What Others Say...

Fifteen years ago Littleton, Colorado took a different approach to its economic development attraction and retention strategies and cut out incentive packages in favor of growing its own companies through a unique set of business tools. The Littleton toolbox includes subscriptions to a series of database services, which gives companies access to 100,000 publications worldwide. Other services include tracking industry trends and legislation generating marketing lists, conducting brochure development and creating marketing and business strategies.

—Business Xpansion Journal

Summing up the City of Littleton's financial standing after the annual City Council workshop in January 2004, Mayor John Ostermiller said council and city staff would be working toward keeping the city on an even keel. The city's fairly stable financial situation could be attributed to Chris Gibbons, directory of business/industry affairs, and City Manager Jim Woods and the economic program they developed in the late '80s called economic gardening.

—Littleton Independent

The New Economy Project pioneered the idea of 'economic gardening,' or growing jobs locally by creating a nurturing environment for entrepreneurs using information technology. The program provides sophisticated information services as well as tracking best ideas, best practices, best technology for the high growth three percent of all companies which provide eighty percent of all jobs in this country.

—Nations Cities Weekly

	Littleton's New Economy Project has won the Innovation Award in the economic-development category from the National League of Cities. The project pioneered the idea of 'economic gardening'—creating jobs by offering customized services and incentives tailored to the special needs of technology-driven business.
	—Denver Rocky Mountain News

...instead of just watching the statistics worsen, the community went on the offensive, launching an unusual economic development program that involved making city resources—including its technology tool chest—available to struggling businesses. The city's unemployment rate has been cut in half, due in part, many believe, to the 'New Economy' project.
—Civic.com

The city of Littleton, Colorado's New Economy Program (NEP) is one of the few city economic development programs in the United States that actively incorporates leading-edge research in economics and psychology. NEP has pragmatically applied leading-edge research to craft a strategy to nurture high-growth, entrepreneurial small businesses. And, it has shifted from offering education and training to providing value-added information services to encourage this growth.

—U.S. Economic Development Administration

Refusing to offer financial incentives is a cornerstone of Littleton's unconventional economic-development strategy. The city won't grant tax breaks or pose in corporate beauty contests. It doesn't offer startup classes or micro-enterprise loans.

Instead, the economic development department aids local entrepreneurs by acting like an outsourced business development unit. It's based on the concept of 'economic gardening' rather than 'economic hunting.' By this, the city attempts to grow jobs through entrepreneurial activity instead of recruiting them.

It's working. Littleton, population 43,000, has added 12,000 jobs in the past 15 years. Retail sales taxes have soared to $20 million from $6 million in 1987.

—Denver Rocky Mountain News

	Littleton's economic gardening program is on the international map. Recently, about 15 people from as close as Steamboat Springs and as far away as Australia attended a seminar at the Littleton Community Center to learn more about Littleton's program of nurturing small businesses rather than offering incentives to attract large businesses.
	—Littleton Independent

At a time when many local governments seek to lure new business to their communities by offering incentives and big tax breaks, the city of Littleton is something of a maverick—it prefers to grow its own.

'We fundamentally believe helping entrepreneurs is the best way to help the economy,' said Chris Gibbons, director of Littleton's Business/Industry Affairs office.

To that end, the municipality engages in what Gibbons calls 'economic gardening.' In its simplest form, economic gardening involves cultivating local businesses by providing them with the tools and the information they need to be successful and grow.

—South Metro Business Ledger

You won't catch Littleton city officials waving a fistful of dollars or flaunting a lengthy list of incentives in an attempt to lure the Nikes of the world. No, they believe in growing their own rather than casting about for the big one. It's a development philosophy dubbed 'economic gardening,' and the basis of the city's New Economy Program, which since its launch in 1990 has attracted the interest of economic developers both nationally and worldwide.

—Colorado Business

This Denver suburb's New Economy Project is the first urban field test for the Center for the New West's 'gardening' concept of economic development. The aim of gardening is to grow jobs locally. Gardening is an alternative to 'hunting' or 'smokestack chasing,' the strategy of trying to recruit companies from the outside with tax breaks and other incentives, a costly tactic that often yields few jobs.

—Points West Chronicle

	One year ago, the city of Littleton officially changed its philosophy on economic development and embarked on a project that has already gained recognition from other cities. Littleton is determined to write the new manual for economic development in cooperation with the Center for the New West, a research and consulting organization headquartered in Denver.
	—The Littleton Times

Sheila Jaszlics sits at her desk, hands quietly folded, looking for all the world like a librarian. Behind her is an overblown color photo of an M-1 Abrams tank. Sheila owns a software company that writes battlefield management programs for the army. Her five person company is one of 36 in Littleton that have embarked on an economic development program that is an unconventional as the backdrop picture. Called Economic Development in the New Economy, the effort is a joint project with the Center for the New West to demonstrate that small, local innovative companies produce more jobs than would be gained through smokestack chasing. It is an intriguing approach that, if successful, may prove to have wide application throughout the west.

—Western Planner

	Unlike most economic development departments, Littleton's has no interest in recruiting—or 'nailing hides to the wall.' Instead, it focuses on helping existing businesses in Littleton become more competitive by helping them get whatever information they need to develop markets, revamp management structures or re-tune production processes.
	—Governing Magazine

The Business/Industry Affairs department in Littleton, Colorado uses databases and research to develop competitive intelligence for its local businesses. The city's economic development department subscribes to seven commercial computer database services. It also subscribes to Dun & Bradstreet's list of 14 million businesses in the country and various geographical and real estate information systems.

—BusinessWeek

	Deep within City Hall, three Littleton employees are busy trying to destroy the timeless belief that government isn't good for business. And they just might succeed. The department has taken a relatively small budget and created what Littleton officials agree is one of the city's most successful programs.
	—Littleton Independent

The City of Littleton has combined the research skills of a reference librarian with sophisticated information technology to help Littleton companies stay competitive. The program seeks to bring Littleton companies information about the best ideas, practices, and technology that are directly applicable to their problems and to provide this information in timely and cost effective manner.
—Hubert Humphrey Institute of the University of Minnesota

While the City of Denver and the State of Colorado consider massive incentives to lure the United Airlines maintenance facility to the state, Littleton has embarked on a different course for economic development. In conjunction with the independent Denver think tank Center for the New West, Littleton has developed an economic development program that stresses the enhancement of existing businesses rather than offering subsidies or incentives to new ones.

—Up the Creek Journal

The council was convinced the city could never compete for big corporate tenants with downtown Denver or the Denver Tech Center—a high-rise edge city. So it began planning an economic development program to build on the city's strengths: a large number of small businesses; good schools, parks and neighborhoods; and an exceptionally well-educated workforce.
—ICMA MIS Report

D & N Industries, a commercial cleaning company, needed to know more about its customers so the city of Littleton's economic development people gathered a focus group of office building managers to research how D & N could better serve commercial clients. Neither of these efforts will garner the same headlines as a multimillion-dollars incentive package. But that's OK with Littleton, which turned its back on standard economic development procedures 18 months ago when it embarked on The New Economy Project. This intensive pilot program, a joint effort with Denver think tank The Center for the New West, is geared to helping local businesses flourish.

—Denver Business Journal

A production crew from ABC television spent a day-and-a-half in Littleton this week filming three area businesses and interviewing the city's economic development staff. The hours of film will hopefully be turned into a two-and-half-minute segment on Peter Jennings's World News next week.
—The Littleton Report

	Kudos to the city of Littleton's business/industry affairs department whose economic development efforts are directed towards the city's existing businesses rather than bribing businesses to locate within Littleton.
	—Up the Creek Journal

AVT, a Littleton manufacturer of specialized battery products, has been ranked number 288 on the INC. 500 Fastest-Growing Privately Held Companies in America list. The INC 500 represents the best of the New Economy—small, local, fast growing companies. AVT is a participant in this year's New Economy Program in Littleton and will be the subject of a 'best practices' video later on.
—The Littleton Report

Bob and Debi Tipton started their computer system integration company seven years ago with $1,000 in a cramped Littleton apartment. Today R.S. Tipton employs 15 people and serves 350 clients in the United States and abroad. The Tiptons' story is not unusual in Littleton. A growing number of entrepreneurs in the city are building from the ground up new industries based on high technology and skilled workers.

—Littleton Independent

The Docking Institute recognized six telecommunications success stories at the Tri-State Initiative Economic Development Conference. The businesses were honored for their innovative use of telecommunications and information technologies in creating jobs. The City of Littleton, Colorado pioneered a new approach to economic growth. Using CD-ROM's, the Internet, and other resources, the staff can find information and solutions to most business problems within hours.

—Sprint/United Telephone

The New Economy Project of Littleton's B/IA department has been the subject of widespread media attention of late. The most exciting news concerning the novel approach to economic development reached the City two weeks ago, when the program received its highest accolade thus far. It was named a semifinalist in the annual Innovations in State and Local Government Awards Program sponsored by the Ford foundation and administered by the JFK School of Government at Harvard.

—The Littleton Report