| Know Your City .....Aurora, the place to be
Aurora is where the action is . . . . some info you can use to sell our city
The City of Aurora is located in the eastern portion of the Denver Metro area which consists of 4,531 square miles and is home to 2.6 million people. With land available for growth, the city has ample opportunity for expansion, especially in the fields of bioscience, aerospace and defense, and renewable energy. Home to the Anschutz Medical Campus and the Fitzsimons Life Science District, Aurora also has Buckley Air Force Base, the Front Range Airport, the nation’s largest solar energy research park and the E-470, I-225 and I-70 corridors to lead the state in new economic development opportunities.
Recent Aurora national recognition
- From USNews.com, Denver – Aurora is number 1 in the 10 Best Cities for Public Transportation. The area’s public transit includes bus and light rail lines, as well as an airport shuttle service. Both cities are undertaking a multi-billion-dollar expansion of its transit system to increase light rail, commuter rail and bus rapid transit lines.
- From newsweek.com Aurora had four schools which placed in the top 6% of the best high schools in the United States. The survey, done by Newsweek, picks schools based on how hard school staffs work to challenge students with advanced-placement college level courses and tests. The four schools were Cherokee Trail, Smoky Hill, Grandview and Overland.
- Aurora was recognized in 2010 by America’s Promise Alliance, the nation’s largest partnership organization dedicated to youth and children, as a winner in the Alliance’s 100 Best Communities for Young People competition presented by ING. The 100 Best designation recognizes communities that make youth a priority by implementing programs that help keep children in school and prepare them for college and the 21st century workforce. Cherry Creek and Aurora Public Schools, along with Aurora Mental Health, Arapahoe County Early Childhood and Tri-County Health Department worked cooperatively to create the programs that resulted in this award.
- Aurora is the 8th safest large city in the nation and has been named an All American City.. Other awards received by the city include Sportstown USA by Sports Illustrated, the Number 8 Best City for Men and the Number 4 Best City for Women by Men’s and Women’s Health magazine and one of the top 10 Winter Wonderlands for Retirement by U.S. News and World Report.
- For REALTORS®, NAR just cited the Denver-Aurora-Broomfield area as Number 3 in the top 5 Real estate Markets Offering the Most Business.
- Aurora won the annual conference of the Ricky Mountain Section of the American Water Works Association in a 13 entrant contest with other utilities competing for top honors. Aurora won on the basis of appearance, smell, taste and overall impression. The city now will represent the Rocky Mountain Section of the AWWA at a regional conference next year in Dallas.
- The National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA) recently honored Aurora for excellence in telecommunications at the 26th Annual Government Programming Awards ceremony held in San Francisco California. Aurora won in 4 categories – 1st place in Community Awareness, 2nd place in Seniors, 3rd place in a “Profile of Cit/County Department” and Honorable Mention for Public Information Series “Down Syndrome Awareness”. In the Community Awareness category, Aurora competed against 27 other cities including Lakewood and Arvada. The NATOA awards honor excellence in broadcast, cable multi-media and electronic programming produced by local governments. Aurora competed in various categories against more than 740 entities from the US and Canada. Aurora Channel 8 offers a wide range of services that provide effective communication with citizens, employees, businesses and other public agencies.
Some of the strengths of the Eastern Metro area are:
- Agriculture (Arapahoe County Fair Facility/May Farm)
- Tourism (amateur sports powerhouse) (Selected #1 in Colorado by Sports Illustrated magazine in their 50th Anniversary Sportstown USA)
- Aerospace (Buckley AFB and related contractors such as Raytheon)
- Bioscience (Associated with the Fitzsimons Campus, Aurora is home to the Colorado Science and Technology Park)
- Financial Services (including banking [Key Bank, Wells Fargo, Citywide Banks, Fitzsimons Credit Union, and Westerra Credit Union]) and Insurance
- Air Transportation (including DIA, Front Range, and Centennial) DIA is a $22 billion economic engine expected to grow to $80 billion by 2-25 and it accounts for 184,000 direct and indirect employment in the Eastern Metro area.
- Transportation is another economic driver, including FasTracks. The I-225 Corridor plan is for 10½ miles of light rail transit extension, 8 stations, serving the Aurora City Center and Anschutz/Fitsimons Campus, and provides a transfer to the planned East Corridor at a station. The next phase of the I-225 Corridor is highway widening from Parker Road to Mississippi, light rail extension from 9 Mile to Iliff Station,, and the widening of Yale Avenue Bridge.
- Ground is soon to be broken on the Veterans Administration Hospital, joining the University of Colorado Health Science Center and Hospital and Children’s Hospital. Other medical economic drivers in place are HealthOne, Spalding Rehab, Parker Adventist, and Aurora Denver Cardiologists. Aurora is also home to several occupational health services such as NextCare, OccMed Colorado, Concentra and HCA of Colorado.
- Renewal of the Havana Corridor
- Southlands in Southeast Aurora includes 2 million square feet of retail and offers the possibility of more residential development.
- The development around South Parker Road and Arapahoe Road has a population density of 164,000 with an average household income of $102,000. The average population increase each year is 9,900+.
- Buckley Air Force Base has an economic impact on the metro area of $1.01 Billion and directly employees 14,000 with indirect employment at 8,704. It supports 57,000 retires and 55,000 veterans. It is surrounded by Murphy Creek, the Plains Conservation Area, Vista Peak Campus and hopefully, the Horizon Uptown development.
- Colorado ranks third in the nation in the concentration of high tech jobs according to the 10/5/11 Denver Post. It was tied with Maryland with 87 high tech jobs per 1,000 private-sector jobs in 2010. TechAmerica Foundation reports Colorado with 156,000 high-tech workers in 2010 with a payroll of $14.2 billion. This number of workers places Colorado twelfth nationwide in total high-tech employment.
Other Potential Major Eastern Metro Economic Drivers
- Gaylord Complex (may be the anchor for new commercial development; commercial properties are taxed at 380% of residential properties)
- National Western Stock Show
- Horizon Uptown (503 acres on the southwest corner of I-70 and E-470; urban, mixed use community, regional employment and retail destination and economically, socially and environmentally sustainable)
- SolarTAC
- Potential NASCAR sites
|
