Millennials driving growth.

• Position: ENERGY OUTLOOK - Brief article

Colorado has been building apartments like crazy in recent years, mostly in Denver. It's primarily because of all the millennial, those born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s. Some are born here, but others are drawn here by the lifestyle, the frothy brewpubs, the mountain resorts, sunshine and yes, perhaps, legalized marijuana, although that doesn't seem to be a central draw for many.

"We have five kids an hour turning 21 in Colorado and more than five kids a day moving to Colorado, which is responsible for 90,000 apartments," says Jeffrey L. Hawks, a 39-year veteran of the real estate business, who has been specializing in apartments for more than 30 of those years.

It's a far more robust market now than in the 1980s, says Hawks, vice chairman of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. He remembers that dark time well --and he doesn't see potential or the same kind of downturn now with the drop in energy prices. "It's not even close."

Energy is now responsible for only about 5 percent of jobs in Colorado. Many...