Three big deals have raised hopes among local economic development officials that better days are ahead for Colorado’s economy.
“It feels like it felt in 1992 when we started to gel,” said Tom Clark, executive vice president with the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. “I sense that the big momentum is growing.”
Inquiries from companies looking to relocate are on the rise, and so are favorable deals, Clark said.
Examples include ProLogis’ acquisition of Catellus Development Corp., a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co. to build rockets, and Sun Microsystems’ agreement to buy Storage Technology Corp.
Two of the three deals are likely to add jobs in metro Denver, and the third will ensure that many of the jobs will stay.
“It gives us a lot of hope that the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t a freight train coming the other way,” adds Preston Gibson, chief executive and president of the Jefferson Economic Council.
Boeing and Lockheed Martin agreed to combine their rocket divisions in a joint venture based in Waterton Canyon.
Jefferson County will lose rocket-manufacturing jobs to Decatur, Ala., but gain some portion of the 3,800 engineering, design and administrative jobs that come with the joint venture.
While it’s early to give a specific count, the net job impact is expected to be positive, said Tom Jurkowsky, Lockheed spokesman.
“We have had a rough go of it the last couple of years,” Gibson said. “This kind of turnaround with very high-paying jobs is something we are thankful for.”
Aurora-based ProLogis strengthened its hand as the nation’s largest developer and owner of distribution facilities when it on Monday announced a $4.9 billion acquisition of Catellus Development Corp. of San Francisco.
Colorado almost lost ProLogis last year after the company’s board considered relocating to Dallas or Chicago, Clark said. Economic development officials were able to persuade the company, which has built a new headquarters, to stay.
Catellus has about 220 employees, and ProLogis hasn’t said how many, if any, might come to Colorado.
But the bigger benefit comes in the multiple Fortune 500 companies that the two real estate investment trusts count as clients and could potentially lure to the state as their tenants.
“If you think about those two coming together, that is a strong group to compete against anywhere,” said Wendy Mitchell, president of the Aurora Economic Development Council.
In another large deal, Sun Microsystems Inc. agreed to acquire StorageTek for $4.1 billion, a merger that swallows one of Colorado’s oldest technology companies.
The two companies, which employ a total of 4,700 Coloradans, haven’t disclosed their employment plans. But job cuts are expected to be less severe than if a direct competitor had acquired Storage Tek, which makes data-storage systems.
“If they were on the auction block, Sun is a better buyer than another big storage company,” said Sean Maher, director of the Boulder Economic Council. “In terms of the tech workers, there isn’t much overlap.”
Another positive development includes an expansion by aerospace contractor Raytheon Co., which is working on a new building capable of holding 750 workers in CentreTech Business Park, Mitchell said.
Also, Northrop Grumman has broken ground on a smaller building and plans to add 150 jobs locally by 2006, she added.
In the past, Colorado let more aggressive competitors like Texas, Florida and the D.C. area snag aerospace jobs.
“Our efforts of retaining and growing that industry over the last 20 years would be considered benign neglect,” Clark said. “We didn’t even know what we wanted for that industry a year ago.”
The state has now made the industry a priority, and the dividends are coming in.
“You pay attention to things and work gets done,” said Brian Vogt, director of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade.
For example, Lamar was named as the home of a future $50 million project to capture high-energy cosmic rays. And last year, the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs became home to the National Space University.
“The stars are starting to align,” Mitchell said.
Staff writer Aldo Svaldi can be reached at 303-820-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com.
