The boom in Broomfield: City leads state in wages, job growth

July 18, 2019
Rendering of the Center Street District at Baseline in Broomfield, a city that leads the state in wages, job growth

As the last days of 2007 slipped away, Denver-based real estate firm McWhinney was closing on the purchase of 1,100 vacant acres at the intersection of I-25 and Colo. Highway 7 in Broomfield. The company outlined its vision for a mixed-use project of immense proportions: corporate headquarters, medical offices, retail, restaurants, hotels and homes would fill the land, purchased for $32.5 million, over the course of two to four decades.

Then the Great Recession hit. Though the Boulder region fared better than many parts of the country, hundreds of jobs were lost over the next two years. In Broomfield, progress on McWhinney’s project ground to a halt.

Today, though, they are back in motion and surging ahead. A charter school has taken root, and Adams 12 plans a STEM campus in the area; Westminster’s Butterfly Pavilion is migrating to the community, and JP Morgan Chase will soon break ground on a 150,000-square-foot, $220 million data center.

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