Brighton is Second in Gadberry Group's "7 from 2007"
1/8/2008 - Brighton, Colorado
Brighton, CO - Those tracking the leading edge of national population growth and diverse demographics soon will be focusing more on Brighton, CO, the county seat of Adams County. The county, roughly the size of the state of Rhode Island, surrounds Denver International Airport, DIA.
Brighton, located about 20 miles northeast of downtown Denver and even closer to DIA, just placed second in the Gadberry Group’s “7 from 2007,” which lists the seven most notable high-growth places in the U.S.
Gadberry Group, based in Little Rock, AR, provides location intelligence services and data for some of the world’s top retail brands.
“DIA and E-470 have made Brighton enormously connected,” says Brighton Mayor Jan Pawlowski. “Our vision of a thriving sustainable community built on transportation access, excellent schools, reasonable housing costs, open space and quality of life is coming into focus.”
“Brigthon, CO, is a place well positioned for the 21st Century,” says Susan Stanton, president/CEO, Brighton Economic Development Corp., which helps the city promote its benefits to prospective primary employers and retailers.
According to the report, in 2007 Brighton had 28 emerging Census blocks (Census blocks with less than 10 households in 2000 that now have more than 100) -- more than any other city on the list.
The population of Brighton, according to the report, has grown dramatically since the last U.S. Census was taken in 2000. Most researchers, according to Gadberry Group, rely on Census data for understanding the distribution and demographic makeup of the U.S. population. However, since the 2000 U.S. Census, households in Brighton have grown an astounding 122 percent, from 9,755 to 21,608. Household growth topped 13 percent from 2006 to 2007.
Since 2000, the average household income in Brighton has jumped more than 17 percent, topping $65,750 last year, up from about $55,900 in 2000, according to the report. The highest number of Brighton households are in the $80,000-$89,999 range, according to Gadberry Group.
Here are a few recent community development highlights provided by Brighton Economic Development Corp:
•Newly opened stores at THF Realty’s 2,000-acre Prairie Center -- Home Depot, Lowe’s, PetSmart, Super Target, Kohl’s and many others – are evidence that the city already is on the radar for retailers looking at regional growth prospects in metro Denver.
•On the primary employment front, Brighton, in 2007, became home to a new 300,000 square-foot Staples fulfillment center. The city was selected for its proximity to five major highways (E-470, state highway 85, I-76, I-70 and I-25) and the personal attention that it provides corporations that choose to set up business here. The Staples center is located at the Bromley Industrial Park near
I-76, along the developing eastern edge of the growing community.
•Nearby, a new half-million square-foot consolidated Adams County campus will house 2,000 employees at Adams Crossing, a development of Carlson-Parkhill, LLC.
•Carlson-Parkhill also has helped spark historic downtown revitalization with its Brighton Pavilions development. Brighton’s downtown is experiencing a renaissance with new facades, restaurants, local specialty shops and wellness centers.
•On the international stage, last summer, Toshiba executives unveiled cutting-edge MRI equipment at Brighton’s new $138 million Platte Valley Medical Center. Toshiba chose to showcase its MRI equipment in Brighton, because of its convenient access to and from DIA, making it easy to demonstrate its new capabilities to international visitors.
•Up the road at Brighton Crossing, a master-planned residential community by Carma, which has developed 80 master-planned communities across North America, people are attracted to more house for their money and seldom-matched community amenities. Sales at the community climbed by 40 percent between 2006 and 2007, according to reports from homebuilders in the community.
“Brighton saw its economic star rising with the coming of DIA in the 1980s,” says Troy Whitmore, vice president, United Power, the local utility provider with its headquarters in Brighton. Whitmore is chairman of Brighton Economic Development Corp.
Nesting eagles at nearby Barr Lake State Park along I-76 steer DIA air traffic away from Brighton, but, E-470, the area’s 70-mile-per-hour superhighway, located at the city’s southern edge, puts people at DIA in about 15 minutes.
Five of 12 total runways at DIA – twice the size of Manhattan Island in New York City – are operational today and a $1.2 billion upgrade to the airport.
To learn more about Brighton and the Gadberry Group “7 From 2007” study, visit www.brightonedc.org, the official site of the Brighton Economic Development Corp.
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Please visit the GIS Data for Brighton from Gadberry Group.