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A Giant in Our Midst - ConocoPhillips
Since ConocoPhillips (COP) was revealed as the mystery buyer of the former Storage Tek campus, excitement in our region has continued to grow. According to the company, it intends to use the facility for training and research which might translate into thousands of well paid jobs.
Here's another way to look at.
In the table below, I've put together key statistics for the ten most profitable public companies in Colorado. At the bottom, I've aggregated the top ten and compared it with COP.
As you can see in the table, COP has more gross profit and EBITDA than the top 10 public companies in Colorado put together. The company is generating more than a 1.6MM dollars of gross profit and 1MM of EBITDA... per employee. Think about that.
When COP finishes redevelopment of the campus and begins to operate here, the impacts will be enormous. It won't be clear for some time how many employees will make their homes here or what what type of training and research will be undertaken, but given the characteristics of our workforce (highly educated), odds are these will be well paying, technology oriented jobs.
Let's bring this back to real estate. As you probably already know, jobs are considered the most important driver to a healthy property market (for primary homes). Any real estate market within a reasonable commute of the campus will potentially see the benefits. That includes Boulder, Broomfield, Longmont, Louisville, Lafayette, Superior, and Erie. In short, most of Boulder County and all of Broomfield stands to benefit tremendously.
For more thoughts on the potential of the ConocoPhillips to impact our region, here's a piece from yesterday's Daily Camera.
Note: Our goal is to become the best real estate resource for Boulder Colorado and surrounding communities. The ideas and strategies in this blog are the opinion of the writer and subject to market uncertainties. Silver Fern Homes recommends careful and complete due diligence before buying or selling real estate or other investments. Consult with your professional advisers before making investment decisions. This article is not legal, tax, or investment advice. Silver Fern Homes will not be held liable for investment choices derived from this article.
10 Comments:
Thanks-some of us have been eagerly awaiting your take on this whole thing. It is hard to tell from the info that is being put out there right now though-it seems that it will be mostly a training facility so it leaves one wondering about whether or not they will employ people locally. All in all though-it HAS to be good for local business-and Old Town Louisville an Flatiron Crossing will get a much needed boost.
Old Town Louisville doesn't need a boost. They've had many lately. Lafayette seeks to gain the most from this, I believe, as the central part of town needs the most love....
Well, this won't be the only post. I appreciate you hanging on.
Although it's hard to see the purchase as anything but positive for real estate values and the job market, there will be negatives in the form of more traffic and congestion.
For now, its mostly rumors. One I heard is to expect a focus on renewable, alternative, and other cleantech areas. That would be wonderful,but stay tuned...
Hey BB...if you can't make a cogent comment or argument without cursing, then get off the site.
COP has a posting on their site regarding the purchase that is worth a read. Interestingly, it is located in the Social Responsibility >> Energy for Tomorrow section.
http://www.conocophillips.com/social/energy_tomorrow/coloradopurchase.htm
I haven't posted an official comment policy, but long time readers know that I publish most comments, even the ones that aren't particularly nice to my profession. The line is drawn when comments become personal, racial, sexist, or otherwise inappropriate. I'm not sure if I've ever published comments with profanity before. In this case I found myself on the fence. The comment by "bb" so perfectly captured what I imagine is a fairly common, but uninformed, reaction in Boulder.
Since I can't selectively edit a comment, I've rewritten bb's comment below (profanity redacted).
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Are u kidding me?? Conoco Phillips?? ****, what a disappointment. I don't give a damn about how happy business people, real estate agents, and homeowners are going to be with Conoco Phillips here. I would MUCH rather have a tech company providing jobs and economic stimulus in our community than a **** oil and gas company.
Typical Boulder response indeed. But, Boulder people don't use gas or electricity produced by burning coal. There are fairies in the foothills, and their tears at the injustice in the world is harnessed to produce a ceaseless supply of clean, cheap fuel for Boulderites (but not Lafayetters, Erieans, or Longmontians, hehe). Idiot.
The need for energy exists in Boulder as much (more so! check it out!) as anywhere else. Why not have some energy companies here in the community? It's better to have a chance to discuss these issues with the people engaged in energy exploration, production, and research, and right here in our backyard, as our neighbors.
Hey guys,
Thanks for the censorship. Last I checked, freedom of expression is still (relatively) respected in this country, and that includes emphatic speech that uses curse words. Chill out with the reactionary responses. I am a regular commenter on this blog, and yes, I'm pissed that C-P, an arrogant oil and gas co., is the "great hope" that purchased the storagetek site. And, I'm pissed that they have plans to pave it over, and that developers are already contacting community officials asking to buy up the surrounding land to build more unsightly housing developments, and that they will exacerbate the already aggravating congestion along the corridor. Our longterm interests in this community are and should be about sustainability that's NOT solely economic. And if offend, tough sh*t (is that better?).
Woa, tough guy. Easy on my fragile ears and intellect. I think you can safely assume that Osman and many of the readers of this blog are in favor of sustainable solutions. Should you prefer to whine and cry after a deal is done, that is certainly your right. However, what's done is done, and the truth is that the energy companies will need to be at the table in order to find solutions to our sustainability problems that don't involve shutting down our economy, starving millions of people, and causing general chaos throughout our country and others. Boulderitos need to realize that in order for sustainable mechanisms to be reallysuccessful they must be transferable over greater scales, over entire societies, include larger and larger amounts of people and resources. To ignore the industries that provide you your food and shelter is truly foolish.
On a local note, Boulder shoulders a great deal of the blame for the sprawl in eastern Boulder County. Instead of (logically) building a great, compact, sustainable, dense county seat (city), they elected a long time ago to close the gates, build a mote (open space) and force those who choose to live in Boulder County to do so away from the region's main job source.
"I would MUCH rather have a tech company providing jobs and economic stimulus in our community than a **** oil and gas company." Yeah - let the poor folks in Commerce City or somewhere choke on the fumes, just truck the gas up to Boulder under the cover of night. Boulder NIMBY.
maybe the big "tech" companies read these posts and know what kind of dumb a*&% live around here and that is why they steer clear. If a big tech company wanted to come-then they would. But so far-they are not choosing to do so. It seems to me to be a kind of almost a prejudice idea for people to say that there should only be one type of business that is good enough for Boulder and that whole area. WEll guess what "BB"-they are coming and there is not much you can do. So deal-shut up or plan on moving out of the county if you don't like it because that is just too darn bad. I for one am glad-and although it WILL create some headaches-it is great that we live in an area that people want to come to and are happy to be in. The nation is CHOKING in many areas as far as real estate goes-and we are lucky enough to have been given a little boon to our area. I am choosing to stay positive and hope that it is mostly good. And dare I say, it will be nice to have a little ethnicity in the area with all of the people coming in from all over the world.
Lafayette DOES need a boost-BUT-they better be ready to give people a reason to come. Right now-there is not enough going one. And I know-I live there!
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