OEDIT summit to spotlight rural economic growth in Trinidad
State officials will bring OEDIT’s rural growth summit to The Commons @ Space to Create on Aug. 21, putting Trinidad businesses, artists and employers in the room.
The Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade will bring its Outreach and Impact Summit to The Commons @ Space to Create in Trinidad on Aug. 21, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., putting Las Animas County at the center of a state economic development conversation.
The venue choice gives the summit a local stake from the start. Trinidad is not just hosting a state meeting site off U.S. 160 and Interstate 25, it is hosting it inside one of the city’s best-known creative spaces, where discussions about rural jobs, downtown redevelopment, entrepreneurship and workforce partnerships land close to the businesses and tenants most likely to feel the effects.
OEDIT describes Space to Create Colorado as the first state-driven initiative for affordable housing for artists and creative sector workers in the nation, and says the program helps communities develop affordable live-work and commercial spaces through predevelopment grant funding. That matters in Trinidad, where the city says its Space to Create Commons Business Development Incubator Program offers new businesses in the Commons free rent for the first three months and subsidized rent after that. The summit could put those tools in the same room as local employers and entrepreneurs who need lower startup costs and a path to long-term occupancy.
The state agency has already tied Trinidad and Las Animas County to several rural development efforts. OEDIT has highlighted the Rural Jump-Start Zone in Las Animas County, Space to Create, Proposition 123 land banking and equity funds, a tourism marketing grant, and work tied to Trinidad Lake’s International Dark Sky Place certification. It has also pointed to Trinidad as a host for the Colorado Creative Industries Summit on June 4 and 5, a sign that the city is showing up repeatedly in the state’s rural and creative-economy planning.
Las Animas County’s scale makes those discussions unusually consequential. The Southern Colorado Economic Development District says the county has nearly 15,000 residents and is the largest county by area in Colorado. It also notes the region has long depended on coal mining and gas production, with agriculture, especially ranching, another major part of the local economy. Against that backdrop, OEDIT’s FY2026 performance plan includes a goal focused on jobs created and retained in rural Colorado, the kind of metric Trinidad businesses and civic leaders will likely want to see matched by concrete programs, funding and technical help.
Hosted in Trinidad, the summit will test whether state economic development policy can move beyond broad rural messaging and produce specific opportunities for this corner of Southern Colorado.
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