New Denver EDO Focuses on High-Impact Economic Development

A new regional development group has taken shape in the Denver area. Within five years, the effort hopes to raise as much as $15 million in private contributions and bring 100,000 new jobs to metro Denver.

The organization, which is to be called the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp., will replace the Metro Denver Network and aims to represent the Denver metropolitan region on the national stage. It will serve as the primary source of demographic and economic information to companies and professional corporate relocation consultants.

And -- in a move that harkens to the mid-1980s -- the EDC will raise money to influence key infrastructure votes that officials say are crucial to securing plant expansions and business relocations. It's the first time in a decade that a major, regional economic development group has not only recognized the importance of influencing the voting public on major public works and but taken steps to pay for the political effort.

I think the Denver folks are onto something.

Source.