Fort Collins city manager Atteberry to be named Entrepreneur of the Year by Colorado State’s Everitt Real Estate Center

Fort Collins City Manager Darin Atteberry will be given the Entrepreneur of the Year Award  by the Everitt Real Estate Center at the College of Business at Colorado State University.

The award  will be presented at the 17th Annual Northern Colorado Real Estate Conference, Monday, Oct. 7, at the Embassy Suites at The Ranch in Loveland. It recognizes Atteberry’s work in attracting and retaining businesses in Fort Collins.

Atteberry has guided the city’s efforts to build the North College Marketplace and redevelop the Foothills Mall. Atteberry and the city also succeeded in keeping Woodward’s world headquarters in town. He led negotiations for the new headquarters campus at the southeast corner of Lemay and Lincoln avenues near downtown Fort Collins.

The site is partially bordered on the south and east by the Cache la Poudre River, and Woodward plans to donate about 30 acres along the river to the city for restoration as a natural area and for use in the city’s recreational trail system.

With the number of projects aimed at revitalizing the city, Atteberry was an easy choice for the award, according to Eric Holsapple, executive director of the Everitt Real Estate Center.

“The reality is that the City of Fort Collins has been very entrepreneurial of late under the direction of Darin Atteberry,” Holsapple says. “His vision for the city, and then making it happen, has really made Fort Collins the place to be.”

Holsapple is not alone in his assessment.

“Darin has an ability to blend the necessity of the political environment in which he works with the flexibility of the private sector,” University of Colorado Health President Roulon Stacey says. “Given his unique ability, he is able to create solutions that no one else has that I have ever seen in public administration ever accomplish.

“He has independently led the city through a performance excellence process that has established Fort Collins as one of the highest performing cities in the country,” Stacey adds.

Curt Richardson, founder and chairman of Otterbox in Fort Collins, echoes the sentiments of the others.

“Darin’s commitment to, and understanding of, the heart and soul of Fort Collins is a huge reason that we live and work in one of the best places in the world,” Richardson says. “He was instrumental in facilitating the continued growth of OtterBox in Fort Collins, where our company culture has thrived and flourished. He just gets it. I trust him fully to always do what is the best for the city that hundreds of Otters and I call home.”

Admission to the real estate conference is $39 for EREC and NCCAR members, $78 for nonmembers and the public. Register for the event online at www.csubz.us/REconf. For more information, contact Ross Hilker at 970-491-1670.
 

 

About the Everitt Real Estate Center
The Everitt Real Estate Center, within the College of Business at Colorado State University, strives to continually improve its missions of providing valuable research to the real estate community, as well as provide outreach programs and networking opportunities for CSU real estate students.

 

The Center was established in October 2000, and has benefited from two major endowments – $1.5 million from Eric Holsapple and Don Marostica, and $2.4 million from Bob and Joyce Everitt and the Everitt Companies. The goal of the Center is to set the standard in teaching, research, service and extension for the benefit of Colorado and the real estate industry. The Center is supported solely from membership fees, event profits and donations.
 

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