John Rebchook is a former Rocky Mountain News reporter with more than 30 years of experience in writing and communications... Landing the Vestas wind-turbine plant in Windsor put Colorado on the map for renewable energy companies.
Denver-area economic development officials get high marks for “playing nice,” unlike officials in other states that compete so fiercely with each other that it becomes counter-productive.
State and local financial incentives, which should be packaged with federal incentives, are extremely important to some companies, at the bottom of the list for many others, but are always considered in the mix when companies choose a place to expand or start a new operation.
These were some of the highlighted points delivered today in a packed ballroom at the Marriott City Center by eight site selectors. The tour, which began on Wednesday, and the breakfast were hosted by the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp.
The site selectors, who toured numerous companies, facilities and operations in the Denver-area – sometimes by helicopter – (leading some people to mistakenly think they were part of a terrorist investigation operation), hail from Texas, California, Chicago, Connecticut and New Jersey.
Kathryn Mussio, a managing partner of Atlas Insight LLC of FairHaven, N.J., said when Vestas announced more than two years ago it building a plant in Windsor, “it made a big splash. It really put the area on the map.”
Denmark-based Vestas not only has a wind turbine plant at the Great Western Industrial Park in Windsor, but is expanding into Brighton.
The Vestas announcement put the Denver-area on the “long list,” for many companies in the renewable energy business and that is momentum private and public entities should continue to build, she said.
A decade ago, Los Angeles did not think Denver was a serious competitor for jobs and companies, only competing against it once or twice a year, said Saul Gomez, a senior manager at Ernst & Young in Los Angeles. But now, routinely, the Denver-area is going to head-to-head with efforts by Los Angeles.
Gomez said he was impressed by the “clusters” of business opportunities in the Denver area, such as the Fitzsimons Life Science District and the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora.
“That you could have 40,000 people working there will be a recipe for success for the next 30 years and for a 50-mile radius,” he said.
Alison Benton, president of Aliquantus Consulting in Texas, noted that she used to live in the Denver-area while going through the executive training program with the former May D&F department chain (that was merged into Foley’s in 1993), right out of college.
“When we went to Aurora, I didn’t recognize it,” she said.
One of the recurring discussions revolved around incentives to companies that want to relocate and grow. Josh Gould, chairman of Denver-based RNL Design, noted that Colorado can’t write as big of checks as some other states.
“Incentives are usually do not drive the deal,” said Benjamin Cleveland, of UGL Equis in Chicago. “It’s more that they soften the blow,” of the economic cost of growing or relocating a company.
In another state, Benton said she s once helped put together a $81 million deal that created 250 jobs. At the ground-breaking, company officials were told they may not qualify for all of the incentives promised. Those kind of “bait-and-switch” tactics are shared with other site selectors, and hurt efforts to attract companies, she said.
The Denver-area and Colorado, however, do have an advantage in other states in that economic development and public officials “play nice in the sandbox,” Benton said. “They’re very competitive in Texas,” where they lots of “claws, and blood and meat,” as they fight over job prospects.
She added that even in these “tough financial times,” there are some strong companies that are “gobbling up their weaker competitors.” She called them “panthers,” who often work in a stealth mode and those are some of the most prized job creating plums.
Still, Benton and all of the other site selectors, agreed that Denver must never lose pursue other businesses at the expense of existing companies. Building and maintaining relationships with existing companies, helps prevent them from being wooed away by other states, they noted.
Tom Clark, executive vice president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp., summed up the biggest enemy of maintaining and growing a healthy economy with one word.
“Complacency.”
Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com or 303-945-6865.
