Economic development officials in Colorado try to get companies to expand or relocate here all the time.
Sometimes they succeed, as when small-jet maker Aviation Technology Group got incentives to build a manufacturing facility at Front Range Airport rather than New Mexico.
Sometimes they fail, as when engineering giant Fluor Corp. announced last year that it would move its global headquarters from Aliso Viejo, Calif., to Irving, Texas, near Dallas, snubbing a long-standing offer from Denver.
Win some. Lose some.
But now that United Airlines is toying with the idea of moving its headquarters from Elk Grove Village, Ill., the stakes for Denver are higher – including the possibility of rejection that would be national news.
“Does that mean we shouldn’t go after (United)?” said Denver Councilman Charlie Brown. “That’s kind of a doomsday attitude. You still go after it. Why not?”
To land United, Denver is reportedly competing against two bigger and more glamorous cities: Chicago and San Francisco. All three cities are major United hubs, along with Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
While Denver may be an attractive place to live and work, it is unlikely to have the financial muscle to compete with an economic incentives package that Chicago boosters will amass for United, said Jim Reis, World Trade Center Denver president.
“People with bigger dollars, a bigger tax base, always have a bigger advantage over us. It’s like going to an auction and wanting something and (finding Denver financier) Phil Anschutz bidding against you.”
On Friday, Chicago Tribune writer David Greising described Denver as “an also-, also-ran,” alluding to Denver’s competition for the Boeing corporate headquarters in 2001.
Boeing, which moved from Seattle, chose Chicago over Denver and Dallas.
Faced with the prospect of fighting to retain a hometown corporation, Greising wrote, “Chicagoans are street-smart enough to sniff out bluster and baloney a mile away.”
He wrote that United’s threat to move its headquarters is “a transparent effort … to get taxpayers to help fund a move downtown.” He also noted that Chicago trumps Denver as a base for international flights.
United’s headquarters move would be relatively modest, involving 350 headquarters employees and 150,000 square feet of office space.
Yet, if United moved to Denver, it would instantly become the state’s highest ranking Fortune 500 company, bypassing Qwest and nine others.
Downtown Chicago has about 15 Fortune 500 companies, said Paul O’Connor, World Business Chicago executive. “The city has gone through a renaissance as a place to live, and that has drawn high-level talent.”
Denver officials offered last week to put together an incentives package. But United told them it was premature.
United reportedly wants to make a decision by Labor Day and move in 2007.
One wild card is United chief executive Glenn Tilton, who has called Denver the carrier’s “second home.” In his column, Greising noted that, “Denver has mountains. Tilton likes to ski.”
Reis noted the companies Denver is most likely to attract are those “where the CEO is looking at his own lifestyle and that of his employees and trying to create a better environment for them.”
A Fortune 500 company that moved to Colorado in 2001 was First Data Corp., which relocated from Atlanta to Greenwood Village. Charlie Fote, who became CEO, already lived in the Denver area at the time.
Fote left the company last year and was replaced by Ric Duques.
Whatever Tilton’s inclination is toward Denver – and he’s not talking – his five-year contract ends in 2007.
Richard Scharf, head of the Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau, said he sees no downside for Denver in following through on a bid for United, regardless of the outcome.
“Perceptions have changed. We’ve started competing on a whole different level,” he said.
Tom Clark, executive vice president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp., said it’s worth pursuing and that being in the running isn’t a bad thing.
“Just being mentioned with Chicago and San Francisco, despite the fact that we haven’t necessarily gotten the marriage license, has contributed to our prestige and our brand,” he said.
Staff writer Julie Dunn contributed to this report.
Staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi can be reached at 303-820-1488 or kyamanouchi@denverpost.com .
