{"id":3272,"date":"2018-01-18T23:44:33","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T23:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/52.10.1.109\/?p=3272"},"modified":"2018-01-19T03:03:25","modified_gmt":"2018-01-19T03:03:25","slug":"2016-momentum-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/?p=3272","title":{"rendered":"2016 Momentum, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is \u2018attainable housing\u2019 a looming threat to sustained economic growth?<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Jan Wondra<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tom Clark, CEO of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation, talked with The Villager<\/i> recently about the Metro Denver EDC\u2019s newly-released Industry Cluster Study and 2016 forecast. <\/b>A robust year lies ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are highly encouraged with the momentum we see in our industry clusters,\u201d said Clark. \u201cColorado is certainly top of mind among site selection consultants and expanding companies for its highly educated workforce and high-performance business climate. Targeting our marketing and recruitment efforts in these \u2018innovation\u2019 clusters is the right strategy to drive our economic future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study, completed by Metro Denver EDC\u2019s Chief Economist Patty Silverstein and Senior Economist Lisa Strunk of Development Research Partners, analyzed nine leading industry clusters in the nine-county region. Ten clusters\/sub-clusters added employment in 2015, while three posted negative growth. (See the Jan. 28 issue of The Villager<\/i> for a full recap.) Our region\u2019s breadth of industries is highlighted as a major factor in our employment growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe diversity of the industry base is what clearly differentiates our region,\u201d said Silverstein. \u201cA common theme across all nine clusters is the entrepreneurism, innovation and overall magnetism that they have in expanding the economic capacity of metro Denver. These industries shape the \u2018culture\u2019 of our business community that attracts the future workforce\u2014particularly millennials\u2014as well as vital investment in our economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Clark, housing and transit long-ago preordained where the industry clusters tend to locate (recapped in Part I of this series). A significant segment of the tech\/software cluster has tended to remain north of I-70.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe founders of Level 3, who had a few billion to spend, tried for years to encourage housing in the DTC area, but the land they believed needed for housing wasn\u2019t there,\u201d said Clark. \u201cWhile the fastest-growing corridor was the southeast, they said, \u2018We can\u2019t keep driving.\u2019 Level 3 did studies and said, \u2018You\u2019re going to cut your labor force in half if you don\u2019t do something about transit and housing.\u2019 Well, we\u2019ve got transit, but the housing piece is still a problem in the southeast.\u201d<\/p>\n

What some call our \u201caffordable housing\u201d issue, Clark calls something else.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe call it attainable housing, not affordable housing. The questions become, can you subsidize living where you want to live? Does housing take more than 35 percent of your income?\u201d said Clark. \u201cWe\u2019ve attracted good jobs, created more high-paying jobs than low-paying jobs. But the dearth of attainable housing is the potential crisis; housing costs have out-performed wages. That has pushed people to other neighborhoods, which in turn requires transit.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Clark, the No. 1 theme across all categories is quality of labor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where the attainable housing piece interlocks. We have been the No. 1 market for millennials to move to, for a couple of years,\u201d said Clark. \u201c But we\u2019ll began to slip down that line. We\u2019re hearing anecdotally that housing is an issue for those coming here without a job.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second common need across all clusters, says Clark, is access to higher education, something about which we should all be concerned. The benefits of higher education accrue not just to the person, but to the community, says Clark.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to look at how we\u2019re supporting education in this state. When you look at the taxes paid by a person with the earning power of a college education, a master, or a Ph.D., who\u2019s going to contribute more based on earning power? Which will do more to keep things like Social Security solvent, a high school-educated worker, or a person with a masters degree?\u201d<\/p>\n

2016 indicators<\/b><\/p>\n

When asked the categories with the greatest potential to forecast 2016 and beyond, Clark is forthcoming about the industry he believes will portend in the next few years, be it robust or tepid.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would tell people to watch construction numbers,\u201d said Clark. \u201cIn the history of the U.S. economy, construction is a lagging indicator \u2013 the last thing that tells you if things are going well.\u00a0 If construction here continues to be robust as it has been the last half of 2015 and first half of 2016, then it\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Normal economic patterns, says Clark, are three to four years of growth, two years of slower growth, then back up again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a testimony to the diversity of the economy here that the numbers are so strong. If construction numbers go flat\u2014then we will be looking at things slowing down. Not a recession by any means, but a breath.\u00a0 Then folks might want to adjust, based on that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is \u2018attainable housing\u2019 a looming threat to sustained economic growth? By Jan Wondra Tom Clark, CEO of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation, talked with The Villager recently about the Metro Denver EDC\u2019s newly-released Industry Cluster Study and 2016 forecast. A robust year lies ahead. \u201cWe are highly encouraged with the momentum we see in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoloradostatesman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}