City Grill

Dirk Draper
President & CEO
Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC

“We’re expecting another year of growth and development in the Colorado Springs region. Our economic strengths continue to be a highly educated workforce, great quality of life, affordable cost of living and job opportunities across industry sectors, including engineering, tech, cyber and health care,” Draper says. “Like many cities, we’re experiencing some growing pains, but that’s also offering our community the chance to strategically and collaboratively plan for the future. An example of this is City for Champions—four game-changing projects that include two downtown sports and events centers (a stadium and arena), the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum, the William J. Hybl Sports Medicine and Performance Center, and the Air Force Academy Gateway Visitor Center. In addition, the city is implementing SmartCOS, a series of public IoT projects ranging from LED streetlights that can detect snow levels and monitor traffic flow to new parking solutions that identify how many spaces remain in a [parking] garage and allow visitors to feed their meters remotely.”