Report on ULI Colorado’s Explorer Series: Will the Aerotropolis Fly in Denver?
December 8, 2011, History Colorado Center, Denver
Kathleen McCormick, Principal
Fountainhead Communications, LLC
303.442.8020; fonthead@indra.com
For ULI Colorado website and Urban Design Podcast
With vision, collaboration, and new transit links, Denver International Airport (DIA) is on its way to becoming an Aerotropolis, or a 21st century airport linked with speedy global connections, which will boost the regional economy and make Denver an international destination, according to five of the region’s top public officials and business leaders who discussed the concept on December 8 at a ULI Colorado Explorer series program at the History Colorado Center in Denver.
More than 170 ULI members heard how Denver’s Aerotropolis over the next 30 years could expand development at and around DIA to include shops, restaurants, and housing, corporate offices, an exhibition and conference center, an information communications technology corridor, new industries, and freight and warehouse facilities.
“Nothing defines a city like its people, and Denver’s people have continually supported commitments to making this a great city” through projects like Denver Union Station and FasTracks, said Denver Mayor Michael Hancock in his keynote address. To attract innovation and investment, he said, the Denver region needs to use its “greatest economic tool, our airport, to show the world that Denver is ready to be on the global stage.”
Hancock said DIA, owned and operated by the City and County of Denver, is “a catalyst for development” of the Aerotropolis, which would extend via a transit corridor to Downtown Denver lined with small businesses linked to the global economy. He said now is the time to “imagine what we can do with this corridor to revitalize the regional economy.” He said the Aerotropolis is beginning to take shape with a 500-room hotel and FasTracks East Rail Line and train station at DIA under construction and due to open in 2016. DIA has been instrumental in attracting businesses such as Arrow Electronics, a Fortune 500 corporation moving from New York to Arapahoe County, he noted. The airport also has great potential for attracting business from overseas because of DIA’s location between New York and Japan. He said nonstop flights to Asia would help Denver become an international hub for business, industry, tourism, and commerce.
“We don’t have another large-scale opportunity” like expanding DIA into the Aerotropolis, Hancock declared. To expand DIA and the area around the airport, cities and counties in the region need to collaborate to draw “cluster markets” of new industries that will make Denver a leader in the green-energy economy.
Leading a panel of responders moderated by Julie Spencer, business management manager of Swinerton Builders, was Kim Day, DIA manager of aviation. Day said the Aerotropolis “is the vision we’ve been working toward,” following the lead of examples such as LAX. The big opportunity at DIA, she said, was that 53 square miles of land was set aside in the 1990s for planned development. Even at half of its development capacity, DIA is Colorado’s primary economic engine, generating $22 billion annually and employing 30,000 people a day, she noted. DIA “is trying to develop logical view of what could happen over 30 to 40 years,” she explained, and has commissioned a study of 63 square miles of land to determine how to expand the airport. Not all the potential development will happen at DIA; some will occur on neighboring lands owned by Aurora, Adams County, and other cities and counties. She advised that these communities should talk to each other and collaborate on development. Day said the Aerotropolis will become a “multimodal facility” with a network of roads to connect with surrounding communities.
“We don’t want development of a silo or an island,” said Paul Washington, executive director of the Denver Office of Economic Development. He said the Aerotropolis will extend into Downtown Denver and east of the airport, but also will be integrated regionally, like biotech has been in Aurora.
Jim Chrisman, senior vice president of Forest City Stapleton, Inc., described the Aerotropolis area, like Stapleton, as within a circle 15 minutes from the airport. He said development of the Aerotropolis will require strong economic development assistance—such as infrastructure funding from tax increment financing, flexible zoning, streamlined entitlement, and other project incentives.
Tom Clark, executive vice president of Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation and the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, said the Aerotropolis “is a continuation of the dream” started decades ago with the idea for a new airport to replace the old Stapleton International airport. Clark advised building the dream and planning for 50 years hence. “We have a gigantic canvas,” he noted. “For center cities that are land-locked, the effective use of land is key.” He said the success of Denver over last 20 years has depended in large part on the region’s collaborative spirit.
Responding to a question about how the Aerotropolis would work with an expansion of the 1-70 corridor, panelists variously noted that it should extend as far as the Eisenhower Tunnel and include two light-rail stops between DIA and Downtown Denver. Washington said light rail, Denver Union Station, and the regional bus system are important to connecting the region to DIA. “We have to plan infrastructure for 20, 30, 40 years from now,” he said. “The 18-to-34-year-old generation thinks differently about transportation, and that will prompt us to make bigger bolder decisions.” He said this generation wants walkability, only one car per family, and will rely on public transit to travel to home, work, and play. Washington said the project also should be adjusted for a population that is projected to double in a few decades, putting pressure on infrastructure and requiring effective investments.
The Aerotropolis concept was developed by John D. Kasarda, Kenan Distinguished Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship and Director of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. Aerotropolises are gateway anchors of 21st century metropolitan development and powerful engines of local economic development, attracting many types of aviation-linked businesses. Aerotropolis development requires sustainable “smart growth” principles of strategic infrastructure and urban planning.
The Aerotropolis program preceded the first annual ULI-NAIOP Holiday Party overlooking the new four-story atrium of the History Colorado Center, which will open in phases through April. In side conversations, attendees debated whether the Aerotropolis is a blanket term for typical airport-area development or whether such development could be made compact and walkable according to ULI principles.
With specifics of the Aerotropolis still to be worked out, Mayor Hancock and his staff are exploring the possibility of a ULI panel to help determine how the vision could take physical form.
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