2025 Market Facts VRP - Flipbook - Page 11
4 | ECO NO MI C PRO FI L E & MA R K ET FACT S 2025
Regional Overview
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Northern Front Range’s lifestyle,
resources earn world’s attention
By Dallas Heltzell
dheltzell@bizwest.com
To get an idea of just how many people have gravitated to Colorado’s
northern Front Range, consider this:
The four counties constituting the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado — Boulder, Broomfield, Larimer and Weld — accounted for 28% of
the state’s net population growth from 2023 to 2024. If their combined
2024 population of 1,152,904 were one city, that city would be the nation’s 10th largest — just behind Dallas and just ahead of Jacksonville,
Florida.
With a lifestyle and economy as exciting and attractive as their mountain backdrop, cities and towns in the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado continue to draw national and international attention — whether
it’s from entrepreneurs, academics, venture capitalists, or simply people
seeking a great place to live.
A great example is the Sundance Film Festival. Lured by state tax credits, a Boulder-based incentive package worth $34 million over 10 years,
and a great experience in 2024 when Estes Park’s iconic Stanley Hotel
hosted their Director’s Lab program, festival organizers chose to move the
world-acclaimed festival from Utah to Boulder starting in 2027.
From Boulder to Estes, Broomfield to Greeley, Loveland to Longmont,
Wellington to Brighton and Westminster to Fort Collins, Colorado’s resilient northern Front Range just keeps playing to its strengths as a region of
innovation and opportunity. Neither wildfires, floods, pandemics, recessions or government shutdowns can seem to slow down the region.
While these recent challenges staggered many parts of the country and
the Northern Front Range certainly wasn’t immune to the sting, nothing
could scorch, dampen or mask the positive role its research universities
and labs, nimble biopharmaceutical sector, responsive city and county
governments and a bevy of resourceful individual entrepreneurs played in
keeping the region largely immune to many adverse effects.
The region offers variety as well, with Greeley serving as a center for
traditional agriculture and energy, Boulder as a mecca for natural products, the outdoor industry and technology, and Fort Collins and Loveland
as hubs for bioscience, veterinary medicine and high-tech manufacturing.
The cities can break out of those pigeonholes as well, with Greeley eyeing
a proposed hotel, water park and ice arena on its western edge.
Add in breathtaking natural beauty and a moderate climate, and the
reasons for the emergence of the region as an entrepreneurial mecca
become as clear as the sky on a summer day.
Boulder, Broomfield, Larimer and Weld counties encompass a vast
7,342 square miles and include one of the most dynamic economies in the
nation, with communities consistently ranked among the most desirable
places to live.
New residents are attracted by a climate of innovation and entrepreneurship, one that has sparked creation of thousands of startup
companies in high tech, energy, bioscience, clean tech, natural and organics,
aerospace, agribusiness and the outdoor
industry.
A solid base of Fortune 100 companies fosters the region’s growth. Companies operating
in the region include IBM Corp., Oracle Corp.,
Ball Corp., Google Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co.,
JBS USA, Intel Corp., State Farm Insurance Cos.,
Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc., and many, many more.
The high state of innovation and entrepreneurship
brought on by these companies and countless spinoffs
prompted creation of Innosphere, one of several incubators that operate in the region. Innosphere expanded
its reach into Boulder and has a growing Denver presence.
Techstars has brought additional prominence to Boulder as a
startup accelerator.
And talk about quality of life.
Take larger communities such as Boulder, Broomfield, Fort
Collins, Greeley, Longmont and Loveland. Place them where the
plains, rich in agriculture and energy, meet the soaring Rockies. Throw
in dozens of smaller communities, including Estes Park, a world-class
resort destination at the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. Add
major universities, cutting-edge federal research laboratories, a vibrant
technology-transfer climate and a populace that loves its beer, bikes,
bands and beef.
Its cities and towns frequently are touted among the best places to live
in the United States. Its unparalleled quality of life attracts a talented and
educated workforce that is well-educated; an infrastructure that allows
convenient connections to the rest of the world, both physically and electronically; and a diverse economy as strongly rooted in agriculture and
oil-and-gas drilling as in alternative-energy development and the promise
of bioscience.
The region’s agricultural roots remain alive — often in new and more
sustainable and environmentally responsible ways. Its wide variety of
vegetables and grass-fed livestock are in demand for restaurants and city
dwellers, and many farmers are entering the field — literally — as a new
vocation, rather than just a family tradition.
Loveland and Longmont hav some of the fastest internet in the nation,
thanks to their Pulse and NextLight 1-gigabit-per-second municipal
broadband systems, and other Northern Front Range cities are developing
similar ventures as economic lures.
All of the main cities — and even some of the smaller towns — have
economic-development groups willing to assist with information and
incentives for new businesses creating jobs. The groups also focus on
retention to help existing businesses remain in the area.
Whether residents are at work, school or home, they love to look west
to the stunning mountain backdrop. The invigorating climate attracts
