ENR Mountain States has chosen its annual Owners of the Year, two entities whose leadership and projects are transforming their communities. The Owner of the Year can be a public or private entity and is selected based on the organization's work under development, regional impact and other measurements. In Colorado, Wyoming and the Dakotas, ENR editors have selected Denver Water as Owner of the Year, and on the Intermountain side, our choice is the City of Boise.

Both entities will be featured in the April issue of ENR Mountain States. Here’s a preview of some of their work in progress:

City of Boise

Downtown Boise is undergoing a $340-million transformation with a blend of hotels, mixed-use residential spaces and new streetscape projects expected to break ground over the next 12 to 15 months. The City of Boise recently implemented its new Modern Zoning Code to ensure the city’s future design and development projects uphold the character of Boise while creating more walkable, dynamic spaces.

Additionally, the city has set an ambitious goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, with all city government facilities and operations fueled by 100% clean energy by 2035. Topping the region’s list of large project starts is the $7.5-billion Micron chip plant, which broke ground in Boise in October 2023.

Denver Water

Denver Water expects to invest about $1.9 billion into its water system during the next 10 years. Its $531 million Gross Reservoir project will be the largest raise of an existing dam using roller-compacted concrete in the world. You can read about this Kiewit, Stantec, AECOM project in our ENR Mountain States story from last May.

Meanwhile, Denver Water’s lead reduction program is the biggest public health campaign in the utility’s history. In 2022, Denver Water successfully sought $76 million federal funding to support the program and the money has allowed the utility to increase the pace of the replacement work, adding 3,000 to 5,000 lead service line replacements to the 2023 and 2024 work schedules, beyond the 4,500 already scheduled for replacement during each of those years. The utility is also upgrading and modernizing the 1930s era northern portion of the Denver Water system, building a new water treatment plant, installing a new pipeline and redeveloping the Moffat Treatment Plant.

These two innovative owners will be featured in the April 15 issue of ENR Mountain States, along with a ranked list of the region’s largest project starts in 2023. If you have a project that should be included in this annual list, reach out to Mountain States Editor Jennifer Seward, sewardj@enr.com.