Boulder’s leading business and economic-development organization is expressing its support for Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.’s ambitious plans to expand its Commerce Street campus.
“This is an opportunity that our community can and should embrace,” Boulder Chamber president John Tayer told BizWest on Friday. “We’ll look forward to helping to meet their expectations for this planned expansion and to support them in meeting their goals of building important understanding of space and science.”
The aerospace arm of Westminster-based metal-packaging manufacturer Ball Corp. (NYSE: BLL) has submitted preliminary plans to the city that show the intent to extend its planned unit development agreement and build three new buildings at its 1600 Commerce St. campus that would add 375,000 square feet on the roughly 27-acre site.
In addition to the three new buildings — one of which would total 295,000 square feet and the two others 40,000 square feet each — proposed at Ball’s Boulder campus, the firm wants to build a new 850-space parking garage and a sky bridge over Commerce Street.
The proposed buildings are planned to be up to 55 feet tall and with a floor-to-area ratio greater than is allowed under current zoning regulations, planning documents show.
“The company’s ability to expand operations on the Boulder campus in order to increase aerospace production and testing capabilities will help determine the future of Ball Aerospace in Boulder,” the company wrote in a pre-development application review memo.
“We always playfully talk about Ball Aerospace as our original startup — with (University of Colorado) researchers taking their innovations out into the private sector,” Tayer said. “It’s exciting for us to see them invest in the innovation and technology advancements they’re developing at the facilities in Boulder.”
Despite support from the business community, some Boulder locals have recently expressed skepticism about large-scale commercial projects.
Criticism of such projects — recently exemplified by plans to transform Boulder’s Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M) department store into upscale office space — typically center around concerns that the addition of office space will exacerbate Boulder’s jobs-housing imbalance.
That imbalance, which is likely to be raised during the city’s approval process for Ball’s expansion, is a reference to Boulder’s ongoing challenge of providing affordable-housing options for the city’s workforce while continuing to add high-wage professional jobs that push up the cost of housing.
Tayer said he expects Ball to work with the community and planning leaders to ensure that the expansion aligns with Boulder’s goals.
“Ball is a community partner, and they will work very hard to meet the community’s expectations for quality development and to meet their goals in collaboration with our city officials and our community,” he said.
As developable space in Boulder city limits becomes more scarce and more expensive, companies, Ball included, have looked to nearby communities for expansion opportunities.
In 2019, Ball broke ground on a new four-building, 186,000-square-foot Westminster headquarters at the existing site of Ball’s Packaging Office Center, 9343 W. 108th Circle.
The same year, the firm unveiled plans to add 137,000 square feet of office and research and development space to Ball’s existing roughly 121,000-square-foot Broomfield R&D operation at 10 Longs Peak Drive.
Ball Corp. boosted its regional profile last year when it inked a rights deal with Kroenke Sports & Entertainment LLC, owners of the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche, to change the name of the teams’ arena from the Pepsi Center to the Ball Arena.
“Boulder is a center of aerospace innovation, but we also recognize that this activity bleeds out across a much broader ecosystem. It’s in everybody’s interest — the other nearby communities and our state — to make sure we’re working in partnership to provide the opportunities for Ball and other aerospace industry partners to find locations that suit their needs in our region,” Tayer said.
Other local economic-development leaders across the U.S. Highway 36 corridor are also quick to note Ball’s hulking stature in the region.
“They’re spending a significant amount of money on furthering the advancement of science and the advancement of solutions to explore space,” Broomfield city and county economic vitality director Jeff Romine said. “That’s really important because it does two things economically: Obviously, there are the jobs and the investment, which is incredible. But the other part of it is you could be talking to an elementary school class and learn that one of the kid’s parents works at Ball. What you have is a real world connection right here about what [science and technology innovation] is all about.”
Having a company like Ball set up shop or expand in your backyard is a coup for a community, he said.
“They’re obviously a good neighbor,” Romine said. “I’ve talked to some of the key people over there, and they’ve been willing to participate in various ways with the city and county. They have members of their senior team serve on our Planning and Zoning Commission, they’re on the mayor’s roundtable and contributing with their commitment to the community as a whole.”
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