Longmont offers affordable real estate, high-tech work force

Longmont is the Boulder Valley’s second-most populous city, and it offers businesses room to grow at an affordable price.

The city lies in the northeast part of the county, with 20-minute access to Boulder via the Diagonal Highway (Colorado Highway 119) and 45-minute access to Denver and Fort Collins via Interstate 25.

Longmont’s economic-development team focuses on attracting primary jobs to the city – or companies whose products and services are sold outside the area. This brings outside dollars to Longmont to help fuel prosperity.

The city has become one of the main hubs for computer and data storage in the United States. Hard-drive makers Seagate Technology LLC and Western Digital Corp. have significant presences in Longmont, along with more than 20 other IT hardware companies, including Dot Hill Systems Corp., and Intel Corp. Longmont also has several industry clusters with employment exceeding 500, including software, biotech, business services, semiconductors and food processing. Micron Technology Corp. has just opened a 43,000-square-foot facility.

Longmont has also realized a data-center concentration in recent years. American Honda Motor Corp. has one of its main data-storage facilities here. West Corp., Xilinx Inc., and Ongoing Operations have set up data centers and Dallas-based Broadband Utilities Inc. recently built three new 50,000-square-foot data-storage centers.

Longmont also hosts numerous other big-name national firms such as Amgen Inc., DigitalGlobe Inc., STMicroelectronics and GE Energy.

Technology companies favor Longmont for its educated work force, economic incentives, lower real estate prices and electric rates.

Longmont is the only city in the Boulder Valley with its own municipal electric company – Longmont Power & Communications – which saves users an average of 30 percent on electric costs compared with the rest of Colorado.

Real estate prices – both commercial and residential – can be nearly half of prices in nearby Boulder. This allows businesses and families to affordably live and work in Longmont.

There’s also room to grow for new developments. The city provides a variety of mostly single-family home neighborhoods, including Prospect New Town, a sustainable “new urbanism” neighborhood with a mix of old-style and modern-style homes.

Longmont provides its residents with plenty of retail options, including downtown Main Street shopping, the soon-to-be-redeveloped Twin Peaks Mall, and big-box stores such as Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Home Depot and Lowe’s spread throughout the city.

The city has its own recreation center, cultural theater, one private and three public golf courses, and an outdoor sports complex at Sandstone.

Longmont United Hospital, one of four hospitals in the Boulder Valley, provides a full range of top-ranked medical care.

The St. Vrain Valley School District provides kindergarten through 12th-grade public education throughout the city, and Front Range Community College’s Boulder County campus is based here.

Longmont is serviced by the Regional Transportation District bus service and eventually may be served by its FasTracks commuter-rail service. FLEX buses operated by the city of Fort Collins’ TransFort system connect Longmont and RTD commuters with Berthoud, Loveland and Fort Collins.

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