LONGMONT

Longmont is Boulder County's second-most populous city and it offers businesses room to grow at an affordable price. The city lies in the northeast part of the county, with 20-minute access to Boulder via the Diagonal Highway and 45-minute access to Denver and Fort Collins. The city has become one of the main hubs for computer and data storage in the United States, home to Seagate Technology LLC, Western Digital Corp. and more than 20 other IT hardware companies. Longmont also has several industry clusters with employment exceeding 500 including software, biotech, business services, semiconductors and food processing.

CITY PROFILE

Square Miles: 22.3
Population: 87,850
Households: 35,000
Median household income: $57,060
Median home sales price: $220,000
School district: St. Vrain Valley School District
Top private employer: Longmont United Hospital (1,238)
Top public employer: St. Vrain Valley School District (2,238)
Electricity: Longmont Power & Communications

Real estate prices - both commercial and residential - can be nearly half of the prices in nearby Boulder. There are a variety of mostly single-family home neighborhoods, including Prospect New Town, a sustainable "new urbanism" neighborhood with a mix of old-style and modern-style homes located just minutes from downtown Main Street, a retail and restaurant area. There are plenty of additional retail options in Longmont, including the soon-to-be-redeveloped Twin Peaks Mall, numerous boutique shops and big-box stores such as Target, Best Buy and Home Depot spread throughout the city.

Longmont has its own recreation center, cultural theater, one private and three public golf courses and an outdoor sports complex at Sandstone. Longmont United Hospitbal, one of four hospitals in Boulder County, provides a full range of top-rannked medical care.

The St. Vrain Valley School District provides kindergarten through 12th grade public education throughout the city and Front Range Community College's Boulder County campus is based here.

The city of Longmont offers a variety of business incentives for new and expanding companies, recovering 30percent in building permit fees, 50 percent of personal property taxes as well as a number of sales tax incentives.