AURORA, Colo. — Buckley Space Force Base boasted a $2.6 billion economic impact on the surrounding community in 2024, military officials announced during a State of the Base address on Wednesday.
"We are so dependent on space for our way of life. The easiest example is the Global Positioning System, which, you can do anything from order a pizza to get your Uber, but that obviously started as a military capability," said Colonel Heidi Dexter, Commander of Space Base Delta 2 at Buckley Space Force Base.
On Wednesday, Colonel Dexter helped highlight the base's accomplishments over the past year. According to officials, the base generated a $2.6 billion economic impact on the surrounding community in 2024 — an increase of $50 million from 2023.
"For those of us who live and work in the community, we are shopping locally and spending our money throughout the local community, but we also create jobs through some of the construction projects that [Buckley Space Force Base has] ongoing. So I think they estimated about 20,000 jobs were created last year in the local Aurora community," said Colonel Dexter.
The report estimates that $32.7 million was spent on construction and $17.7 million on materials, supplies, and other services in Aurora. It also estimates the value of the 20,072 jobs created at $707 million.
"There is so much competition on so many fronts, in Aurora [and] the complete Denver metro area. Defense contract is a huge part of that, but having the opportunity for the base to pour that much in when it comes to engagement, that's the big thing that people want," said Robert Devall, director of military affairs at the Aurora Chamber of Commerce.
Devall said it's a two-way street: The base supports the Aurora community, and the city does what it can to support the base and military family members.
"Aurora itself, I think it does a pretty good job identifying itself as a military community. I would say the larger Denver metro actually is missing an opportunity [in] identifying in the same way because there are a lot of people that work at Buckley that live in Denver. Spouses work in Denver. There are [National Guard] personnel across the whole metro area that people can actually participate in the programs that we're doing to get that perspective to better serve," said Devall.
Denver7 is committed to making a difference in our community by standing up for what's right, listening, lending a helping hand and following through on promises. See that work in action, in the videos above.