TECH FIRMS FIND HOME IN DENVER
Report reveals that 22 satellite locations have opened since 2010
A report says Denver has attracted satellite offices for 22 major Bay Area tech companies since 2010.
Lamenting the “Californication” of Colorado is a favored pastime for some natives, but don’t expect commercial real estate agents to do much griping about the Bay Area-ification of the Denver area.
After all, big-time tech companies from in and around San Francisco have helped make their lives easier over the last decade, soaking up a combined 900,000 square feet of commercial space in the greater DenverBoulder area since 2010, according to a new report. That’s a figure that makes the Mile High metro one of the country’s top 10 markets for attracting Northern California tech firms looking for outposts away from home.
The report, released this month by real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield, is titled “The Great Tech Migration,” and it details the expansion of 89 established technology and life-science companies headquartered in the Bay Area over the past decade.
Of those companies, 58 have set up satellite locations in other cities across America since 2010. Twenty-two of those — more than one in three — have carved out homes away from home in Denver.
The names of the firms are familiar: Apple, Facebook, Google, Lyft. By now, factors that helped attract them to Denver are familiar too: A workforce where 43.9% have bachelor’s degrees or higher and a population that is 23.5% millennial, nearly 3% higher than the nationwide rate.
Beyond those measurables, there is something immeasurable that helps Bay Area companies feel at ease in Denver, said Steve Billigmeier, an executive managing director with Cushman & Wakefield’s Denver office and part of the company’s emerging tech advisory group.
“I think just culturally, Denver as a community has similarities to the vibe to northern California,” Billigmeier said last week. “There is a level of comfort expanding their footprint in Denver because of that fact. It’s