Thursday, October 13, 2011

Two for Two, Colorado Over New York: GE Selects Aurora Site for PrimeStar Thin Film Solar Plant

The Centennial State is on a two-day site selection roll over the Empire State as Colorado won out over New York State for the location of a thin film solar factory for newly acquired General Electric subsidiary PrimeStar. Given the Arrow Electric news from yesterday it has been a good economic development week for the Denver Region.

It is particularly notable that PrimeStar was a Colorado company which developed the underlying technology with the National Renewal Energy Laboratory in Golden. So the full product life cycle from basic R & D to product development to commercial production will all be vertically integrated within the state of Colorado.

The hundreds of manufacturing jobs offered by this plant will boost local labor and real estate markets and reinforce the renewable energy cluster in the Front Range. I don't know if GE will be exporting any of these panels outside this U.S. but this also has the potential to boost Colorado's weak export numbers.


Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Right on Target: Arrow Electronics Moves Global HQ to Colorado

In a time of high economic anxiety, the announcement that Fortune 200 company Arrow Electronics is moving its global headquarters to Arapahoe County, Colorado from Long Island in New York is great news for Metro Denver from an economic development perspective.

See an excellent series of article from the Denver Post: Hickenlooper's role, article with analysis and graphics, the role of tax credit incentives, and breaking news article by Post writers Svaldi and Griffin.



Arrow Electronics Press Release.



Earlier blogs about the dearth of Fortune 500 Headquarters in Colorado here and here.