Broomfield reaps benefits of business-friendly city
As the last days of 2007 slipped away, Denver-based real estate firm McWhinney was closing on the purchase of 1,100 vacant acres at the intersection of Interstate 25 and Colorado 7 in Broomfield. The company outlined its vision for a mixed-use project of immense proportions: Corporate headquarters, medical offices, retail, restaurants, hotels and homes would fill the land, purchased for $32.5 million, over the course of two to four decades.
Then the Great Recession hit. Though the Boulder region fared better than many parts of the country, hundreds of jobs were lost over the next two years. In Broomfield, progress on McWhinney’s project ground to a halt.
Today, though, the McWhinneys are back in motion and surging ahead. A charter school has taken root, and Adams 12 plans a STEM campus in the area; Westminster’s Butterfly Pavilion is migrating to the community, and JP Morgan Chase will soon break ground on a 150,000-squarefoot, $220 million data center.
The development — long called North Park but now rebranded as Baseline — is one of many construction zones in Broomfield, a city that has been booming longer and stronger than its neighbors by catering to international companies with a no-red tape approach to building business.
The result is an average wage 58 percent higher than the state as a whole, the fastest job growth in the region from 2007 to 2015, and the arrival of a cadre of international companies putting their money on the line to build big and hire hundreds.
“There’s a lot of things cooking right now,” said City Manager Charles Ozaki. “Broomfield has done very well.”
Through the third quarter of 2017, Broomfield’s average salary was $89,191 —
well above Colorado’s average of $56,300, according to Brian Lewandowski, economist for University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business.
Three international companies have in the past two years moved to Broomfield: German plumbing equipment maker Viega relocated its American operations from Kansas to Broomfield; Swiss investment firm Partners Group in December broke ground on a 13-acre campus; and Australian software company simPRO selected Broomfield as a base to launch into the U.S. market.
Together, they could bring nearly 1,000 jobs to the area.
Broomfield wasn’t on the list for prospective landing places when simPRO went looking. The company scouted California and East Coast locations for a potential U.S. headquarters. A chance call from a business partner brought scouts to Colorado; simPRO’s first office was in Boulder, but Broomfield had room to grow.
“When we started recruiting, we attracted talent from all over,” said Glenn Nott, president of North American operations. “If we had been based in Boulder, we may have missed out on some folks from south Denver.”
Broomfield is well positioned to attract businesses for a number of reasons, said Bo Martinez, the city’s economic development director. Halfway between Denver and Boulder, much of its development has taken place along I-25 and U.S. 36.
Also, having the city and county governments combined makes it easier to move projects through the regulatory process, Martinez said.
Broomfield also benefits from having room to grow — and the political will to use available space.
One problem cropping up is housing. Broomfield home prices rose faster than anywhere else in the Boulder region, appreciating 11.1 percent in 2017. A median-price singlefamily home now costs $615,000, said Debra Meyer, a local Realtor and member of the city’s affordable housing task force.
Home construction has been robust, but most new singlefamily dwellings were large homes in upper price ranges, built for the corporate executives Broomfield has attracted, Meyer said.
What is needed is a “spectrum of housing options” at all price points.
Baseline has plans for 6,205 residential units, both rentals and for-sale, over its lifetime — and a goal to deliver townhomes or condos for less than $300,000.
“I don’t know if we’re going to be able to do it,” he said, “but we’re trying.”