News

WILL DENVER EMBRACE SENSOR-FILLED “SMART CITY” COMMUNITY?

April 28, 2016

Next City has an article about Pena Station Next. Below is an excerpt:

Big corporations, seeking to attract and retain top talent, are opening offices in the downtowns they abandoned decades ago. Coca-Cola moved 2,000 workers from Cobb County to Atlanta; Motorola shifted its headquarters to Chicago; General Electric will move its HQ from suburban Connecticut to Boston’s hip waterfront area.

And then there’s Panasonic’s planned office in Denver, Colorado, 12 miles from the city’s thriving center. The building, a hub for Panasonic Enterprise Solutions, the electronics company’s “smart city” branch, will rise on a parcel of farmland. To the east is the Denver airport, to the west, a wildlife refuge 20 times the size of Central Park.

In 20 years, if all goes according to plan, this tract, which is about as large as downtown Denver, will be home to 55,000 residents, in addition to offices, shops and restaurants. Panasonic’s office is under construction now; multi-family construction will begin this summer.

“Certainly the easiest choice would have been to go to downtown Denver,” says Jarrett Wendt, the vice president of strategic initiatives at Panasonic. “We were willing to roll the dice.”

You can read the full article here.