Fitzsimons University of Colorado campus in Denver could drive economy -Nearly 16,000 on-site jobs forecast by 2010

The University of Colorado’s Fitzsimons
campus could become an engine of Colorado’s economy,
potentially creating 15,728 jobs by the end of the decade,
according to a study released Thursday.

By Mark P. Couch
Denver Post Business Writer

The university’s
Health Sciences
Center, which
anchors a 578-acre
development near
the northwest
corner of Interstate
225 and East Colfax
Avenue, expects to
thrust Aurora into
the forefront of
biomedical research
in the state.

Total annual income
from those jobs is
expected to be
$1.17 billion. Many
of the jobs will be
moved there from
other sites in metro
Denver. The study
does not calculate
how many new jobs will be created.

"The vision is to create a life-sciences city – one square mile of
life sciences, combining health care, education and bioscience
research and outreach," said University of Colorado president
Betsy Hoffman. "Bioscience research is a key driver for the
future economic growth of the entire state of Colorado."

By 2010, nearly as many people will be working in jobs at
Fitzsimons as are currently employed at Denver International
Airport and 16 other commercial airports in the state, said Robert
Olson, executive director of the Fitzsimons Redevelopment
Authority. The airports employed about 16,000 people in 1998.

If the vision is fulfilled, Aurora will more than recover from the
blow inflicted in the mid-1990s when the federal government
announced that it was closing the Army hospital. A 1994 study
by the city of Aurora concluded that the Fitzsimons Army
Medical Center accounted for more than 12,000 jobs and
earnings of about $328 million.

Olson said the redevelopment authority commissioned the new
economic-impact study because the site now has enough new
construction to justify the review.

Already, more than $700 million worth of construction is
underway or has been completed, he said.

That figure doesn’t include the planned move of The Children’s
Hospital from near downtown Denver to Fitzsimons.

Children’s estimates that its total project, including new
equipment and renovation of its old hospital on Downing Street
into a 24-hour urgent-care center, will be $400 million.

The CU Health Sciences Center, which is relocating from central
Denver to the site, will anchor a development that mixes the
university’s medical center with private research firms.

"This is very good news for the entire state of Colorado,"
Hoffman said.

"With the only academic center campus west of the Mississippi
with adjacent biotech partners, CU – and this campus in
particular – is poised to become a major economic development
engine driving the expansion and diversification of the entire
region and the state over the next 20 years."

By 2010, Fitzsimons expects to have 7 million square feet of
building space completed.

The entire project includes 13.6 million square feet with parking
garages for 27,000 vehicles. The entire construction program is
expected to cost $4 billion in current dollars.

The Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority commissioned the
$20,000 study, which was conducted by a Denver-based
economic development firm, Hammer Siler George Associates.

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