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.

The Post's Ed Quillen On the Denver's Loss of HQ's

Ed Quillen has a interesting opinion piece in the Post on Denver's loss of corporate HQs. He cites one of the most brilliant urban writers, Jane Jacobs' and her theory of important replacement as the key to a region growing its own HQ locations organically.

The Qwest Loss: A Quick Reaction

There is no way to spin the Qwest acquisition by CenturyTel as a positive development for the Denver Region. This is depressingly bad news for the local economy. The loss of Denver's largest corporate HQ will have painful and far reaching implications.

This development once again raises the issue of why Metro Denver with its educated work force, excellent infrastructure, high quality of living, outstanding recreational and cultural amenities, tradition of good government, healthy regional cooperation and decision-making, and strong clusters of industries seems to always struggle in maintaining and attracting high profile corporate HQs. Is it the region's spatial isolation from other major business centers, relatively small population, bad luck, lack of regional dominance over any single sector, relative scarcity of certain professional and financial services (advertising agencies, accounting, investment banking, consulting), other reasons not yet identified or some combination of the above?

Whatever the cause, this is a bitter pill to swallow.

Qwest Leasing Plans Not Great News for Downtown

The Post reports Qwest's commitment to downtown Denver may be waning. This is not good news for economic vitality, office occupancy, rental rates, and future office tower development in downtown.










Photo from Kevin Moloney/Getty Images via www.minnestoapublicradio.org

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.

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).