About Us

Economic development refers to efforts aimed at improving the economic well-being and quality of life of a community – creating wealth.
The Aurora EDC is a 501(c)(6) private corporation that has been working in the community for nearly 50 years. We think of ourselves as dreamers, doers, leaders, and relationship builders. Grounded in public-private partnerships, we’re dedicated to enhancing the economic vitality of the City of Aurora, Adams County, and Arapahoe County by recruiting, retaining, and growing primary employers. We do this through innovative deal creation, strategic partnerships, and by advocating for economically sustainable public policy.

The Aurora EDC utilizes its extensive network of members, consultants, partners, and agencies to market the City of Aurora, Adams County, and Arapahoe County to businesses within certain industries around the world. Through lead generation, marketing campaigns, public policy initiatives, and an intimate knowledge of our community, we work with companies to expand or relocate.

We focus on organizations that will benefit from our region’s strengths, assets, workforce, and infrastructure environment. We have identified industry clusters that include: Aerospace and Defense, Bioscience and Healthcare, Energy, Manufacturing, and Transportation and Logistics.

The Aurora EDC is a membership organization that can benefit organizations with business interests in our region.

Benefits of investment include but are not limited to:

• Direct influence on economic development as a board member
• Access to local leaders
• Business development opportunities
• Market intelligence
• Support on local deals and projects
• Public policy advocacy
• Enhanced visibility

Finding the right talent for your company is essential and we have connections throughout the talent pipeline to make this an easy process. We’ll connect you with resources that can help with employee recruitment, wage and salary assessments, and access to job training programs. If you have a well-established human resources team, our local experts can work with them to achieve your goals quickly and effectively.

Economic development leads to job creation, increased tax revenue, improved infrastructure, expanded business opportunities, and enhanced quality of life for residents.

The Aurora EDC reports to its Board of Directors and Executive Committee with regular updates on economic development initiatives devised annually through its strategic plan. Staff reports on benchmarks and trends in the areas of job creation, capital investment, taxes generated, public policy, and overall business activities.

From 2020-2024, we’ve created over 10,000 jobs and attracted $5.4B in capital investment tied to 80+ projects.

Organizations can get involved by becoming an investor and having a seat on our Board of Directors. We also host our annual A-List event, one of the largest business events in the metro area. We invite business leaders and government entities to sponsor and purchase tables for this event. Additionally, we have a DBA organization, Accelerate Colorado, that has its own statewide membership. Accelerate Colorado advocates year-round for Colorado’s business interests and economic development and has an annual DC Fly-In business mission to our nation’s capital. For more information on Accelerate Colorado, visit acceleratecolorado.com.

It doesn’t matter if you have a few employees or a few thousand employees, the Aurora EDC offers the same level of service to all with a very few exceptions. We do not work with non-profit, residential, or retail projects but we can get you in touch with people who do.

We are a public-private partnership. Our Board of Directors and Executive Committee are comprised of elected officials from the City of Aurora, Adams County, and Arapahoe County, in addition to business leaders throughout the metro area. We partner with them and elected officials and stakeholders at the state and federal level on numerous initiatives to create and maintain an ideal environment for future economic development.

Over the years, we have been instrumental in deals such as attracting the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center to open in 2019, assisting Raytheon to expand near Buckley Space Force Base in the 2000s, creating more SCIF for The Boeing Company and other defense contractors in the past five years, building a new cold storage distribution facility for Whole Foods and UNFI and KeHE and Kroger and Shamrock, securing Certificates of Participation for the development of University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, helping UCHealth construct two new towers, establishing Amazon’s first fulfillment center in Colorado followed by the company locating five more facilities here, retaining Subaru’s western distribution hub, ensuring Acme Distribution maintains successful operations, supporting a unique partnership for Gotham Greens, attracting the North American headquarters for Karcher.

Some initiatives we were integral in making happen include passage of the Regional Tourism Act, funding for the 17th Ave and Picadilly Rd interchanges, completing 64th Ave and a seven-mile water line extension activating thousands of acres.