Greeley employers ‘go west,’ vacating downtown property

Horace Greeley’s exhortation to “Go west, young man,” found renewed relevance in the late 1990s as longtime commercial residents began to pick up roots and move toward the city’s western edge.

In the spring of 1999, State Farm Insurance announced plans to relocate its regional office from Evans to the new Promontory development in west Greeley. In short order it was followed by ConAgra Inc., now called Swift & Co.

What the westward expansion means for the community is, in a word, jobs, say Greeley officials. With much of the growth and development taking place along the U.S. Highway 34 corridor to the west, that area has emerged as Greeley’s strategic employment corridor, said Roy Otto, Greeley’s city manager.

State Farm’s move allowed the insurance giant to consolidate operations previously spread across five buildings in Evans and Greeley.

Next came ConAgra. The meatpacking company sparked community concerns when it began shopping for new corporate headquarters in the 1990’s. When the company announced it would stay in Greeley, joining State Farm in the western reaches of the city, the relief was palpable.

State Farm and ConAgra each took up residence in west Greeley’s Promontory Business Park in 2001.

By 2000, meanwhile, the city of Greeley had annexed in excess of 14 square miles to the west, an effort to extend its reach toward Interstate 25. More land, by some accounts, than could be developed in 30 years.

Much of that land remains in agricultural production, Otto said, and is likely to remain so for some time. A lot is still outside the city’s growth management area, which prevents permits from being issued there.

In 2003, Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co. of Greeley announced plans to build a new regional distribution warehouse at the West Greeley Tech Center. The new facility would replace an existing plant in east Greeley.

Recently, Greeley Medical Clinic PC, the region’s largest specialty medical practice, followed the trend when it decided to move most of its 200 doctors, nurses and other employees now in midtown Greeley to Promontory.

The success of Centerra, the sprawling multi-use development in east Loveland at I-25 and U.S. 34, is likely exerting much of the pull. With its mix of retail, employment, housing and health care, Centerra illustrates Northern Colorado’s evolving regional economy.

Still, Centerra has competition to be the center of Northern Colorado’s universe. The true bull’s eye – the geographic central point between Fort Collins, Windsor, Greeley, Loveland and Longmont – lies at Promontory.

A 1999 demographic study found that Promontory and the adjacent West Greeley Tech Center, located at the triangle formed by U.S. 34’s business and bypass routes with Colorado 257, lie at the epicenter of population and economic growth for the region.

A 2002 study projects traffic counts will double by 2020 from 32,000 to 66,700 vehicles per day along the stretch of U.S. 34 from I-25 east to where the highway splits into business and bypass.

Promontory, a 670-acre development, calls for 750 single-family homes and about 40 acres of multi-family units. The nearby 136-acre West Greeley Tech Center, meanwhile, could one day hold 1.1 million square feet of commercial space. The project, just across U.S. 34 from Promontory, features 27 parcels.

Otto said Greeley’s western corridor along U.S. 34 would likely develop much as the Harmony Road corridor in southeastern Fort Collins has. “That’s definitely what we’re looking for,” Otto said. “That is Greeley’s strategic employment corridor.”

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