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Fort Collins staff brief council on $1.7 billion pipeline, small-business outreach and site-readiness lessons
Summary
Economic Health staff told council they are tracking nine active prospects with about $1.7 billion in potential capital and over 1,000 potential jobs, highlighted wins with USDA and Anheuser-Busch, and described business retention efforts that increased Enterprise Zone participation from roughly 97 to over 500 businesses.
Economic Health staff presented a multi-part briefing on business retention, expansion and attraction (BRE), describing both long-term lead generation and day-to-day support for existing businesses.
"We are currently working on 9 prospects. The known pipeline is about $1,700,000,000 in terms of capital expenditures," Sana Kendall said, outlining a regional approach that partners with state and neighboring communities. Kendall said Fort Collins focuses on clusters including IT and clean energy, plus biosciences and semiconductors, and that staff are coordinating with regional partners for site submittals.
Kendall highlighted recent wins and active projects. She said USDA selected Fort Collins as one of its hub locations for research and operational services and that Anheuser-Busch committed about $52 million to site development, including $13 million targeted to technologies for carbon-neutral operations.
Staff also shared lessons from recent prospect work. "Project Telluride," later identified as a Coca-Cola subsidiary, chose a Colorado Springs site that was immediately site-ready and received incentives and fee waivers; Kendall used the example to stress that site readiness, water availability and incentive packaging matter when competing for capital projects.
Shannon Hein outlined BRE practice: three modes of engagement—strategic/proactive outreach, signal-based/reactive response, and an open-door customer service model for routine inquiries. Hein highlighted local examples where staff matched a co-working operator (Cohere) with available space at Old Town Media to prevent a business closure, and described outreach that increased Enterprise Zone registrations from roughly 97 to over 500 businesses.
Council members asked how business concerns are escalated to council and requested more frequent, digestible reporting of trends; staff offered options including one-on-one visits with councilors, regular updates to the city manager’s office, and quarterly summaries of key signals.
Staff offered to return with further details at upcoming budget and policy briefings; no formal action was taken.
