Tech-rich BoCo city sees healthy growth
LONGMONT — Growth in Longmont continues to be healthy — sometimes literally.
The Boulder County city has a life expectancy of 82.6 years, higher than the state average of 80.
Longmonters don’t waste much of those years on commuting; the city is within 45 minutes’ drive of downtown Denver, Denver International Airport and a handful of major universities as well as mountain playgrounds such as Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. The ski slopes at Eldora are just an hour away.
Once home to an economy dominated by agriculture, Longmont now makes a global impact with cutting-edge technology.”
Keeping Longmonters healthy are Longs Peak and Longmont United hospitals. UCHealth opened Longs Peak in 2017 at the city’s eastern gateway, then added a four-story outpatient facility just east of the hospital and will complete another three-story expansion and renovation in June 2025. Meanwhile, Longmont United, part of the CommonSpirit family, remains vibrant with its own full range of top-ranked medical care on the city’s northwest side, and opened an expanded cancer treatment center this spring.
Once home to an economy dominated by agriculture, Longmont now makes a global impact with cutting-edge technology. With its NextLight municipal broadband service ranked second fastest in the nation for offering 1-gigabyte speeds for businesses and residents, Longmont has become one of the nation’s main hubs for computer and data storage.
Hard-drive makers have a significant presence in Longmont, along with more than 20 other information-technology hardware companies. Longmont also has several industry clusters with employment exceeding 500, including software, biotechnology, business services, semiconductors and food processing.
The city this year won designation for a CHIPS Zone, making qualifying companies in the sector eligible for special tax incentives.
Tech companies, especially startups, favor Longmont for its educated workforce, economic incentives, and lower real estate prices and electric rates.
A decision in 2016 by the Longmont Area Economic Council to change the last word in its name to “Partnership” symbolizes the city’s more comprehensive, collaborative strategy for luring business and including more segments of the populace in the benefits of growth.
The nonprofit Longmont Entrepreneurship for All launched EparaTodos, which translates to EforAll in English. EforAll is a twice-a-year accelerator program and pitch contest replicated with Spanish-speaking mentors.
Commercial and residential real estate prices can be less than in nearby Boulder, allowing businesses and families to live and work affordably in Longmont.
Longmont provides plenty of retail options, including downtown Main Street shopping and big-box stores on the city’s edges. A five-story boutique hotel is rising at the corner of Kimbark Street and Third Avenue as the transit-oriented First and Main development expands into surrounding blocks, and the vibrant Parkway Food Hall has opened in a space that had housed Lucky’s and then Alfalfa’s grocery stores.
The city has its own recreation center, live theaters, one private and three public golf courses, and an outdoor sports complex at Sandstone.
Front Range Community College’s Boulder County campus and the Longmont Chamber of Commerce hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony in March at the college’s Center for Integrated Manufacturing, marking significant advancements and achievements since its inception five years ago.