Page 10
— Land & Development Quarterly — July 2016
Municipal Insights
W
e have all heard of the
three most important
things in a property search
– location, location, loca-
tion. Certainly that is still
true, but I would argue that given
the competitive commercial envi-
ronment, short turnaround time-
lines and risk-minimization work
that is being done there is a transi-
tion to another trend – timing, tim-
ing, timing.
Given today’s global market,
companies need to react quickly
when they have a new product or
increasing orders. Nationally, about
80 percent of corporate relocation
projects start by looking for existing
space. Only when they do not find
the existing space in the desired
markets to meet their needs do they
move to building something new.
This has caused timelines for new
development to shrink over the last
few years and having a site “shovel
ready” is no longer an advantage,
but a requirement.
Given this new climate, munici-
palities have had to adjust how they
perceive development projects and
make considerable changes to their
development review process to be
competitive. It has become fairly
common for municipalities across
the country to work with property
owners and developers to agree to
fast-tracked permitting for certain
developments. This provides much-
needed certainty to the developer
and end user on not only what pro-
cess they need to follow for develop-
ment but also timelines associated
with that development.
The city of
Thornton has
taken a different
approach. Instead
of fast tracking
specific sites, we
have decided to
fast track specific
uses and entire
commercial areas
in the city. We call
these “Projects of
Economic Signifi-
cance.” Thornton
understands that
development, and
the resulting jobs, come from the
private sector. And while we believe
that local governments have the
responsibility to regulate develop-
ment so it occurs in a way that is
compatible with the community’s
desires, we also believe that regu-
lation should occur as timely and
cooperatively as possible. Approvals
in Thornton for office and industrial
projects are to be handled admin-
istratively anywhere in the city and
there will not be any public hearings
required for sites that are annexed
and zoned appropriately. We also
have designated about 500 acres
of retail land along Interstate 25
that would fall into this expedited
category as well. This will save end
users and developers, on average,
90 days in processing an application
through the city as well as devel-
opment costs. A couple of recent
examples of new Thornton develop-
ments that are taking advantage of
“Projects of Economic Significance”
are the new 320,000-square-foot
Simon Premium Outlet develop-
ment at the northeast corner of
136th Avenue and I-25 and the new
80,000-sf Dynamic Metal Fabrication
building being constructed at the
northeast corner of 126th Avenue
and Washington Street.
The importance for a municipal-
ity to have a clear and well-defined
process to development review and
site plan approval also is crucial.
The corporate site selection process
is actually more of a site elimina-
tion process. Most large companies
start out with 80 to 100 different
sites and thus are working to elimi-
nate sites as fast as possible. We all
know that time is money and, if a
property appears to provide more
risk based on not having the site
as “shovel ready” as possible, it will
be eliminated quickly from conten-
tion. This is where property owners
and developers can garner a strong
advantage by working with local
economic developers prior to a proj-
ect coming to the city. A community
needs strong ties between its sales-
people (economic developers) and
development staff (planning, per-
mitting, building) in order to provide
top-notch service to end users.
Thornton recognizes that we are
competing for projects not just with
surrounding communities, but also
globally. Thus it is important to
benchmark ourselves with what our
competition is doing on a national
and global scale to see where
the development process can be
improved. This requires local munic-
ipalities and the real estate commu-
nity to develop strong relationships
and pursue creative ways to fast
track the development process and
help differentiate themselves from
the competition.
Source: Garner Economics
s
Adam Krueger
Assistant
director, economic
development, city
of Thornton
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Thornton will be home to a 320,000-square-foot Simon Premium Outlet development at
the northeast corner of 136th Avenue and Interstate 25.
