Breakfast with the Mayors - State of the Cities

I had the opportunity to attend the State of the Cities breakfast last Friday with Mayor Hancock from Denver, Mayor Hogan of Aurora, Kim Day from DIA and Martin Shields from CSU.  They all seemed optimistic and shared some good news about metro Denver's future economic outlook.

Here are my notes from the presentations:

Martin Shields – Director Regional Economic Institute and Professor of Economics at CSU

·         Current unemployment rate in metro Denver is 7.4% (105,000)

·         58,000 jobs added in past 30 months

·         The area still needed to pick up about 50,000 more jobs before we get back to pre-recession numbers and a truly healthy economy.

·         Projected unemployment by end of 2013:  6.4 to 6.1%

·         Projected job growth in 2013:  31,000 to 34,000 jobs

·         Top growth industries: Healthcare, Energy and Professional Services

Kim Day – Manager of Aviation DIA

·         South Terminal, 519 room Westin Hotel and light rail construction well underway.

·         DIA currently fifth busiest airport in United States.

·         DIA Set record for passenger traffic in 2012 with 53 million.

Mayor Hancock - Denver

·         Announced three high priority development areas: South Platte River Corridor, Downtown Corridor, Aerotropolis

·         Projected impact over next three decades: 105,000 new jobs, $5.4 Billion economic impact, 34 million new square feet of commercial space, 23,000 housing units

Mayor Hogan – Aurora

·         Announced Alliance to Advance, or A3, a coalition made up of the City of Aurora, the Aurora Economic Development Council, Adams County Economic Development Corp. that will meet monthly to plan for major growth along the I-225 corridor and throughout Aurora.

·         Discussed the tremendous growth within the Anshutz Medical Campus