One-on-One: Interview with William Karspeck, mayor of Berthoud

Each month, BizWest asks a business leader to participate in a question and answer feature to help shed light on a business topic, an industry or add insight to a field of endeavor. This month, William Karspeck, mayor of Berthoud, discusses the town’s success with economic development over the past few years.

BizWest: Berthoud has seen success in recent years with economic development. Please describe the general philosophy of community leadership with regard to how you approach business development in town.

William Karspeck: Well we have a good staff willing to try out new ideas and are very entrepreneurial in their own right, and our economic development director Walt Elish has years of experience and an extensive network to help get the word out about the great things we’re doing in Berthoud. In addition we just have good municipal genetics. Our service infrastructure is well maintained and has room to grow, and our location being on U.S. Highway 287, Interstate 25 and Colorado Highway 56 as well as being 45 minutes from two major universities and an international airport gives us an unbeatable location. Our views of the mountains, access to numerous lakes and reservoirs and sense of a tight knit community are icing on the cake. With this good economy, numerous commercial developments are taking off. We try to help the commercial developer where we can. That includes easy access to staff, and reassessing fees, or partnering on infrastructure where it makes sense. From time to time, staff will come to us with an incentive plan for a prospective business. We aren’t going to give away anything or lower any standards but generally there are things we can do to help. 

BizWest: A couple of the recent developments — the TPC golf course and Ursa Major — are examples of successful efforts in economic development. What made those projects work for Berthoud?

Karspeck: For TPC it was the location with an unparalleled view overlooking the twin peaks and having several reservoirs to play next to and enjoy for recreation. It was also the developers vision for this location. We have a long-term water agreement with the course, and I think that made sense. That area could have just been sold for a suburb, but instead it’s becoming a premier Northern Colorado location for active living and fine dining. Its future development plans are innovative. The Front Range trail will be going near the course. We’ve partnered with the developers to create a great regional trail network that will benefit everyone.

For Ursa Major, we just happened to have a building that was designed to test rocket motors and that was not currently utilized. Ursa happened to be looking for an area to test their rockets in-house. It could not have worked out any better. The Berthoud location has since become its headquarters and it has developed plans for expansion already. 

BizWest: The town recently turned back proposals to change the intergovernmental agreements with the Turion Metro Districts. What do you think will happen next with this development? Is it off the table or is there a path forward for it?

Karspeck: Turion will definitely be going ahead. There was apprehension over the proposed agreement given the size of the development and its location set several miles east of town and in Weld County. This means a different county, school district, library district, etc. It is essentially its own town and should have adequate amenities and strong protections. As metro districts expedite development, we really only have one chance, and since we have no metro district model service plan of our own, we were relying on the state’s minimum regulations. After the mayor-pro tem did some extensive research, we learned there are numerous communities that have some sort of regulations. Turion  has invested a lot into its project already, including millions of dollars worth of improvements into the Interstate 25 intersection and upcoming mobility hub. The developers understand what we are concerned about and judging by our last meeting, they seemed receptive to exploring regulations. I’m glad we have them, and I think we’ll make a truly unique development that will be attractive to residents and businesses.

BizWest: What retail strategies is the town using to recruit additional sales tax paying businesses?

Karspeck: Our location, amount of commercial areas and a booming population naturally helps us out. We recognize the benefits of ongoing sales tax generation and myriad other benefits by a new business and will generally be flexible where we can. We try to partner on infrastructure improvement so the cost is not 100% born by the business(s).

BizWest: Describe the town’s strategies with regard to industrial/commercial development.

Karspeck: Industrial development is critical, and it provides secure, living-wage jobs. We have several industrial zoned areas in town. I think the important thing there is to look at businesses at all levels of their growth. Do we have space for someone’s first business? Do we have larger units available so that business can transition to a bigger space when it is ready? Growing up here I thought I had a good idea of the industrial businesses we have, but I’m constantly amazed with how many and the unique industries they serve. We have [one of] the largest printing presses west of the Mississippi, a new company focusing on high quality roof racks and off roading accessories. We have highly skilled machinists and welders, aerospace companies that build motors and now Agile RF that builds satellite antennas, and just about everything in between. I hope as we continue to grow we have a plan to provide small to medium pads to extend Second Street north. It would be nice to see more entrepreneurs be able to find a space to create the next great product.

The town has been working on the redevelopment of our old Town Hall site into a walkable, mixed-use area. The plans look fun, and I can see this help existing businesses by beautifying the area and increasing foot traffic as well as enticing new businesses to set up shop downtown. A lot of us see the potential of this being a catalyst for more downtown improvements. 

BizWest: What else would you like to share about the community’s approach to economic development?

Karspeck: In addition to looking outward, Berthoud is beginning to look more inward for economic development. I think the recent entrepreneurial summit we hosted, and having the governor speak, helped impress our interest in providing the tools and resources for our small businesses to grow. I’m particularly excited about this, and I hope to keep that momentum going. 

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