Cities try varied paths to economic development

When it comes to economic development, Northern Colorado’s four largest cities – Fort Collins, Greeley, Loveland and Windsor – collectively recognize that they each hold a place in a regional economy.
Issues surrounding transportation, work force, water and infrastructure frequently cross boundaries and blur lines between the various entities.
Each municipality, however, recognizes allegiance to its own citizenry and unique needs and characteristics. Consequently, the four cities maintain, four separate approaches to economic development.
Three of the four share membership in one of two private economic development organizations, belonging variously to the Greeley-Weld Economic Development Partnership or the Northern Colorado Economic Development Corp.
Windsor, with boundaries straddling both Larimer and Weld counties, belongs to both. Fort Collins is considering a contractual agreement with the Northern Colorado EDC that would render economic development services for specific projects.
Jacob Castillo, director of business development for Northern Colorado EDC, said that the four municipalities tend to work cooperatively with each other and the region’s economic development entities.
“We share a lot of the same intellectual capital and labor force,” Castillo said. “Dollars are transferred throughout all of the Northern Colorado communities via the mobile residents of the area.”
Castillo noted that the region’s municipalities have been working together to address some of the needs of the region at-large, such as transportation and water resources. “They all certainly understand the importance of regionalism and regional cooperation.”
Still, each of the four cities handles economic development a bit differently within the walls of city hall. Two – Fort Collins and Loveland – have had economic development staff positions. Both at the moment are open. Greeley is studying plans to create such a position; in Windsor economic development work falls to the city manager.
Here’s a city-by-city look at how the region’s largest municipalities approach economic development.
n In Fort Collins, municipal economic development efforts are focused on maintaining overall quality of life; often a chief interest of businesses considering relocation or expansion.
The city’s staff position of economic advisor is unfilled at this time and Fort Collins City Manager Darin Atteberry serves as the contact.
The city’s Web site at www.fcgov.org describes the city’s role as attending to quality of life, ensuring reliable utilities, investing in parks, trails and open space, encouraging development of affordable housing stocks and maintaining state-of-the-art infrastructure.”
The Web site also details the city’s view of the roles of the private sector and outside entities.
n Greeley’s philosophy is to balance recognition of the city’s role in a regional economy with attention to the city’s specific needs, said Roy Otto, interim city manager.
“We are a major player in the Greeley-Weld Economic Development Partnership,” Otto said. “We are one of the two major funders of that organization and utilize it for some of the regional marketing and lead generation. But we try to also recognize the statistic in economic development that 90 percent of your growth is going to happen with existing business.”
With that in mind, Greeley is partnering with Aims Community College, the Greeley Chamber of Commerce and the University of Northern Colorado in a new “economic gardening program.” “That is basically a program that provides economic development tools to local businesses to help them come up with specialized marketing lists,” Otto explained.
The program aims to give local businesses access to powerful economic development tools such as databases and global positioning technology that are often too expensive for just one small business, Otto said.
“A lot of times these smaller businesses don’t have the resources or staff to really think about what data and stuff is out there and how it can be manipulated to provide those marketing lists to expand their businesses. That is what we are endeavoring to do in partnership with those entities.”
Under discussion in Greeley is the addition of an economic development manager position on the city’s staff.
Otto said the city is committed to maintaining membership in the Greeley-Weld EDAP and values the leads it can generate and the attention it can draw in marketing the region. However, Otto said, once the interest is generated, there is a natural competition among member entities to land the business or expansion.
Otto said; “I think it’s ultimately up to the individual member communities to step up to the plate and take those leads and run with them.”
n Loveland views economic development as a community partnership, said Renee Wheeler, assistant city manager. A coalition of groups, with city government serving as the umbrella organization, works to retain existing business and attract new business to the community.
Wheeler said the organizations involved include: Loveland Business Development Center, Loveland Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Loveland Association, the city of Loveland, and comprehensive master plan committees now on a vision for Loveland out to 2020/
In 2001 the city hired an economic development manager and moved toward playing a more active role in economic development within the city. Donna Smith, who held that position until October 2004 when she joined The Neenan Co., crafted an economic development plan detailing the city’s economic development strengths, weaknesses, challenges and tools.
Wheeler said the city would review a report in June that gives an overview of economic development achievements. From there “we will look into what we want to see in the future and what is the role of all these organizations to ensure that we don’t have a lot of duplicate efforts.
Within three months of that time, Wheeler said she expects the city to have a plan for defining the roles of the various partners in economic development and also a decision on how it will approach filling the vacant economic development manager position.
n Windsor’s economic development focus is on encouraging new or existing business expansion in the areas of research and development, manufacturing, processing and distribution, said Tow Manager Rod Wensing. The goal is primary jobs, Wensing said.
Windsor doesn’t have a staff position dedicated to economic development. Instead those duties fall to Wensing.
The town has memberships with both the Greeley-Weld EDAP and the Northern Colorado EDC. Windsor looks to those organizations to do the corporate recruiting.
“Their role is to make contacts and look for businesses that either want to expand or locate into Windsor or Northern Colorado,” Wensing said. “Once they get those entities interested or wanting to do things, then they contact (member communities).”
Once businesses have expressed an interest through one of the economic development organizations, Wensing said, “We take a look and see if there’s anything Windsor can do for those particular businesses.”

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