The Grand Junction region’s exuberant sense of community, craft, hard work and positive lifestyle comes as naturally as the breathtaking scenery.
Brian Fulton, founder and CEO of vehicle camping and storage system manufacturer Goose Gear, says in a recently posted video, “Our goal is to simplify everybody’s process, whether you’re camping or working … everything is right where you need it right when you need it.”
Grand Junction, Colorado, was right where Goose Gear needed it right when the company needed a place it could grow after three generations in Huntington Beach, California. And the Western Slope community’s quality of life, talent base and incentives certainly simplified the site selection process.
“We wanted to go somewhere where we could own our own piece of land and have a foundation to build a business for the long term,” said Fulton. “But on top of that, the number one thing was quality of life. What brought us to Grand Junction are the views and the people. The quality of people here is amazing. But there [are] a lot of business benefits also. Once we got tied up with GJEP [Grand Junction Economic Partnership], they helped get us some additional funding to help with the move.”
Goose Gear secured the Job Growth Tax Incentive through the Colorado Economic Development Commission for the creation of up to 49 new primary jobs over eight years, valued at $535,844. The tax credit provides businesses with a Colorado state income tax credit equal to 50% of FICA tax paid by the business per net new job for each calendar year in the credit period. Goose Gear also was awarded $55,000 from GJEP and Industrial Development, Inc (IDI), a sister organization to the Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce, to help offset relocation costs, including the transportation of manufacturing equipment.
“Anything we can do to strengthen our financial status just allows us to grow,” said Fulton. “It’s been a huge part of why we’re here.”
Add talent to the supportive environment and you have a recipe for growth. “We have built so much infrastructure in the business and we really hired some incredible people, local talent that have just been amazing,” Fulton said. “We’re going to be here for a long time.”
Window Rock at Colorado National Monument
Photo courtesy of National Park Service
What the Site Selectors Say
Goose Gear was part of a record year in economic development for Grand Junction, a city of 70,000 people and 33 square miles whose region in Mesa County also includes the communities of Palisade, Fruita, Collbran and DeBeque. Other projects last year and this year have come from Morgan Mining, a mining services company that moved from Knoxville, Tennessee, and brought 893 jobs; frequent reinvestor West Star Aviation (a new hangar at Grand Junction Regional Airport that will bring 80 to 100 new jobs); longtime local favorite Enstrom’s Candies; gummy manufacturer Hybrid Confections; and Amazon, which opened a new 38,000-sq.-ft., 75-employee last-mile distribution site just in time for the holiday season in December 2024 thanks to what Grand Junction Mayor Abe Herman called “Amazon’s efficiency and the city’s streamlined planning process.”
Building on that record year was one reason GJEP this year hosted a site selector familiarization tour in May attended by Savannah Jermance, director, credits and incentives consulting with Ryan, a global tax services and software provider; Jeff Pappas, senior managing director of Newmark’s office in Dallas; Sabrina Champagne, senior incentives and tax advisor at Strategic Location Services; and Chris Lloyd, senior vice president of infrastructure and economic development at McGuireWoods Consulting.
In a discussion at the end of the tour, the consultants emphasized the region’s resilience, leadership, intentionality and alignment of key stakeholders in government, business and education. Like many communities, the area needed more inventory of sites and commercial buildings, they said, recommending the creation of flex space and coworking space, as well as a collaborative facility a step above an incubator for spinoffs and startups to take root and bloom. Talent attraction and retention is key, they observed, especially in the age 18-26 demographic.
I reached out to all four consultants this summer for further comments.
“Grand Junction’s success trajectory reflects proactive leadership from the county, city and GJEP — a balanced economy, and a community-driven approach to feedback and change,” says Jermance. “A signature example is Las Colonias, blending recreational, commercial and residential spaces — including an amphitheater, business park, butterfly-shaped pond and zipline — that showcases the region’s innovative and playful spirit.”
Awarded a 2023 EPA Phoenix Award, the historically agricultural land hosted a uranium processing mill during the region’s Cold War energy boom. Now it’s a 140-acre park with 15 acres dedicated to commercial mixed-use with a 99-year lease structure and located in an Opportunity Zone.
“Colorado Mesa University further fuels this momentum,” Jermance says of the area’s upward trajectory, “advancing education, workforce development and entrepreneurship through initiatives like its Engineering Lab, where students early on apply project-based learning and present innovations directly to industry partners.”
“While not all small communities have such a significant university presence, the thing I like best about Colorado Mesa University is that the focus is on ‘practical’ capabilities of its graduates,” says Jeff Pappas. “Many universities still hold to the principle of ‘enrollment numbers and graduation rates’ and place less emphasis on workforce placement. CMU — especially its president, John Marshall — has made it a standard practice to make sure its students are truly compatible to what the local economy needs when it comes to employees.”
Pappas weighed in on quality of life too, noting that it “used to mean whether a city has a pro sports team. Not anymore. How a community defines quality of life is having cost-effective housing, sports activities for all ages and desires, nightlife for all ages, and taking as much salary as possible. While the area may be slightly higher in cost of living than the U.S. average, Grand Junction has all of the aforementioned quality-of-life indicators compared to most major cities.”
Pappas notes that there’s a healthy contingent of “rebound people” wanting to come back to Colorado but not necessarily to Denver. “No offense to Denver,” he writes, but Grand Junction has spectator sports, mountains, bars, trails and a lot less traffic. “Not many people can do so much without walking five steps from their office,” he says. That doesn’t mean a small metro is without challenges. “First, there is no Costco nearby. That alone is tough,” he says. “Also, no national homebuilders is tough for a growing community. Lastly, the region needs a few more medical professionals. But no community is perfect. I know that year-round great weather can overcome some of these issues. Trust me on that.
“Now, all the above doesn’t make a business commit to a market, but one thing that Grand Junction has that many similar-sized communities do not is a quality airport,” Pappas observes. “GJT may not be ORD, ATL or DFW, but with the number of direct flights to/from the airport, travel is relatively easy and accessible.” The airport’s menu features service from four airlines to six nonstop destinations: Dallas, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Santa Ana/Orange County, Salt Lake City and Denver.
Champagne noted that the tour began with a meal at Devil’s Kitchen, a restaurant at the hotel on the CMU campus that not only offered culinary excellence but also a glimpse into CMU’s hospitality program. “With a remarkably high graduation rate and impressively low unemployment among program alumni, CMU’s model exemplifies how experiential education can fuel both workforce readiness and regional economic vitality. It’s a win-win: students gain real-world skills, and visitors enjoy an authentically local experience.”
She also saw the promise of CMU’s RAPIDS tech hub. The Resilient & Adaptive Cyber Protection of Industrial Control Devices & Systems (RAPIDS) consortium is focused on protecting critical infrastructure, particularly the Colorado River, through cybersecurity measures, development of college-level curriculum and enablement of secure water resource management. As to the larger scope of CMU offerings, she says, “For companies seeking to reduce R&D costs while tapping into fresh talent and cutting-edge resources, CMU offers a compelling proposition. With more than 30 programs and certifications available through CMU Tech — formerly Western Colorado Community College — residents can pursue high-demand careers in fields ranging from energy infrastructure to health care, often at little or no cost thanks to state and private funding.”
Chris Lloyd of McGuireWoods remembers being in the area in the late 1990s mainly for the drive through Colorado National Monument directly next door. He had “no recollection of anything special about the area. That’s primarily because it struck me as an energy dependent town that was very transient,” he says. “That’s certainly not the case now. Whether it’s investments in parks, trails, entertainment or other quality-of-life attractions, the entire valley is taking on the feel of a modern community that wants to attract and retain talent. Colorado Mesa University is a key partner in that and my impression was that they were focused on putting kids into careers, not just activity and degree throughput.
“But more importantly,” he says, “it seemed to me that there was community buy-in to this transformation. It was not just a top-down, imposed mandate to ‘modernize’ but a desire from all to create something special there — a place that is desirable, fun, and one that has a future.”
