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Laurels go to Lowry center
Project generated $4 billion impact in decade, report says
By John Rebchook, Rocky Mountain News
June 15, 2004
The redevelopment of Lowry from an Air Force base into a housing, office, retail, educational and entertainment center has been a $4 billion economic engine from 1994 to 2003, according to a report released Monday.
"I think when you look at Lowry and Stapleton, the two of them together really helped keep the recession from being as significant in the city and county of Denver," Mayor John Hickenlooper said. "The recession has been pretty significant, but it very well could have been a lot worse without Lowry and Stapleton."
The report was commissioned by the Lowry Redevelopment Authority for the 10th anniversary of the closing of the base.
"We were very interested to quantify what we were formed to do, which is to re-create the economic impact that was lost after the closing of a major military base," said Tom Markham, executive director of the Lowry authority. "The jobs, the money spent in the economy, and so on. We always wanted to measure that and report back to the community."
The report was compiled by economist Patty Silverstein, principal of Development Research Partners. The report shows that about $2.3 billion went directly to Denver, including $39 million in taxes and fees.
"Remember, when it was an Air Force base, Uncle Sam didn't pay taxes," Markham said.
The remaining $1.7 billion benefited Aurora, the state of Colorado and even other states.
But universal acclaim didn't follow the government's early-1990s base-closing announcement. U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, then a Republican state representative, and then-U.S. Rep. Pat Schroeder, a Denver Democrat, fought the closure tooth and nail.
"I think it is safe to say not a single member of the Colorado delegation supported the closure of Lowry," Sean Conway, Allard's chief of staff, said Monday.
"You have to go back to the early '90s and remember that Colorado had been in the midst of an economic downturn that had started in the mid-1980s," Conway said. "There had been a lot of job losses, and the economy was not as strong as it is today."
Nonetheless, he said, Lowry's closure and redevelopment is a model for the rest of the country.
"From Senator Allard's perspective, it is one of the pre-eminent (base closings) in the country," Conway said. "It is the quintessential story of turning lemons into lemonade. Sometimes you have to go through the initial pain to get the long-term gain."
Tom Clark, head of the Metro Denver Economic Council, also opposed the closing. But he isn't surprised it has had a $4 billion economic impact.
"It is the poster child nationally for the right way to reclaim a military base," Clark said. "When I think back now how hard I worked to save all of those $12,000 and $14,000 jobs there, well, no one would give me an A for foresight."
He said former Mayors Wellington Webb of Denver and Paul Tauer of Aurora deserve a lot of credit from the beginning for working out revenue sharing.
"About 80 percent of it is in Denver and 20 percent of it is Aurora, and there could have been a lot of internal wrangling about the tax base, and the whole thing could have gone away," Clark said.
Of the $4 billion in economic impact, about $1.1 billion has come from construction of houses and commercial properties, Silverstein said. With Lowry 70 percent completed, construction jobs will soon disappear, she added.
"However, when it is completed in 2007, there will be an even greater economic impact from the businesses and the people who live there," Silverstein said. "The economic impact is going to grow, not shrink."
Lowry at a glance
• Size and location: 1,866 acres bordered by East Alameda Avenue, Quebec Street, East 11th Avenue, and Dayton and Havana streets.
• Companies: 94
• Employees: 6,000
• Households: 2,840
• Residents: 6,400
• Home price: Mid-$100,000s to more than $1 million
• Average home sales price over past 10 years: $230,000
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