t is a region literally defined by the Continental Divide. But forces large and small are coming together to encourage new corporate investment from either side. Here are a few glimpses into why:

Colorado Colored With Clusters

In the Denver area, it's always been Broomfield that's been known for corporate and community growth, but now its southern Denver metro counterpart, Douglas County, is coming into its own. In July, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that the county led the nation in new home growth over the past year, at 8.3 percent. Broomfield was in sixth place on that list, helping Colorado come in second in residential growth (2.9 percent) behind first-place Nevada.
        Douglas Co. is home to worldwide CRM firm TeleTech, just one of a plethora of call center and customer contact companies statewide that find Colorado's reception as clear as its mountain streams. In fact, the southern Colorado area known for its aerospace presence - Pueblo and Colorado Springs have jointly submitted their entry in the Boeing new plant sweepstakes) - is just as popular in call center circles. Within days of each other in April, two major customer service projects found their answers in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Richard Watts, group president, sales & service, for the Progressive group of insurance companies, helped choose Colorado Springs as the location for a new sales and service campus.

        Longstanding corporate citizen Progressive Insurance plans to consolidate its facilities into a 300,000-sq.-ft. (27,870-sq.-m.) campus on more than 30 acres (12 hectares) in Colorado Springs, doubling current capacity. The commitment follows on a period of tremendous growth and community support. Progressive doubled its employee base when it made job offers to more than 300 Zurich Personal Insurance employees who were losing their jobs when that company moved its operations from Colorado Springs to Baltimore, Md., in 1997. In the past year, Mayfield Heights, Ohio-based Progressive has grown by 30 percent and hired more than 6,014 people throughout the U.S. In Colorado Springs the company added 308 new people in 2002, bringing to 887 the number of employees in the sales and customer service call centers. No further project details were available.

Denver Projects Provide 'The Drive' for State Economy A handful of Denver projects shows how high on the city corporate site seekers continue to be:         • As a result of recent utility deregulation in the state, two power plants being built by Calpine will serve Xcel Energy customers: a $125-million, 300-megawatt facility east of Denver and a $375-million, 600-megawatt facility near Hudson, northeast of the city.         • After looking in surrounding counties, Nobel/Sysco Food Services will remain in the city, investing $40 million in a 500,000-sq.-ft. (4,050-sq.-m.) headquarters and distribution hub at Forest City Stapleton, the giant 4,700-acre (1,880-hectare) redevelopment of Denver's former main airport.         • Aurora is home to two major developments: the $100-million, 182-acre (74-hectare) ProLogis Park, to be anchored by a $17-million, 404,000-sq.-ft. facility now under construction by the homegrown logistics giant; and the $4-billion healthcare, research and bioscience project under the aegis of the Fizsimons Redevelopment Authority and the city.         The two entities were honored for the project in the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration's "Excellence in Economic Development Awards 2003," and have used a $10-million investment to leverage $200 million in private sector investment over the past five years.

        "This is an important move for us," says Richard Watts, group president, sales and service, for Progressive. "Adding space ensures our ability to grow and service our customers and consolidating our call centers allows us to provide a great place for our area employees to work."
        As part of a new contractual relationship with Virgin Mobile USA, customer care firm ICT Group will open a dedicated facility in the same city, backing a similar operation in Spokane, Wash. The two companies collaborated on the site search. In a joint statement, they said that the Colorado Springs area meets many of the companies' demographic profile requirements and offers an available, quality work force, a technology-oriented business environment and a superior telecommunications infrastructure.
        It's no wonder that Colorado Springs ranks 13th on the 2003 Forbes "Best Places for Business and Careers" list.
        "The Rocky Mountain region is a healthy destination for call center locations," says Jeff Furst, president of industry consultant Furst Person. "In our experience, it's in the main metro areas - Colorado Springs, Denver and Salt Lake City."
        Furst cautions that all markets are susceptible to labor pool saturation, but ranks the region's labor pool in the top third among the two dozen states in which his company has worked. Then there is the time zone factor - even in the Rockies, that little hour hand can be at least as powerful as majestic mountains.
        "As the sun sets, they can move calls from east to west," says Furst of his clients' needs. "It allows them to service the Western half of the U.S. as the day moves from afternoon to evening," as well as providing for scheduling flexibility when it comes to covering for lunch hours across all zones.