Successful business parks depend first on feasibility

First things first.

To manage successfully the “business of business parks,” it’s important to know it’s not the acreage of the park that matters but whether the infrastructure is in place, say park developers.
All along the Front Range and Wyoming, companies are relocating as they expand, some from as far as California or the Pacific Rim, most within the Rocky Mountain region. Sure, location and quality of life are important, but brokers say that if the business park ain’t “ready” for business, then prospects will find some place that is.
“One of the most important things for any piece of land is whether or not it is fully developed,´ said Cathy Schulte, vice president of the Greeley/Weld Economic Development Action Partnership Inc. “Companies don’t want to deal with (putting) infrastructure in place.
“What’s nice about Weld County and the City of Greeley is that they make the permitting process as easy as possible,” Schulte said. “(Potential clients) understand what is required” so that “they can start construction … The attraction of Weld County is that we don’t have six months waiting period for building permits.”
It took Cheyenne LEADS almost six years and $2.5 million to purchase land and provide water, sewer, other utilities and fiber-optic capability for its 917-acre business park along Interstate 80.Three local banks, contributing businesses and the Cheyenne Light, Fuel and Power Co. worked with LEADS to secure the land and develop it, an effort much appreciated by LEADS president Jack Crews.
“All these things take time,” Crews said of the development process. “We’re expecting a 20-year build-out (rate). These things take a lot of money. But the infrastructure has to be there. A new company does not want to gamble” with financing the development of their relocation site.
“It depends on what the company wants,” Schulte said. “Most companies are not into developing … most are very focused.
“They want it to be painless. Any move can make or break a company. It’s very different, a very personal thing.”
“Let’s step back one position,´ said Tom Livingston, broker for the Everitt Cos. in Fort Collins. “The key ingredient to a successful park is economic feasibility. You have costs to acquire (the land), cost of design, costs for marketing and holding, costs for engineering and development. (Everyone) has to compute whether it makes economic sense.”
Livingston develops the 130-acre business park at the Fort Collins-Loveland Municipal Airport, as well as five other Everitt projects.
“We like to develop projects that are important to the community,” Livingston said. “We create in our projects a sense of place.”
Having distinctive signage at the entrance of the Fort Collins-Loveland airport, and regulated signage within the park, helps accomplish a “new identity,” he said.
Bob Boysen, president of the Laramie Economic Development Corp., said the 60-acre Laramie River Business Park met a need within the community.
“We entered in (to the business park project) as a tool to help us have a place for higher-tech companies,” Boysen said. “Without (the park), a small community cannot compete. In Wyoming, any community needs new business, new dollars coming in.”
The Cheyenne business community came together to back the large commercial park along Interstate 80.
“From a community-support aspect, we have had phenomenal broad-based support,´ said Cheyenne LEADS president Jack Crews.
Identity is reinforced by taking advantage of each Wyoming community’s resources and not trying to usurp development in other areas of the state.
“We don’t try to compete with other cities in Wyoming,” Crews said. “We work very hard not to compete with our sister cities” and focus on being “complementary” to the other industrial parks.Word-of-mouth, networking key
Cathy Schulte of EDAP prefers an aggressive approach to attracting and keeping business in the Greeley and Weld County area.
“Weld County is very open for business,” she said, noting that EDAP spreads the message throughout the state and country through prospecting missions and attendance at trade shows.
For example, Schulte said EDAP took advantage of California’s high cost of doing business two or three years ago. Economic representatives from the State of Colorado went to the west coast and talked with businesses about coming to Colorado, first, and, secondly for Schulte, coming to Weld County.
She said EDAP touts Weld County’s assets, such as access to water in Weld County; the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley; being located near the University of Colorado and Colorado State University, both “magnets for hiring;” and being located centrally in the United States, and how important that is for transportation and telecommunications.
“We are beating the bushes, following up on leads,” she said.
Don Churchwell, executive director of the Loveland Economic Development Council, said his organization makes good contacts with people but maintains a more-conservative marketing approach.
“We follow up on leads” and “locate companies who are going to work here,” he said. “We are not that proactive. We have never done trade shows … We get contacts from people that are interested from the local economic-development office, and we find what they are looking for.”
Laramie’s Boysen said his organization participates in attracting business.
“We talk to as many people as we can, read the newspapers … our tenants are growing fast,” he said.
Laramie’s efforts include some print advertising and some trade shows, but its most successful means of acquiring new clients is by word-of-mouth.
“You have to get (the prospective business) to know as much about your community so that it is possible (for them) to make an intelligent decision” on whether to relocate or not, Boysen said.
Cheyenne has landed a major satellite communications company and a large outdoor clothing and equipment distributor/manufacturer. Taking advantage of that by telling businesses of the “tremendous growth opportunities” by being “affiliated with that kind” of industries is part of their pitch.
Everitt broker Tom Livingston hails the location in the Tri-City area, its established labor pool and transportation access and available exposure on Interstate 25. He also lets businesses know up-front the importance of establishing identity within their industrial parks by showing attention to suitable landscaping.
Livingston said they rely primarily on communication with the industrial-brokerage communities for leads, various economic-development groups and fundamental marketing such as advertising and trade shows.
In Wyoming, economic-development groups fight the perception that their state is isolated.Boysen said Laramie provides unique advantages.
“We have less population density, which is good for raising a family,” he said. While perhaps surrendering a point to not having a more intense cosmopolitan impact, he touted the location of the University of Wyoming as a selling point.
The biggest ace for Colorado’s northern neighbor is lower taxation, which reduces the cost of doing business.
“There is no income or corporate tax, lower property taxes, the sales tax is less, housing is a lot less,” Boysen said.
“Our assets are unique,” Schulte said of the Greeley-Weld County area, but, Colorado “doesn’t do well in taxation levels,” she admitted. “We have lost, for example, microchip manufacturers” to other states.
Yet, the Weld County Business Park and the Greeley Commerce Center are both successful.
“We have a whole litany of things” that EDAP goes through,” she said. “We have many calls, many leads.”
Perhaps the best business any business park demonstrates is a readiness to answer a question Schulte said was essential: “So, what can you tell me?”
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