Many of you have heard recently about the projected budget shortfalls faced by the city. Given this backdrop, and as the city enters the budget season for 2026, I felt the timing was appropriate to share some positive economic news.

After nearly two years of ignoring the importance and potential power of the economic engine surrounding the airport, Mayor Yemi Mobolade finally signed an agreement allowing as much as 600 megawatts of electricity to be brought to the airport and Peak Innovation Park, the master planned business park owned by the airport.

While 600 megawatts sounds like a lot, the city of San Jose, Calif., recently announced its plans to bring 2,000 megawatts online to serve its booming data center hubs. Colorado Springs might not be interested in courting a lot of data centers, but being able to serve the needs of at least some who work in support of local military installations is very important. We are most focused on attracting high-tech manufacturers and other industrial users who provide a large number of high-paying jobs.

This development agreement, which represents a $58 million investment by the city and another $164 million investment from Colorado Springs Utilities, will induce nearly $1.3 billion in capital investment from the business industry over the next several years. That’s a 485% return on investment.

Because our general fund collects a 2% sales and use tax, that $1.3 billion in private investment will yield about $26 million flowing directly to city coffers each year. For context, that’s twice the size of the budget deficit the mayor is struggling with.

And none of this considers the economic churn generated by the nearly 1,000 high-paying jobs that are anticipated to accompany the capital investment. These new residents will be buying houses, furnishings, new cars, and shopping at local stores and restaurants — all of which will create compounding economic benefits to the region.

It has been estimated that the economic benefit driven by Peak Innovation Park will be in excess of $3 billion, or a nearly 6% boost to the Gross Metropolitan Product of the region.

And just to provide a little context to the importance of the agreement the city entered into, Peak Innovation is courting 11 major employers, four of which would have immediately been lost to other cities, had the power agreement not been signed. Those four deals alone represent almost 185 acres of land sales at Peak Innovation and about 65% of the anticipated job creation. Additionally, putting the agreement in place has allowed the city and its partners to put on a nationwide marketing blitz to actively pursue other large employers who are hungry for high-power demand.

It’s about time a good decision was finally made by the mayor. The two years he delayed signing this economic development agreement cost our city and our economy two-years worth of expanded prosperity, but the good news is that now, finally, Peak Innovation Park has the infrastructure it needs to succeed.

We must continue to call for sound economic decisions from the mayor, which include investing in things such as the Downtown Clean and Safe program, which is also expected to generate a significant return on investment by getting upstream of homelessness, drug abuse, mental health and other issues that are important to us all.

Brian Risley serves as president pro tem of the Colorado Springs City Council. An architect and small-business owner, he is a native of Colorado Springs.