As Denver International Airport grew into one of the world’s busiest transit hubs, local officials saw an opportunity with the miles of empty plains surrounding it.
They envisioned a sort of city centering around the airport, catering to a community of businesses that want close access to their supply chains.
The “Colorado Aerotropolis,” a commercial district around DIA, has been in the works for more than a decade. On Tuesday, it “officially launched” with a revamped website that advertises to businesses about how much developable land is available within the economic corridor.
Ultimately, the business district aims to join the ranks of Denver downtown, Cherry Creek and the Denver Tech Center.
“This marketing campaign is to raise that awareness with site selectors, with businesses looking to expand, that we have a variety of parcels that all have rail or roadway or direct access to the airport itself and to the region,” Adams County Commissioner Emma Pinter told The Denver Gazette, referring to Tuesday’s advertising push.
For decades, many airports, such as DIA, have been built on the edge of cities and away from the urban center.
But as travel and global trade exploded in the 21st century, so did the idea that airports resemble a city center themselves, as some businesses gravitated toward building distribution centers or offices near the transit hubs.
University of North Carolina professor John D. Kasarda coined the term “aerotropolis” in 2011 to describe this growing model of urban development.
Many regions around airports, such as Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth, Detroit, Memphis and O’Hare in Chicago, have built their own form of an aerotropolis despite limited land or money.
But Colorado saw it had an advantage to test the aerotropolis model as the area surrounding DIA is vast with empty property, according to a feasibility study from 2016.
“This project leverages the economic activity generated by our amazing airport and drives economic prosperity for the surrounding community for decades to come,” said Denver’s Executive Director of Economic Development and Opportunity Adeeb Khan in a statement.
It’s a joint collaboration between several local municipalities, including Denver, Thornton, Commerce City, Aurora, Adams County, Brighton and Federal Heights. Together, leaders across the cities and counties make up the Aerotropolis Regional Committee.
But it’s been difficult to get businesses familiar with the Colorado Aerotropolis because of the many municipalities involved, Pinter said.
“Folks are familiar with Denver proper, and they’re familiar with the airport itself and its physical boundaries,” Pinter said. “But there is a lot in our regional partnership … along with Denver in aerotropolis.”
The regional collaboration launched the “Colorado Aerotropolis” brand — the name that has been used to describe the corridor that former Denver Mayor Michael Hancock first announced as “Airport City Denver” in 2012 — to help guide businesses interested in establishing themselves near the growing airport hub.
“We know that having a clear, compelling brand is what gives the development longevity,” said Jenni Hall, Adams County community and economic development director.
A map of the Colorado Aerotropolis from the Colorado Department of Transportation’s study conducted in 2016.
The Colorado Aerotropolis has more than 16,000 acres of land primed for development, according to its website. It’s mostly owned by the airport.
DIA is uniquely positioned as it has the second-largest land ownership of any airport in the world, supporters of the concept said.
The airport owns 53 miles of land, half of which is available for commercial development, said Ken Cope, DIA’s senior vice president of real estate development in an email. About 1,500 acres is available for lease, he added.
“The ability to lease versus purchase the land and flexibility in parcel sizing are all great advantages to developing on DEN land,” Cope said.
Part of the aerotropolis’ advertising is geared toward attracting industrial and commercial companies to develop business parks, office buildings, distribution centers and hotels. Some of the key industries it is targeting include advanced manufacturing, aerospace, agriculture, renewable energy and healthcare.
These are sectors that could have the most use of being close to the airport and the Foreign Trade Zone surrounding it, Hall said.
United Airlines also bought 113 acres of land near DIA last year with plans to use some of it for more pilot training facilities.
And the rest?
The airline is “keeping our options open,” United’s vice president of its Denver hub, Jonna McGrath, told the Denver Gazette in February.
United did not respond to questions about its plans within the aerotropolis.
Outside the main terminal of Denver International Airport on May 23, 2024. DIA is not only one of the busiest, but also one of the largest landowning airports in the world.
Though the Colorado Aerotropolis is focused on corporations, it also includes some residential projects, such as Aurora Highlands, a 4,000-acre community within the corridor.
The region’s development will be “huge” for the city of Aurora, Mayor Mike Coffman told The Denver Gazette.
Unlike Denver, Aurora isn’t landlocked and has a lot of potential for growth —potential that the Aerotropolis region can only help with, he said.
In particular, Coffman pointed to the Fitzsimmons Innovation Community, which could potentially grow into the Aerotropolis region, giving it space for manufacturing.
Symbolic of the impact the region has and will continue to have on the city, a recent interchange, formerly titled “Harvest Interchange,” has now become “Aerotropolis Interchange.”
Prairie dogs stand at alert near a row of commercial buildings near Denver International Airport on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. Colorado Aerotropolis, an urban planning project, aims to push development in the empty plains around the airport to bring more economic growth to the area surrounding DIA.
It’s one of the several infrastructure projects that the region is investing millions in to better connect the area with the airport and the district.
Coffman said that, similar to Buckley Road becoming “Airport Road,” the new interchange name is a reflection of the commercial activity happening in the area, marking another driving force for the city’s economy.
“From my standpoint, that healthcare component, the bioscience component is huge in terms of having research development and the actual manufacturing facility in close proximity to one another,” Coffman said. “When you’re doing that kind of research, you want to move rapidly and you have the ability to get to the third busiest international airport.”
The Majestic Commercenter set up an industrial business park in 1996, five miles south of the airport in Aurora, long before the district was a reality.
But since, the area has seen a slate of development pop up around the business park including residential, industrial and retail, said Majestic Commercenter Senior Vice President Michael Kapoor. The massive Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center was also a big driver of the area’s growth.
“The first Amazon warehouse [in Colorado] came to our park back in 2016,” Kapoor said. “But there’s a bunch of Amazon warehouses all around us now.”
While the district is marketing itself as a region to the public, Kapoor said that within it, it can get “convoluted” by the several organizations responsible for the district.
There’s also another organization known as the Aerotropolis Regional Transportation Authority, which is responsible for expanding transit in the area to accommodate the growth.
Regardless, the aerotropolis hasn’t changed much for the business park that’s still expanding since the developers bought 1,600 acres of industrial land in the 1990s.
The difference now is that there are a lot of more businesses following a similar path.
“It exists the way it was already going,” Kapoor said.