DigitalGlobe moving headquarters from Longmont to Broomfield - Longmont Daily Times

LONGMONT — DigitalGlobe will move its global headquarters from Longmont to Broomfield, the company announced Thursday.

The satellite imagery company — one of Longmont’s largest private-sector employers — announced in a news release late Thursday afternoon that it will consolidate four Colorado locations into a single site, the North Park development in Broomfield, in mid-2015.

“This move will enable the company to realize the synergies, increase operational efficiencies, enhance collaboration and enable better access to talent in the greater Denver metropolitan region to better serve its customers and support its long-term growth plan,” DigitalGlobe said in the release.

The company said that Colorado-based employees are expected to relocate to the new campus in Broomfield beginning in the summer of 2015. The release stated that DigitalGlobe will continue to maintain a presence in the Longmont location “for a period of time.”

“In addition, DigitalGlobe will continue to maintain a significant presence in other offices around the world, including Herndon, Va., Tampa, Fla., London and Singapore among others,” the statement read.

Longmont assistant city manager Shawn Lewis said the city was still pleased that DigitalGlobe would keep a presence there for the near future, and that Longmont had done everything it could to try to keep the headquarters for good.

“While we understand that many factors go into site selection for a corporate headquarters,” Lewis said, “we are proud that the city of Longmont and our economic development partners assembled the most aggressive economic incentive package in recent history in order to retain this important community partner.”

Lewis did not specify the details of Longmont’s offer, but said it had been “a combination of direct financial assistance and operational savings.”

In June, DigitalGlobe executives appeared before the Colorado Economic Development Commission, seeking incentives to keep its headquarters in Colorado. It told the commission it would be adding up to 505 jobs over the next five years, and the commission granted an incentive package of up to $4.4 million, tied directly to the number of jobs it adds.

At the time, DigitalGlobe announced plans to build a new corporate campus, saying that it was considering moving to Broomfield or Westminster, or remaining in Longmont.

“Their primary consideration was access to executive-level talent,” John Cody, then-president of the Longmont Area Economic Council, said in June. He noted that most of the company’s top executives live on the southern end of the Denver metro area and commute to Longmont.

“A significant portion of their technical talent is in this area,” he said. “I think Boulder County accounts for almost two-thirds of their work force.”

Lewis said the company’s decision would have an economic effect on Longmont, “but until DigitalGlobe finalizes their relocation and transitional plans, it’s difficult to predict the exact impact.”

Bo Martinez, Broomfield’s economic development director, said he is “extremely pleased” to hear about the company’s move to Broomfield.

“Broomfield has an educated workforce and positive business climate, and we think this will serve as a great anchor for the North Park area,” he said.

Martinez said he expects about 1,300 jobs to move to the area, with a potential for 2,500 at the company’s build out.

Wendi Nafziger, interim president of the Longmont Area Economic Council and a 30-plus year member of that organization’s staff, said she remembers watching DigitalGlobe grow from its very earliest days. She said she was disappointed to hear the news but understood that it was a company decision.

“We’ve been working with DigitalGlobe for quite a long time on their expansion needs,” Nafziger said. “And while we’re disappointed they’re not keeping their headquarters in Longmont, we will continue to work with them as we always have because they remain a very important company in this community. We will continue to assist them any way we can.”

DigitalGlobe is the Longmont area’s third-largest private-sector employer, with about 760 workers locally. Its presence in Longmont dates back to 1995, when EarthWatch — the company’s original name — was formed in the merger of the remote commercial sensing division of Ball Aerospace Technologies Corp. and WorldView Imaging Corp.

Today it leases about 253,000 square feet in Longmont, including its headquarters inside the Boulder County Business Center on Dry Creek Drive. Its lease in that location is set to expire in June 2014.

In July 2012, it was announced that DigitalGlobe was buying GeoEye, its largest competitor in the satellite imagery business, in a cash and stock transaction worth about $453 million. That acquisition was finalized in January.

North Park, owned and developed by McWhinney, is composed of 935 acres west of Interstate 25 between Colo. 7 and Northwest Parkway.

Broomfield and McWhinney hope North Park will become that city’s next major job-creation center and the “Denver Tech Center of the North.” Plans include as many as 17.2 million square feet of mixed-use commercial development, a large-scale science and research park and more than 6,000 residential units.

North Park is currently home to Prospect Ridge Academy, a 45,000-square-foot charter school that opened in 2012.

Times-Call business editor Tony Kindelspire and Broomfield Enterprise reporter Megan Quinn contributed to this report.

DigitalGlobe moving headquarters from Longmont to Broomfield - Longmont Daily Times