By Steven Bonifazi
(FORT COLLINS, Colo.) A group of Northern Colorado business and community leaders and the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce last week launched Northern Colorado Prospers 2.0, an initiative spanning five years to boost economic growth in the region.
A $4 million campaign to fund the implementation of the initiative was also launched last week. The initiative aims to add to the success of Northern Colorado Prospers over the last few years, focusing on four goals including reigniting and rebuilding the economy; attracting, retaining and aligning talent; finishing the widening of North I-25 and improving key regional feeder roads and ultimately advancing a business-friendly environment.
Co-chairs on the campaign Carrie Baumgart, CEO of Markley Motors, Shawn Osthoff, President of Bank of Colorado, Nicole Staudinger, President of FirstBank and CEO of UCHealth Kevin Unger welcomed the guests at the Kickoff event at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins. Details of the plan were announced and unveiled by the Campaign Co-chair and Board Chair of the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce, Staudinger.
“Through the collaborative efforts of our business and community leaders, we are pleased to announce that Northern Colorado Prospers 2.0 has already secured $2.896 million in five-year pledges – an impressive 72 percent of our campaign goal of $4 million. We are grateful for the support of our early investors and look forward to new investors joining us in the coming weeks,” Staudinger said.
“Northern Colorado Prospers 2.0 builds on our past success and moves the Northern Colorado region forward, ensuring we will be a place where businesses prosper and readily find the talent and resources they need to grow in our community."
Success recaps from the Northern Colorado Prospers in the first half of 2021 given by Ann Hutchinson, Chamber CEO, at the event are as follows:
- The Fix North I-25 Business Alliance and their partners have been advocating for a statewide transportation package with the state legislature, dedicated transportation funding through federal opportunities and encouraging a public-private partnership that would ultimately provide critical safety upgrades, improve air quality and develop a significant investment to complete the North I-25 plan from Fort Collins to Denver.
- With the reopening of the economy, the chamber and other community partners have been supporting the public launch of Hire Me, Connect My Partner a service designed specifically to assist your partner in finding their next job opportunity when you arrive in Northern Colorado. We’ve also provided support for the launch of NoCoInspire.org, a one-stop-shop designed to help businesses grow their own workforce through internships, apprenticeships and other work-based learning solutions. The Talent Portal, WorkInNorthernColorado.com continues to see great use with over 30,000 jobs posted on the site over the last three years.
- Northern Colorado Prospers and the Fort Collins Area Chamber continue to work alongside economic developers from across the two-county area to refine the ReIgnite Plan – a two-county economic recovery plan. A draft plan will be released in the next 30-60 days and provide a framework for relaunching the regional economy by community partners. Community members can track the economic recovery of the area on the Recovery Tracker. The tracker consists of a set of indicators that represent critical aspects of the Larimer and Weld County economies, are based on data that is accessible in a useable format and updated frequently with a short lag time.
Returning to Northern Colorado this year as a key partner to help launch and manage the 2.0 campaign is Atlanta-based POWER 10.
“With this significant investment, we will be able to accelerate business growth and our total economy, take talent attraction and retention to the next level, expand the scope of our transportation goal, and implement a better-resourced, more-proactive effort to ensure a business-friendly operating environment,” Hutchison said.
For more information regarding Northern Colorado Prospers, click here, or to learn more about the Fort Collins Area Chamber, click here.