Colorado Real Estate Journal - September 16, 2015
The Counselors of Real Estate held its spring national meeting in Denver this year. The theme of the meeting focused on strategies and tactics for building and maintaining a vibrant community, regardless of size, in the face of changing economic conditions and ever-present capital constraints. Development of Denver’s Central Platte Valley rail yards and the redevelopment of Denver Union Station into a community gathering spot were the focus of the conference. Marilee Utter, CRE, and Former Mayor of Denver, U.S. Secretary of Transportation, U.S. Secretary of Energy and current Managing Director and Principal of Vestar Capital Federico Peña opened the first general session of the day with a conversation about the elements of a long-term strategy that can lead to greatness for any community and how it worked in Denver. Utter was the city of Denver’s director of asset management, where she oversaw the city’s real estate holdings during Peña’s mayoral term. Before his service to the country as a member of President Bill Clinton’s cabinet, Peña was mayor of Denver from 1983 until 1991. During that time Denver was enduring the stress of a dramatic economic downturn related to the cyclical energy industry. Denver’s economy was overly dependent upon energy production and when it went south, a large portion of Denver’s employment literally went with it, moving back to Texas and Louisiana. As a young, 36-year-old state senator and forward-thinking activist, Peña felt compelled to envision a new and different future for Denver and its suburbs. He decided to run for mayor just as the local economy was moving from boom to bust due to the energy market downturn and related real estate collapse. A wide variety of challenges faced Denver, but foremost was the geographic reality that the city was in the middle of “flyover country” and was dominated by the energy and real estate development industries. How does one, young politician begin to address a cyclical economic crisis in a geographically isolated city? With vision. “Imagine a Great City” was Peña campaign slogan, but it was more than a slogan. He spelled out 25 strategic initiatives in his campaign vision for a brighter future. Among those strategic initiatives were a new airport, a new convention center, historic designation and protection for Denver’s original old downtown (now Lower Downtown) and the redevelopment of the Union Pacific rail yards adjacent to the historic district. The mayor’s perspective has since been augmented by his time in the Washington, D.C., political cauldron and 25 years of experience, so he could bring national politics into the conversation as well. Utter’s career in real estate development and now with ULI added to the conversation’s depth. Peña pointed out that in Denver, as a “strong mayor” with veto power and true management responsibility for the city (no city manager), he was deeply involved in every key decision during his two terms. He wryly noted that his experience in Washington, D.C., was very different. As a member of Clinton’s cabinet and as an appointed leader of a large bureaucracy, the level of control he was able to exercise was very limited by comparison to a strong mayor. Accomplishing change in Washington is extraordinarily difficult, as many others have also observed. Not that accomplishing change at the community level is easy, but it is possible. Peña and Utter pointed out three key elements that make success more likely: Vision. There must be a big, long-term vision that inspires community members and project participants. Without such a vision, you’re just managing the present circumstances and problems. Alignment. The leaders must recognize early in the process that including all the stakeholders in developing and refining the vision is the only way to achieve anything in the public arena. Peña talked about the hundreds of community meetings he personally attended during the early phases of planning for the new airport, leading up to a public election to approve the annexation. As Utter said, alignment is critical to effective execution, the third element. Execution. Though it may seem obvious, execution at every phase is critical. A serious misstep, particularly in the early going, can destroy confidence in leadership and in the vision. A fourth element that Peña and later participants in the Developer’s Panel agreed is critical is continuity. This means commitment to a well-articulated vision over multiple administrations and changes of leadership. Peña was very complimentary toward the three administrations that have followed him in the mayor’s office. To a large degree, they have carried on the work and sustained the vision established in the 1980’s, while adding new elements and putting their own stamp on the details. Continuity and long-term commitment to the vision has been key to Denver’s community renaissance. Thirty years after Federico Peña first challenged voters to “Imagine a Great City,” the fruits of the labor of hundreds of committed people are highly visible in downtown Denver.