Like Portland or Houston?
I came across this fascinating assessment of the Denver Metro Region from the New York Times in 1982. It is astounding how much progress Denver has made in the last quarter century and it's truly something to be thankful for. It is interesting to see that some of our problems from the 1980s persist today. I also think the concept of "self-critical boosterism," mentioned below still has a certain degree of accuracy in describing the Denver Region today and in some ways reflects this tone of this blog.
======================================================================
HURT BY SPRAWL, DENVER FIGHTS OFF HOUSTONITIS;
An Appraisal
April 26, 1982
BYLINE: By PAUL GOLDBERGER, Special to the New York Times
SECTION: Section A; Page 12, Column 1; National Desk
\
DATELINE: DENVER
Nothing seems to frighten civic-minded residents of Denver more than the suggestion that the explosive growth of their city in the last few years has made it resemble that other energy boom town, Houston. Indeed, one senses that the people of Denver would rather hear their city by the Rockies compared to Calcutta than to the Texas city that has come to symbolize not only growth but also chaotic sprawl, overtaxed services and choking traffic.
Far from increasing confidence in laissez-faire planning, the immense growth here seems to have decreased it, making this city more nervous and less assured about its future. The mood of Denver right now seems to be skeptical chauvinism, a self-critical boosterism.
Denver is halfway between Houston and Portland, Ore., and both exert a pull on it, Houston representing a tempting but disturbing prosperity, a city of unbridled growth where real estate developers control much of the city's destiny, and Portland looking like a model of restraint, a place characterized by the Northwest's traditions of limiting growth and preserving natural resources.
Change in Three Years
Three years ago downtown Denver consisted of not much more than a few undistinguished medium-size postwar high-rise buildings, an eccentric old tower modeled after the campanile of St. Mark's Church in Venice, and the 90-year-old Brown Palace Hotel.
Now, Denver's downtown is jammed with new office buildings. Where there was eight million square feet of office space as recently as 1979; there is now 20 million square feet, and 15 million square feet is under construction. The old skyline has virtually disappeared amid a plethora of new skyscrapers; perhaps even more significant, the landscape around the city has filled with new residential and commercial construction.
But downtown Denver remains a disappointing collection of mediocre skyscrapers, different from the Denver of three years ago only in quantity, not in quality. There is little to pull the place together. And, with the exception of two recent buildings with silvery metal skins similar to the sheathing of Citicorp Center in New York, there are no buildings that seem designed specifically for Denver. Most of downtown Denver could be anywhere, even Houston.
There are some encouraging signs, however. One of them is the discontent that so many of this city's business people, architects and civic leaders feel about the direction that downtown development has taken. Denver is still small enough to make it possible for decisions to be made by a single group of powerful people, and that is more or less the intention of the Denver Partnership, an activist group fighting for better urban design.
Created 16th Street Mall
The Denver Partnership was a major force behind the creation of the 16th Street Mall, a pedestrian mall designed by I.M. Pei & Partners that is nearing completion on one of the city's main downtown streets. The mall will be managed by the group under contract to the city. The organization has also acted as an advocate for more sophisticated downtown zoning laws, which have recently been adopted.
What neither this group nor Historic Denver Inc., the city's active preservationist organization, has thus far been able to do is get a substantial amount of housing built downtown. This is beginning to change under the guidance of Liebman Ellis Melting, a New York and Denver-based architectural firm, but it remains an area in which Denver lags badly. While the city is increasingly attracting young professionals who prefer city life, there is still virtually no housing available in the center.
Nudging Up the Mountains
In some ways, however, it is already too late for Denver to avoid all the problems of Houston. While sprawl is not so pervasive here, its effects are more dramatic, for in Denver there is an extraordinary landscape to be destroyed. Miles of small suburban houses cover nothing but flat land in Houston; in Denver, they nudge their way up mountainsides, fighting the beauty of the Rockies that is the city's real heritage.
Denver's current phase of growth can be said to have begun with the completion of the headquarters of Johns-Manville in 1978, a sleek metal building on a former ranch some miles out of town. When the company moved from New York to Denver, it brought 3,000 employees with it. Though these people work in an environment with views of a pristine mountain landscape, the views out of their office windows are increasingly the only untouched ones, for the coming of so many new households led to the development of miles of mountainside land with tract housing.
The problems here are truly regional ones, and population statistics show it. The population of the city of Denver remained relatively constant at 500,000 from the 1970 to the 1980 census, while that of the surrounding counties grew 31 percent, from 1.24 million to 1.62 million.
Much of the growth comes from an influx of young professionals for whom Denver, like Houston or Washington, D.C., has become a focus of migration. But virtually the only housing constructed in recent years downtown has been some flashy condominium towers, and there are few services for full-time living downtown.
The problems of downtown Denver and the region, then, are closely connected, for as Denver expands by covering up its mountains, it also weakens the downtown it is trying to promote. Every house built at the foot of the Rockies does double damage: It takes away a part of a virgin landscape, and it saps energy from the downtown it could have strengthened.
======================================================================
HURT BY SPRAWL, DENVER FIGHTS OFF HOUSTONITIS;
An Appraisal
April 26, 1982
BYLINE: By PAUL GOLDBERGER, Special to the New York Times
SECTION: Section A; Page 12, Column 1; National Desk
\
DATELINE: DENVER
Nothing seems to frighten civic-minded residents of Denver more than the suggestion that the explosive growth of their city in the last few years has made it resemble that other energy boom town, Houston. Indeed, one senses that the people of Denver would rather hear their city by the Rockies compared to Calcutta than to the Texas city that has come to symbolize not only growth but also chaotic sprawl, overtaxed services and choking traffic.
Far from increasing confidence in laissez-faire planning, the immense growth here seems to have decreased it, making this city more nervous and less assured about its future. The mood of Denver right now seems to be skeptical chauvinism, a self-critical boosterism.
Denver is halfway between Houston and Portland, Ore., and both exert a pull on it, Houston representing a tempting but disturbing prosperity, a city of unbridled growth where real estate developers control much of the city's destiny, and Portland looking like a model of restraint, a place characterized by the Northwest's traditions of limiting growth and preserving natural resources.
Change in Three Years
Three years ago downtown Denver consisted of not much more than a few undistinguished medium-size postwar high-rise buildings, an eccentric old tower modeled after the campanile of St. Mark's Church in Venice, and the 90-year-old Brown Palace Hotel.
Now, Denver's downtown is jammed with new office buildings. Where there was eight million square feet of office space as recently as 1979; there is now 20 million square feet, and 15 million square feet is under construction. The old skyline has virtually disappeared amid a plethora of new skyscrapers; perhaps even more significant, the landscape around the city has filled with new residential and commercial construction.
But downtown Denver remains a disappointing collection of mediocre skyscrapers, different from the Denver of three years ago only in quantity, not in quality. There is little to pull the place together. And, with the exception of two recent buildings with silvery metal skins similar to the sheathing of Citicorp Center in New York, there are no buildings that seem designed specifically for Denver. Most of downtown Denver could be anywhere, even Houston.
There are some encouraging signs, however. One of them is the discontent that so many of this city's business people, architects and civic leaders feel about the direction that downtown development has taken. Denver is still small enough to make it possible for decisions to be made by a single group of powerful people, and that is more or less the intention of the Denver Partnership, an activist group fighting for better urban design.
Created 16th Street Mall
The Denver Partnership was a major force behind the creation of the 16th Street Mall, a pedestrian mall designed by I.M. Pei & Partners that is nearing completion on one of the city's main downtown streets. The mall will be managed by the group under contract to the city. The organization has also acted as an advocate for more sophisticated downtown zoning laws, which have recently been adopted.
What neither this group nor Historic Denver Inc., the city's active preservationist organization, has thus far been able to do is get a substantial amount of housing built downtown. This is beginning to change under the guidance of Liebman Ellis Melting, a New York and Denver-based architectural firm, but it remains an area in which Denver lags badly. While the city is increasingly attracting young professionals who prefer city life, there is still virtually no housing available in the center.
Nudging Up the Mountains
In some ways, however, it is already too late for Denver to avoid all the problems of Houston. While sprawl is not so pervasive here, its effects are more dramatic, for in Denver there is an extraordinary landscape to be destroyed. Miles of small suburban houses cover nothing but flat land in Houston; in Denver, they nudge their way up mountainsides, fighting the beauty of the Rockies that is the city's real heritage.
Denver's current phase of growth can be said to have begun with the completion of the headquarters of Johns-Manville in 1978, a sleek metal building on a former ranch some miles out of town. When the company moved from New York to Denver, it brought 3,000 employees with it. Though these people work in an environment with views of a pristine mountain landscape, the views out of their office windows are increasingly the only untouched ones, for the coming of so many new households led to the development of miles of mountainside land with tract housing.
The problems here are truly regional ones, and population statistics show it. The population of the city of Denver remained relatively constant at 500,000 from the 1970 to the 1980 census, while that of the surrounding counties grew 31 percent, from 1.24 million to 1.62 million.
Much of the growth comes from an influx of young professionals for whom Denver, like Houston or Washington, D.C., has become a focus of migration. But virtually the only housing constructed in recent years downtown has been some flashy condominium towers, and there are few services for full-time living downtown.
The problems of downtown Denver and the region, then, are closely connected, for as Denver expands by covering up its mountains, it also weakens the downtown it is trying to promote. Every house built at the foot of the Rockies does double damage: It takes away a part of a virgin landscape, and it saps energy from the downtown it could have strengthened.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
United Health Foundation Ranking of the Healthiest States: Colorado Ranked 8th
According to an annual ranking of the most and least healthy states by the United Health Foundation, as reported by Forbes, Colorado was ranked the 8th most healthy state. Mississippi was ranked the least healthy state.
See below for a summary excerpt on Colorado from the United Health Foundation website http://www.americashealthranking.org/ :
"Ranking: Colorado is 8th this year; it was 14th in 2008.
Strengths: Strengths include a low prevalence of obesity at 19.1 percent of the population, low levels of air pollution at 7.7 micrograms of fine particulate per cubic meter, few poor mental and physical health days per month at 3.0 days and 3.2 days in the previous 30 days, respectively, low rates of deaths from cancer and cardiovascular disease at 166.1 deaths and 235.1 deaths per 100,000 population, respectively, and a low rate of preventable hospitalizations with 53.7 discharges per 1,000 Medicare enrollees.
Challenges: Challenges include a high prevalence of binge drinking at 16.6 percent of the population, a high rate of uninsured population at 16.1 percent and high geographic disparity within the state at 15.8 percent.
Significant Changes: In the last year, public health funding increased from $74 to $88 per person. In the last year, the rate of deaths from cardiovascular disease declined from 247.0 to 235.1 deaths per 100,000 population. In the past five years, immunization coverage increased from 67.5 percent to 80.7 percent of children ages 19 to 35 months receiving complete immunizations. In the past ten years, the prevalence of smoking decreased from 22.8 percent to 17.6 percent of the population.
Health Disparities: In Colorado, smoking is more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks at 25.2 percent than non-Hispanic whites at 16.5 percent. Mortality rates vary by race and ethnicity in Colorado, with 835.3 deaths per 100,000 population among blacks compared to whites, who experience 748.5 deaths per 100,000 population."
The above excerpt was from http://www.americashealthrankings.org/yearcompare/2008/2009/CO.aspx
See below for a summary excerpt on Colorado from the United Health Foundation website http://www.americashealthranking.org/ :
"Ranking: Colorado is 8th this year; it was 14th in 2008.
Strengths: Strengths include a low prevalence of obesity at 19.1 percent of the population, low levels of air pollution at 7.7 micrograms of fine particulate per cubic meter, few poor mental and physical health days per month at 3.0 days and 3.2 days in the previous 30 days, respectively, low rates of deaths from cancer and cardiovascular disease at 166.1 deaths and 235.1 deaths per 100,000 population, respectively, and a low rate of preventable hospitalizations with 53.7 discharges per 1,000 Medicare enrollees.
Challenges: Challenges include a high prevalence of binge drinking at 16.6 percent of the population, a high rate of uninsured population at 16.1 percent and high geographic disparity within the state at 15.8 percent.
Significant Changes: In the last year, public health funding increased from $74 to $88 per person. In the last year, the rate of deaths from cardiovascular disease declined from 247.0 to 235.1 deaths per 100,000 population. In the past five years, immunization coverage increased from 67.5 percent to 80.7 percent of children ages 19 to 35 months receiving complete immunizations. In the past ten years, the prevalence of smoking decreased from 22.8 percent to 17.6 percent of the population.
Health Disparities: In Colorado, smoking is more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks at 25.2 percent than non-Hispanic whites at 16.5 percent. Mortality rates vary by race and ethnicity in Colorado, with 835.3 deaths per 100,000 population among blacks compared to whites, who experience 748.5 deaths per 100,000 population."
The above excerpt was from http://www.americashealthrankings.org/yearcompare/2008/2009/CO.aspx
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Planning for ConocoPhillips Campus Moves Forward
The Daily Camera had a lengthy article by Alicia Wallace about ConocoPhillips recent submission of its development proposal to the City of Louisville for its training and research campus at the former Storage Technology campus off U.S. 36. Plans are moving forward to build out 1.6 million square feet of space by 2013.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Colorado Fourth Happiest U.S. State
According to a study based on data from the Gallup Organization's Well-Being Index, Colorado is the fourth happiest state in the U.S.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
U-Haul Economics
One popular way to compare the relative economic conditions between pairs of U.S. cities in the continental U.S. at any given time is to see which direction a one way U-Haul truck rental is more expensive. U-Haul rates are highly demand sensitive so the more imbalanced one way traffic is between a pair of cities, the more the rates diverge. Presumably when more people are moving from A to B, than from B to A, B has a stronger economy than A, and it costs more to rent a truck from A to B than from B to A.
I plugged a few simple scenarios in the the U-Haul website looking for quotes to/from Denver and the following three cities for a 10' truck on departing on October 30 2009: Chicago, New York and San Francisco. The results were interesting and painted a relatively favorable picture of the Denver economy.
Den to Chi: $413
Chi to Den: $1438
Den to NYC: $1333
NYC to Den: $1582
Den to SF: $744
SF to Den: $1009
Obviously this is hardly a full sample across truck sizes, days of the week, seasons, or broader time periods but it does indicate that Denver appears to be doing relatively well economically particularly compared to the Windy City.
I plugged a few simple scenarios in the the U-Haul website looking for quotes to/from Denver and the following three cities for a 10' truck on departing on October 30 2009: Chicago, New York and San Francisco. The results were interesting and painted a relatively favorable picture of the Denver economy.
Den to Chi: $413
Chi to Den: $1438
Den to NYC: $1333
NYC to Den: $1582
Den to SF: $744
SF to Den: $1009
Obviously this is hardly a full sample across truck sizes, days of the week, seasons, or broader time periods but it does indicate that Denver appears to be doing relatively well economically particularly compared to the Windy City.
Sunny Day in the Renewable Range
A real nice piece of economic development news broke this morning in the Renewable Range.
The German company SMA Solar Technology AG, announced it will be opening a Denver manufacturing facility near Stapleton which is expected to employ 300 full time workers and hundreds more seasonally once it is fully staffed. SMA makes solar inverters--with a product lineup of Sunny Boy, Sunny Central and Sunny Island --that convert direct current generated by photovoltaic solar panels into the alternating current employed by the electric grid.
See here for SMA's press release announcing the decision.
Generating 300 manufacturing jobs within Denver city limits is a big deal, especially given the state of the U.S. economy and this announcement strengthens Colorado's claim to be an emerging green energy cluster. Each new green energy sector job win increases the probability of future wins due to the network effects of agglomeration.
The Post cites SMA's Chief Financial Officer about the reasons the company selected Metro Denver for the facility's location.
According to The Post, the State of Colorado and City of Denver provided $3.6 million in economic development incentives to SMA.
In Germany, SMA is located north of Frankfurt along a high speed rail line. I am not too familiar with Germany, but I suspect the direct flights between Frankfurt and DIA really facilitated this decision.
The German company SMA Solar Technology AG, announced it will be opening a Denver manufacturing facility near Stapleton which is expected to employ 300 full time workers and hundreds more seasonally once it is fully staffed. SMA makes solar inverters--with a product lineup of Sunny Boy, Sunny Central and Sunny Island --that convert direct current generated by photovoltaic solar panels into the alternating current employed by the electric grid.
See here for SMA's press release announcing the decision.
Generating 300 manufacturing jobs within Denver city limits is a big deal, especially given the state of the U.S. economy and this announcement strengthens Colorado's claim to be an emerging green energy cluster. Each new green energy sector job win increases the probability of future wins due to the network effects of agglomeration.
The Post cites SMA's Chief Financial Officer about the reasons the company selected Metro Denver for the facility's location.
"[t]he [Denver] region's educated workforce; the site's proximity to
Interstate 70, rail and Denver International Airport; lower operating costs; and
the area's focus on renewable-energy research were behind the decision to locate
here."
According to The Post, the State of Colorado and City of Denver provided $3.6 million in economic development incentives to SMA.
In Germany, SMA is located north of Frankfurt along a high speed rail line. I am not too familiar with Germany, but I suspect the direct flights between Frankfurt and DIA really facilitated this decision.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
DaVita Looking in CBD for HQ
After my recent post bemoaning the dearth of major companies with HQs in downtown Denver's CBD, it is exciting that DaVita is looking in LoDo for its new HQ location.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
John Rebchook's Inside Real Estate News
This spring I blogged about the end of The Rocky. Recently, I have been really enjoying reading Inside Real Estate News, a blog by former Rocky business writer John Rebchook. Rebchook puts out a prodigious amount of valuable information and data about current events, economic and real estate trends and other subjects very relevant to economic development issues. It is great that John is still engaged in reporting the economic and real estate happenings in the Denver region and is sharing his knowledge, creativity and insights with us.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Denver Not Bidding for 2018 Winter Olympics
Neither Denver or any other U.S. city is going to be bidding for the 2018 Winter Olympics according to the Wall Street Journal.
Monday, September 28, 2009
The Lack of Corporate HQs in Denver?
With the decampment of Newmont Mining for the Denver Tech Center in late 2008 from the Wells Fargo Center in Denver's CBD and the prospect that Qwest might also abandon the central city when its lease on 1801 California Street expires in 2012, I have been pondering that perennial question about why Denver is a second or third tier headquarters city when it has a first tier labor force, airport, and lifestyle amenities?Is it the region's spatial isolation (Denver is not in or a short drive/train ride away from any of the five major business centers in the U.S.: New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles or San Francisco/San Jose)?
Is the fact that the Denver/Colorado economic development authorities are not funded to deploy massive tax subsidies to attract high profile corporate headquarters?
Is it because the Denver Tech Center, Englewood, Greenwood Village, etc are such attractive locations that they drain energy from the Denver CBD?
Its probably some combination of all of the above plus other reasons I have not identified.
Whatever the reasons, there most certainly are negative economic and aesthetic repercussions for the city and the region. A lack of HQs likely reduces regional economic vibrancy and makes locally-based philanthropic activity more challenging. The lack of marque corporate headquarters has also contributed to a dearth of newly constructed high profile, signature office towers in Denver since the 1980s real estate bust. The most beautiful office towers tend to designed by and for specific corporate owners and not as speculative investments - think Lever House, the Seagram Building, the GM Building and the Chrysler Building in New York City to take a few examples.
The factors that influence headquarters siting decisions are a running theme in this blog which I plan to keep exploring in future posts.
(photo above from Wikepedia Entry on the Wells Fargo Center in Denver).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
