Colorado Real Estate Journal - August 17, 2016
Pilatus Business Aircraft is expanding its operations in unincorporated Jefferson County. The company plans to build a 118,000-square-foot facility at the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport. The $22 million facility will replace and expand its current operations at RMMA and provide aircraft completion support for the Pilatus PC-12 and PC-24 aircraft. The project will nearly double employment, bringing an estimated 57 jobs and more than $3 million in capital investment to Jefferson County. Jefferson County Economic Development, in partnership with Jefferson County, has been assisting the company with the expansion project. Zimmer Biomet Spine Inc. is relocating and expanding its operations in the city of Westminster. It will occupy 104,000 sf at Westmoor Technology Park. The project will bring 207 jobs with an average salary of $79,000 and $6.3 million in capital investment to the county. Jeffco EDC has been assisting the company with a personal property tax rebate, which the board of county commissioners approved. This is a performance based incentive and only applies to new capital investment. Updates… Jeffco EDC recently released its second-quarter economic summary for Jefferson County. The report contains information on economic headlines, real estate activity, employment data, and consumer and retail activity in Jefferson County. The report was prepared by Development Research Partners in conjunction with Jeffco EDC. The report noted that Jefferson County’s economic situation was improved through the second quarter of 2016, with continued employment gains, and low unemployment and robust residential real estate trends. Employment in the county increased 3 percent between the fourth quarters of 2014 and 2015, generating an additional 6,710 jobs. The Jefferson County unemployment rate fell to 3 percent in the first quarter of 2016, a decline of 1.3 percentage points from the prior year. Although consumer confidence fell 12.9 percent in the mountain region over the year during the first quarter of 2015, retail sales in Jefferson County increased a slight 0.3 percent. The county reported an apartment vacancy rate of 4.7 percent, which was the lowest of the metro Denver counties. The average rental rate for an apartment in Jefferson County rose 12.2 percent over the year to $1,304 per month in the first quarter. The commercial real estate market in Jefferson County recorded generally tightening vacancy and rising average lease rates during the first quarter of 2016, according to the report. The market for Class C office space continued to be the only market to report an increase in vacancy, but recorded increasing average lease rates. The industrial warehouse market was the most constricted of the market types, reporting 1 percent vacancy. Class A office space continued to command the highest average lease rate, with landlords charging $25.78 per square foot, during the first quarter of 2016. Jefferson County added over 368,520 sf of office, industrial and retail space to the market between the first quarters of 2015 and 2016.