ACE suitors pitch plenty of woo

It’s not quite “American Idol,” but the contest among North Front Range cities and towns to be the home of a new technology park that could create more than 7,000 jobs has taken on an almost reality-show-like hysteria.

More than 30 site proposals were submitted for consideration for the Aerospace and Clean Energy technology park, according to the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp., which is overseeing the application process on behalf of the Colorado Association for Manufacturing and Technology. CAMT and NASA officials signed an agreement last December to build the technology park for up to 100 businesses – and create between 7,000 and 10,000 jobs – and to launch a Technology Acceleration Program to support businesses.

CAMT representatives initially identified a target area for the massive new research campus between the University of Colorado in Boulder, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, and Colorado State University in Fort Collins, stoking early interest among several communities, including Longmont. But as the process has progressed, the search has opened to nine counties throughout metro Denver and Northern Colorado.

The open competition has sparked plenty of attention, which may have peaked in early February, when Metro Denver EDC released two requests for proposals. The organization gave towns just 12 days to submit pitches for either existing industrial sites with between 300,000 and 600,000 square feet of building space, or an undeveloped, highway-accessible and shovel-ready “greenfield” of 200 to 400 acres.

The frenzy culminated on Feb. 14, when more than 30 Front Range municipalities submitted bids for the park, according to Metro Denver EDC. The group’s staff hopes to keep speculation to a dull roar, citing nondisclosure agreements meant to uphold the confidentiality of the selection process, but the potential for thousands of new tech jobs have city leaders and regional economic-development officials giddy over the prospects.

“That’s enough to get anybody excited,´ said Larry Burkhardt, CEO of Upstate Colorado Economic Development, representing Weld County. “It would transform the region.”

Colorado project

Despite the project’s obvious orientation toward Colorado, it’s likely a relief to several interested parties that Cheyenne LEADS, the southern Wyoming economic development corporation, isn’t making a push for the park.

In 2007, Wyoming lured the National Center for Atmospheric Research supercomputer center outside of Colorado – using $20 million in state funds, abundant power and cheap land and construction costs to best a bid from the University of Colorado in Boulder. At the time, Metro Denver EDC executive vice president Tom Clark rued the loss, and told the Boulder County Business Report, “[T]o lose an opportunity like this is troubling … We’re not capable of responding to the financial incentives of other states…. This is not going to stop. This is the first chink in the armor. Other states will see what Wyoming was able to do, and they’ll come after the other labs because they’ll know we can’t compete in incentives.”

The defeat helps explain why Clark and others have acted skittish about sharing details about the selection process for major research facilities. In a press release announcing the submitted proposals, Clark said, “When we conduct a site search on behalf of a prospect company, we do so in complete confidentiality. We have significant competition among other states for projects such as this and we need to maintain our competitive advantage.”

Despite the claims, Randy Bruns, CEO of Cheyenne LEADS, said his organization “took a look” at the project, but didn’t submit a proposal, and he hadn’t heard of any other Cowboy State entities making a play, either.

Regardless, the current selection process has hardly proceeded with discretion due to the zeal of municipalities around Northern Colorado and metro Denver.

Loveland’s heart on its sleeve

Loveland, most notably, has openly courted the ACE technology park. A day after the submittal deadline, the city announced a non-binding letter of intent for a $5.5 million purchase of the 300-plus-acre campus on Southwest 14th Street owned by Agilent Technologies. City and local economic-development officials say the acquisition, which includes 800,000 square feet of building space and valuable water shares from the Colorado-Big Thompson Project, is a savvy move at a sharp price. But if Loveland gets passed over for the ACE park, the city could be left owning the site – and any potential liability issues that could come with it.

Following the playbook that the city used to lure Hewlett-Packard to the same land in the 1960s, Loveland has tried to showcase the city’s enthusiasm for the project by soliciting public support through citizen letters and financial contributions – and even Valentines to the selection committee and a Facebook campaign.

But Loveland is by no means alone among interested Northern Colorado municipalities. Mike Masciola, chief operating officer of the Northern Colorado Economic Development Corp., said his organization helped coordinate “multiple” proposals from Larimer County, with some towns submitting more than one site for consideration. Masciola described the proposals as “diverse” in terms of amenities and locations, and said some packages are better positioned than others, but declined to share more details, citing the non-disclosure agreement.

Fort Collins isn’t among the cities that submitted a proposal, according to Josh Birks, the city’s economic adviser. Birks said the city did consider the opportunity, but did not identify an appropriate site. The city of Boulder reportedly took the same stance.

Weld County interest

On the eastern side of Interstate 25, Upstate Colorado helped coordinate a dozen proposals, according to CEO Burkhardt. Locations include Windsor, Greeley, Johnstown, Fort Lupton, Dacono, Firestone and Mead.

The smaller towns have likely proposed shovel-ready greenfield sites with no buildings, but several former industrial plots from the county are in the mix.

Bruce Biggi, Greeley’s economic development manager, confirmed the city submitted two proposals, one of which is another former HP parcel, with 156 acres and 275,000 square feet of building space, off 71st Avenue and 10th Street.

Biggi said staff from various city departments, regional economic development officials, and property owners and real estate agents worked together to assemble the proposals. For now, the city was not making a move to acquire the land – as Loveland has done with the Agilent site – and he didn’t expect the decision to factor into the outcome.

It’s also believed that Windsor has based a proposal around the Eastman Kodak campus, which once encompassed roughly 1 million square feet of building space. However, city officials failed to comment for this story.

Burkhardt compared the next phase in site selection to car buying: The clients have received a list of what options are available, and now they’ll have to weigh and analyze the different specs of each one to determine which one best meets the groups’ needs and visions.

Metro Denver EDC has tentatively announced it hopes to make its choice by mid-March.

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