Metro Denver has failed to snag the corporate headquarters of CenturyLink, allowing the big fish that swallowed up Qwest Communications and Level 3 Communications to keep swimming in the small pond of Monroe, La.
“CenturyLink’s rise to prominence as one of the world’s most successful technology firms tells a uniquely Louisiana story,” Gov. Jon Bel Edwards said in a statement Tuesday announcing the Fortune 200 company would remain in Monroe through at least 2025.
“We prize CenturyLink’s contributions to our way of life in Louisiana, to the thousands of families the company has supported for generations, and to the new generation of technology professionals in Louisiana who will proudly carry the company’s banner into the future,” he added.
At his side during a news conference at CenturyLink’s headquarters on Tuesday was the company’s CEO Jeff Storey, a Boulder resident, who had been CEO of Level 3 Communications in Broomfield before it was acquired by CenturyLink in November 2017.
“CenturyLink is pleased to reaffirm our commitment to Louisiana,” Storey said. “As we continue to evolve into a leading global technology company, our talented employees in northeast Louisiana will continue to play important roles in our transformation. A highly trained workforce is key to our continued success.”
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To put what happened in context, metro Denver has 2.9 million residents and is considered a hot spot nationally for attracting both millennials and tech workers. Monroe is a city of 48,000 people that is smaller than it was in the early 1990s. Commerce City and Parker each have more residents than Monroe.
Denver International Airport is the nation’s fifth busiest with the fourth largest domestic flight network. Monroe residents have to drive 300 miles to reach a comparable transportation hub in Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport or 250 miles to get to New Orleans.
And while the landline telecom business was built up in Monroe decades go, the company’s survival now depends on the fiber backbone built around the nation and globe with Colorado expertise.
Luring away CenturyLink under the previous CEO Glen Post, a Louisianan to the core, wasn’t going to happen. But Storey knows the Denver area and offered an inside advantage.
J.J. Ament, CEO of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp, said the company did not indicate it wanted to switch headquarters, and Michelle Hadwiger, the state’s deputy economic development director, couldn’t comment on the status of any negotiations with prospects not under contract.
“To my knowledge, the company was not seeking to relocate the HQ office at this time, though we’d always be delighted to have them. We’re proud of CenturyLink’s long history and commitment in Colorado, their talent, leadership, and spirit of innovation. They are important to us, and we want them to be very successful,” Ament said.
Louisiana’s current incentives to CenturyLink were set to expire in 2020, and officials in the state were concerned that Storey hadn’t relocated to Monroe. They pushed hard to lock the company in.
Denver was on the other end of that scenario last year. Chipotle Mexican Grill and several hundred corporate-level jobs left Denver, for Newport Beach, Calif., where the new chief executive Brian Niccol lived in what observers referred to as a classic case of “CEO preference.”
Although corporate headquarters are increasingly concentrating in large metropolitan areas, it is possible for small cities like Monroe to compete and hang on to prized companies, said Tom Stringer, practice leader for site selection and incentives at BDO.
“There is nothing fun about moving. Moving is difficult. It is a harder decision to move than it is to stay, especially if you are comfortable,” Stringer said. “I think smaller cities can compete. There are a lot of value propositions they can bring to the table.”
Graduates of the nation’s top tech universities may not champ at the bit to move to Monroe. But Louisiana will grant up to $2 million to Louisiana Tech University, the University of Louisiana at Monroe and Grambling State University to boost their ability to provide graduates with the skills CenturyLink is looking for.
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Louisiana offered CenturyLink $17.5 million in economic development incentives, conditioned on the company staying in Monroe through 2025, according to local news reports. But Colorado has done bigger packages for smaller companies.
The Colorado Economic Development Commission last month awarded $27.8 million in tax incentives to a Bay Area tech company called Checkr that is looking at Denver as a possible second headquarters with 1,472 net new jobs.
If CenturyLink had become a Colorado company, it would rank as the state’s fifth largest with a market value of $13.4 billion. CenturyLink services are available to about 90 percent of the state’s population, the greatest penetration of any state it serves.
The company employed 45,000 workers last year, with about 6,500 based in Colorado and 2,200 based in Louisiana, primarily in Monroe.
