January 31, 2012 12:10 AM UTC

Hancock Rolls Out Economic Development Plan

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• by: Colorado Pols

In tandem with his recently announced “peak performance” initiative focusing on slimming down city government, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock today announced his plans to jumpstart economic development in the Mile High City.

DENVER — Mayor Michael B. Hancock today launched JumpStart 2012, a new economic development strategy for Denver that will focus the City’s efforts on creating world-class business

opportunities for Denver’s companies, residents and neighborhoods.

“To create a sustainable Denver, we must find new ways to strengthen the local market,” Mayor Hancock said. “JumpStart 2012 will rev up Denver’s economic engine to drive private

sector growth and job creation throughout the City and propel Denver’s Office of Economic Development into the 21st Century.”

The 21-page JumpStart 2012 strategic plan identifies major, immediate steps the Office of Economic Development (“OED”) will take this year to bolster business development, community lending and investment and workforce development.

“We are charting a new, more targeted, course for economic development in Denver by setting in motion this focused strategy, one that will provide more accountability and better customer

service,” said OED Executive Director Paul Washington. “JumpStart 2012 goes beyond infrastructure and buildings. It is a pathway to strong families, integrated communities and self sufficiency.”

JumpStart 2012 outlines seven pillars of initiatives, goals and partners that the OED will collaborate with to implement the plan.

The seven pillars are:

• Business Retention – Retain and strengthen Denver-based companies.

• Small Business Advocacy – Create an environment to help small businesses thrive through collaboration with public, private and nonprofit sectors.

• Business Recruitment – Increase the number and quality of companies that relocate to Denver.

• Sustainable Neighborhood Development – Drive strategic investment in neighborhoods hardest hit by the recession to develop eco-friendly affordable housing and sustainable

economic development.

• Business Lending – Make the Business Lending Program a key tool for advancing economic development strategy.

• Key Strategic Projects – Execute strategic projects and small business opportunity initiatives to maximize the positive economic impact on the City of Denver.

• Workforce Development – Establish Denver as the city with the most highly skilled and productive workforce.

You can download the entire glossed-up plan here.

This is an ambitious one year plan for Hancock, but it certainly goes a great length in advancing his campaign talking point of making Denver a “world-class” city.

While JumpStart 2012’s intention to “rev-up Denver’s economic engine” sounds pretty broad, the plan goes into great detail on each of the initiative’s “7 pillars.” Sure, the whole thing sounds a lot like a Six Sigma training program, but there’s quite a bit of substance hidden beneath the buzzwords.

The first engine we think Hancock should jumpstart? The one on the lawnmowers at the City and County building.