Soon after Wendy Mitchell became Aurora’s economic-development chief in 2001, her staff asked business leaders in the region for their views on doing business in the city. The results weren’t pretty.
“The general perception was that Aurora was not a business-friendly place,” Mitchell said. More bluntly, as she told colleagues: “We found out our baby was ugly.”
The repair required more than a marketing campaign. Mitchell launched the A-List dinner, inviting regional political and business heavyweights to a posh banquet with high-caliber speakers.
A-List has grown into a major annual event — so big there’s no hotel in Aurora that can handle it, so it’s held in Denver — and Mitchell’s polling shows Aurora’s image in the business community has risen dramatically.
The proof of Aurora’s economic transformation is in two deals announced this year.
First, Gaylord Entertainment Co. said it hopes to build an $824 million Western-themed hotel in Aurora near Denver International Airport, with the National Western Stock Show potentially relocating to an adjacent site. Then, General Electric said it would build a $300 million plant to build solar panels in north Aurora.
Mitchell’s role in landing those plums — two of the three biggest deals announced in the state this year — combined with her other economic-development successes, prompted The Denver Post to name her Business Person of the Year for 2011.
The Post’s business news staff selected Mitchell from 22 nominees, including finalists Gov. John Hickenlooper, Arrow Electronics’ Michael Long, Dish Network’s Charlie Ergen and Chipotle Mexican Grill’s Steve Ells.
Associates and friends — there are many, including a cross-section of Colorado’s power elite — call Mitchell a tenacious and tireless dealmaker with a penchant for managing complex negotiations and building coalitions that extend beyond Aurora’s borders. On a personal level, they said, she puts people at ease with a gregarious demeanor, an easy laugh and a sharp sense of humor. In a word, she’s fun.
“Wendy’s real gift is that she genuinely likes people,” former Aurora Mayor Ed Tauer said. “When you work with Wendy, you feel that genuine side of her coming through. That’s why people enjoy working with her so much.”
“She is Aurora’s biggest advocate”
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said he didn’t try to recruit Mitchell when he was looking for an economic-development chief because she is so effective where she is.
“She is Aurora’s biggest advocate. She fights like hell, but she’s also very regional-minded in her approach,” he said, adding that a Mitchell-led delegation to Washington a few years ago was one of the best-organized trips he’s ever taken.
Hancock once ran into Mitchell at Cherry Creek mall, and she helped him pick out a tie that still attracts the most compliments.
“It’s a purple tie with kind of a unique design. It’s not too loud, it’s just right,” he said. “She pays attention to the little things.”
University of Colorado president Bruce Benson said he called Mitchell when he needed help with the Anschutz Medical Campus development in Aurora. Mitchell led a 2003 effort to get legislative approval for $200 million in debt financing to move CU’s medical school, and last year steered $16 million in federal funds earmarked for the region toward an Interstate 225 interchange near the Anschutz campus in Aurora that needed extensive improvements.
“She’s aggressive and she really goes after it,” he said. “She gets it done.”
Some of the deals Mitchell helped engineer — the Gaylord project in particular — have drawn criticism because they’re heavily subsidized. Also controversial was Aurora’s initial proposal to move the century-old stock show and its economic impact away from central Denver to a site near the airport, possibly in Aurora, at Denver taxpayers’ expense.
Aurora agreed to rebate $300 million in future property and use taxes to Nashville-based Gaylord and has applied with the state for another $85.4 million in sales-tax subsidies. Denver initially joined in that effort but later backed out due to concerns about moving the stock show from central Denver, and potentially to Aurora.
Under the state’s urban-renewal statute, Aurora designated the Gaylord land as “blighted,” working around a new state law intended to rein in such subsidies for vacant properties.
“I think the world of Wendy personally,” said state Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, who co-authored the new law. “But as a policy matter, I think we have seen a pattern of misuse of the blighting statute and tax-increment financing to trigger public subsidies for companies that don’t need them. . . . The trend is disturbing.”
Mitchell points out that the money represents income the city wouldn’t receive without the developments.
“Aurora’s not writing a check. It’s a self-funding enterprise. If these companies don’t spend the money, they won’t get it back,” she said.
Not shy about pulling political strings
Mitchell, 43, is a New Mexico native who became a vice president of Amrep Southwest, developer of Rio Rancho, a fast-growing Albuquerque suburb, in her 20s. The Aurora Economic Development Council (AEDC) hired her as president and chief executive in 2001. The nonprofit group receives funding from Aurora but isn’t a part of city government.
Her working relationships with Aurora’s mayors and City Council members are so close that she’s often seen as a city staffer, though she views her role as more of a “trusted adviser.” At meetings between Tauer and business officials, Mitchell would shoot the mayor a stern glance or kick him under the table — stiletto heels and all — if he said something he shouldn’t, she said.
During a recent phone call with the new mayor, Steve Hogan, confusion arose over the location of a meeting. As it turned out, Hogan had mixed up where two meetings were occurring the next day.
“Give me another two weeks, mayor, and I’ll be able to read your mind,” Mitchell told Hogan, who laughed. But Mitchell wasn’t joking, at least not entirely.
“I think of her as the chief of staff to the mayor,” said Denver political consultant Maria Garcia Berry, an AEDC board member whose clients include the Regional Transportation District and the stock show.
“Wendy has built those relationships masterfully, but she has done it in such a way where the organization does not feel threatened,” Garcia Berry said. “Her role is to tell them, ‘You guys are going in this direction, but here is what I’m hearing.’ “
Big supporter of business subsidies
AEDC’s independent status means that Mitchell and the mayor occasionally take opposing stances on projects. In one such case, Mitchell supported an $89 million tax rebate for the developer of a large commercial and residential project in north Aurora, but Tauer opposed it. A majority on City Council agreed with Mitchell and approved it last year.
In the Gaylord and GE deals, Mitchell and Tauer worked in lockstep to reel in high-profile projects that might easily have gone elsewhere. The Gaylord transaction was and remains so complicated that it occupied much of Mitchell’s time and energy for more than a year.
The transaction required Mitchell and her staff to interact with dozens of entities, provide information on myriad issues from infrastructure needs to economic incentives and meet a constant flow of deadlines.
“Wendy was the quiet voice of reason whispering to each side during the negotiations, helping bridge the gap on the more difficult issues,” said Bennett Westbrook, Gaylord’s senior vice president of development, design and construction. “What separates Wendy apart is her ability to maneuver through, around, over or under just about any challenge. . . . She understands that information is key and has an uncanny ability to know what is going on all around her.”
On a recent afternoon, Mitchell met with a developer to discuss plans for a potential commercial project near DIA, then talked with the mayor and city manager in a conference call about the stock show. She fielded calls and an interview, left the office to pick up her daughter from preschool and later prepared at home for a meeting and a presentation.
A single mother, Mitchell usually wakes up about 5 a.m. and works from home before getting 5-year-old Haley ready, dropping her off and heading to the office, always sharply dressed. She takes work calls at any hour, including vacation, but colleagues know not to contact her in the evenings before Haley goes to bed unless it’s an emergency.
AEDC staffers work long hours and are expected to respond quickly when issues arise, but Mitchell always lets them attend to family and personal needs, said vice president Bryan Blakely. Occasionally, to relieve stress, they’ll go out for a round of golf, or just for a good lunch.
“We’re very tight as a group,” he said. “Trust is high.”
Funding for council quadruples
When Mitchell took over, AEDC’s budget was about $500,000, made up mainly of government grants, Blakely said. Today, it’s closer to $2 million, with about 70 percent coming from private contributions. The composition of the board of directors similarly shifted.
In addition to the A-List, the council launched Accelerate Colorado, an independent organization that makes a yearly trip to Washington. There, government, business and economic-development officials from around the state network and meet with congressional delegates.
Mitchell says her work for Aurora and the region isn’t done yet. Her top priorities are developing an aerotropolis around DIA — also a top goal for Denver — continuing to develop the Fitzsimons Life Science District and building up the 74-acre Solar Technology Acceleration Center in north Aurora. Luring a Fortune 500 company would be nice too, she said.
“It gets no better than this. For what I do for a living, there’s not another job in the state or anywhere that compares,” she said. “This is like winning the lottery.”
Greg Griffin: 303-954-1241 or ggriffin@denverpost.com
Wendy Mitchell file
What she does: President and chief executive, Aurora Economic Development Council
Age: 43
Hometown: Grew up in Albuquerque; summers and holidays in San Diego
Education: University of New Mexico
Background: Hired as intern at developer Amrep Southwest in 1989, rose to vice president within several years; joined AEDC in 2001
Off the job: Parenting, golf, skiing, travel
Now you know: Invited tennis great Andre Agassi to speak at recent A-List dinner because he’s her dad’s favorite athlete
What she’s reading: Just reread F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”
On her music player: Opera, alternative and hip hop, Jay-Z’s and Kanye West’s latest albums
The finalists
The Denver Post business-news staff considered more than 20 Colorado businessmen and -women for this year’s Business Person of the Year award.
Candidates were nominated by the 14 members of the business- news department based on the impact the individuals had on the Colorado business landscape during 2011. We also invited readers to submit their own nominations via social media.
In the first round of voting, business editors and reporters selected their top five candidates and the list was culled to the top vote- getters. The second round was a weighted vote, with staffers selecting their top five candidates in order of preference. Five points was awarded to each top pick down to one point awarded to the bottom pick.
The winner was the person with the most points.
COLORADO GOV. JOHN HICKENLOOPER
Hickenlooper has said economic development is a top priority of his administration, and the results began to show this year in a big way.
Arrow Electronics announced in October it would move its headquarters from New York to the Inverness business park in Arapahoe County, the biggest corporate relocation to Colorado in the state’s history.
Also in October, General Electric selected Aurora for its $300 million, 355-employee PrimeStar Solar panel-manufacturing plant.
He has launched a statewide economic-development plan, the “Colorado Blueprint,” based on ideas from across the state.
ARROW ELECTRONICS CHIEF EXECUTIVE MICHAEL LONG
Long has lived in Colorado since 2000 — remaining here after he became CEO of Arrow in 2009. He is a trustee of Denver Zoo. He says he never seriously considered moving Arrow’s headquarters here until state leaders made a compelling case for a relocation earlier this year.
Arrow will add up to 1,250 jobs in Colorado over five years to bring total employment here to more than 3,200. It immediately became the state’s biggest company, with $18.7 billion in revenues.
Arrow controls about 40 percent of the global business supplying electronic components and services, primarily to manufacturers.
DISH NETWORK CHAIRMAN CHARLIE ERGEN
Ergen went on a buying binge this year that observers say is remaking the nation’s No. 2 satellite-TV provider, which is based in Doug las County.
Among the prizes: the Blockbuster video-rental chain for $320 million; DBSD North America, a satellite-communications company, for $1.5 billion; and Hughes Communications, the satellite- broadband and services company, for $2 billion.
Observers say Ergen is transforming Dish amid a shift in viewer habits, where more consumers are watching online streams and downloaded content on their TVs, laptops, tablets and cellphones.
CHIPOTLE CHIEF EXECUTIVE STEVE ELLS
Denver’s homegrown Mexican restaurant chain continues to grow — in both store locations and stock price. But the big news for founder Ells this year was the launch of a new chain, ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen, in Washington, D.C.
The fast-casual industry is watching to see if Ells can replicate the wild success he has seen with Chipotle. But Ells, who came up with the concept during a trip to Thailand and Singapore last year, is taking it slow for now and hasn’t announced additional ShopHouses. Meanwhile, Chipotle’s stock continues its climb, rising more than 30 percent during the past 12 months to pass $315 a share.
