Business in Arvada is sound, according to both the Arvada Economic Development Association (AEDA) and Henriksen Amplifiers.

During the current Economic Development Week — a national event created by the International Economic Development Council in 2016 — the AEDA showed off one of the various businesses that it has helped through its free business and commercial development services in the city.

That business, Henriksen Amplifiers, has been making ever-growing waves across the jazz community since 2006. Just last year, the Colorado-based business moved into a 8,500-square-foot manufacturing facility in the city with the help of the AEDA, according to owner Peter Henriksen.

AEDA is the city’s business-to-government liaison, working with commercial and small businesses, both new and existing, to help create new opportunities for employment and revenue in the seventh most populated city in the state.

“I don’t think we highlight the services nearly enough that all of the economic development organizations provide across the state,” Iza Petrykowska, executive director of AEDA, told The Denver Gazette.

These free services range from helping smaller businesses get licensed to getting manufacturers and large employers into Arvada and helping them navigate the shifting landscape of tariffs.

In 2024, AEDA saw a growth of 64 new businesses in Arvada and some long-time businesses, like Henriksen Amplifiers, expanding their space and adding employees, according to Petrykowska.

The AEDA is staffed by the city, but it is also on loan to a nonprofit board of 17 directors.

“That board provides us with their subject matter expertise on how we can allocate and look at programming and funding to support our businesses,” Petrykowska said.

“I’ve never heard of another city going to these lengths,” Henriksen said of Arvada.

Henriksen Amplifiers has a longstanding history in Colorado.

Henriksen grew up working summers at his father’s business, Henriksen Data Systems, across the street from the old Jolly Rancher candy factory.

Years later, Henriksen’s father, Bud Henriksen, called him with an idea: create a guitar amplifier for jazz musicians.

Henriksen initially giggled at the idea, thinking it was just his father’s pet project. But, after one of his father’s gigs, an audience member came up to ask what type of amp Bud was using, complimenting its sound.

Bud’s “amp” was a collection of electronic components plugged into a breadboard.

“I knew at that point he was on to something,” Henriksen said.

Eventually Henriksen’s father contacted him and asked him to quit his job. He obliged, and the two started making amplifiers out of their family garage in 2006.

After Bud’s passing a few years later, Henriksen continued on with the family business, eventually growing into the well-renowned manufacturer it is today, selling two different sizes of handmade amplifiers to both professional jazz musicians and enthusiasts like Frank Vignola and Howard Alden.

Though the headquarters bounced around metro Denver for a few years, it eventually landed back in Arvada and then, during COVID, had to move back into Adams County.

Last year, Henriksen decided he wanted to move back into Arvada for good, eventually finding his new location — which will allow for more manufacturing and the creation of new products.

“It’s a very collaborative environment,” he said of the city. “In a lot of cities, there are business people who are just really interested in protecting their own little corner of the universe. That isn’t always very productive, and everybody in Arvada seems to work together.”

Henriksen dipped back into the community, as well, acting as a member of AEDA’s retention committee and starting the city’s biennial Rocky Mountain Archtop Guitar Festival.

The retention committee, another one of AEDA’s efforts to bring business to the city that started last year, is a group of Arvada business owners who meet with new business owners for help and advice.

“Most of the time, we’re hermits,” Henriksen said of small business owners. “Most people don’t have contact with local government unless it’s bad.”

Henriksen said the AEDA was crucial in helping him move his business back to his home city, working as that liaison to local government.

He said his business fits in a gray area for zoning, being both industrial and retail.

“Those two things can’t coexist,” he said. “So, AEDA was really instrumental in making sure wherever we landed that it was okay for us to operate as we do, and so they were a great intermediary between us and zoning and helping us find properties that were coming up for sale or for lease.”

Even with success of acting as that tool for businesses, Petrykowska said there is still room to grow.

“Right now we have about 17% of residents who both work and live in Arvada,” she said. “How can we really amplify that live-work mentality of bringing more workforce here? That’s why primary employers and small businesses, alike, are important to really building out that workforce.”

Still, Petrykowska said the city has seen success in the past few years, where other businesses have moved out of Denver.

For example, Quantum Commons, a 70-acre technology campus in Arvada to help scale quantum computing technology for the marketplace, broke ground last year.

Plans call for a 10,000-square-foot building first at the Arvada campus for prototyping and manufacturing and a 17,000-square-foot lab, run by the Colorado School of Mines, with open access for budding quantum startups to help reduce the need for investor funds.

But, still, Arvada wants to keep the small-business vibe it has held for so long, as well.

“You don’t see a lot of franchises or chains there. The landlords and the property owners that we work with are very intentional,” she said. “We really focus on kind of nurturing and curating those small businesses”