The Chamber’s 7th leadership exchange to Denver commenced this morning with a quick flight to the mile high city for over 100 civic leaders.
Toured the University of Colorado Denver Anschutz Medical Campus, which is located on the old Fitzsimmons Army Hospital, 10 minutes from downtown. A consortium of area leaders planned the project – bought the property in the early 90’s for $1! Project is amazing -225 acres for medicine and 140 acres for bioscience research. Many of the doctors on staff see patients and conduct research. The grounds are beautiful – landscaping and 8 pieces of large public art on campus. President Dwight Eisenhower was a patient there in 1955 following his heart attack after a robust game of golf in the mountain air. 3100 students across medical disciplines including dentistry and pharmacology are enrolled on the campus. Spurring a lot of development and redevelopment in the area, including housing, Hilton and Hyatt hotels are being built nearby. It is like there is a concerted effort to house many if not most of Denver’s medical and medical research facilities on this campus. And it has been done so quickly! Joe Blake, former and longtime Chamber president and now chancellor of Colorado State University referred to the enormity of the project – Toal goal is $5 billion of investment, believed to be half-way there now; and even though it is in Aurora, not Denver, it was strongly supported.
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