Newsmakers Feb. 28-March 13: Group envisions brand for region

One year after rebranding as the Northwest Denver Economic Development Partnership, the former Broomfield Economic Development Corp. continued to evolve as it attempted to provide a regional voice for businesses.

The nonprofit organization changed its name again early in 2014 to Northwest Denver Business Partnership. With economic development still an ancillary goal, the new name was meant to emphasize the organization’s main objective of helping companies located in the northwestern portion of the metro area do business and build a business brand for the region.

The NDBP ultimately came about after a 2010 decision by the city of Broomfield to hire its own economic development director and cut its funding to the BEDC from $246,000 per year to $100,000 the next year and zero after that. In March of 2013, the BEDC announced its initial name change and a shift to a more regional focus.

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In February of 2014, the NDBP was still refining its specific functions and working hard to build membership and gain feedback from members on what they wanted from the organization.

Covering an area bounded roughly by Interstate 70 to the south, the foothills to the west, Interstate 25 to the east and the northern Boulder County line to the north, specific tasks were to include assisting growth of the area’s key industries, doing policy advocacy at the state and local levels, providing networking and educational events and building a business brand for the region that organizers said didn’t exist.

The idea was that the NDBP would work with both local and regional organizations to help attract employers but also not to duplicate services.

UPDATE

Building membership didn’t go as well as it needed to, however, to keep the NDBP afloat. The organization dissolved in September.

CEO Mike Kosdrosky and board chairman Dave Marusiak couldn’t be reached for comment. But NDBP board member Mike Cienian of Hunter Douglas in Broomfield said he thought the idea for the organization might simply have been ahead of its time.

“At the end of the situation, people were joining but it wasn’t at a fast enough rate,” Cienian said. “We had all kinds of positive feedback saying this is just what the area needs. It just didn’t happen in time. It was kind of disappointing because all the indicators had been really positive.”