High-tech highway: US 36 corridor emerging as hotspot for quantum, aerospace, biotech

SUPERIOR — The communities along the U.S. Highway 36 corridor have taken major steps beyond the shadows of their larger neighbors to the east and west — Denver and Boulder — emerging in recent years as economic powers in their own right.

“There is life outside of Boulder,” Infleqtion president of strategic initiatives Max Perez said Thursday during BizWest’s Future of the 36 Corridor conference in downtown Superior. Infleqtion, the trade name used by Boulder-born quantum technology company ColdQuanta Inc., recently expanded into Louisville, a trend that’s becoming more common for technology, aerospace and life-sciences firms that need space to expand. 

“Aerospace has been booming in Colorado and specifically in the U.S. 36 corridor,” with about 200 companies in the industry operating in the Boulder Valley, Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE: NOC) operations manager Adam Breen said. 

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Many of the high-tech industries that call the corridor home were born out of research conducted at area labs at the University of Colorado and federal institutions such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Institute of Standards and Technology.

It’s no surprise that the region is a technology hotbed, given that “we have one of the most highly educated workforces” in the country, said BioMed Realty LLC director of leasing Jennifer Chavez.

In past eras, workers flocked to areas where companies were already up and running. But now, “companies are chasing talent,” Koelbel and Co. CEO Carl Koelbel said.

Over the past few years, the population of the corridor has “outpaced the state in terms of growth,” driven mainly by Broomfield, Colorado State Demography Office economist Greg Totten said. 

More people, of course, means more cars and traffic. In response, the Front Range Passenger Rail District has been tasked with developing a plan to more efficiently “move people along the Front Range and create an opportunity for regional connectivity,” FRPR general manager Andy Karsian said.

Residential neighborhoods along the U.S. 36 corridor are enticing young families from Denver looking to move into a larger home in a quality school district and “folks (who) are wanting to live closer to where they work,” said Broomfield economic vitality and development deputy director Rachel King.

These new suburbanites still want “a community that’s activated with the amenities they’re used to,” Superior economic development manager Jill Mendoza said. 

Community planners along the corridor are focusing on creating centralized downtown-like districts with “urban, pedestrian-oriented, dense environment(s),” Westminster real estate, development and sustainability acting manager Heather Cronenberg said.