(FORTUNE Magazine) – Looking for a wonderful community in which to build your new plant or * headquarters? There's a great little Alpine city where houses are cheap, the work ethic intact, traffic jams virtually unknown, the schools good, taxes reasonable, the skiing wonderful, and the natural spring waters warm. Nope, it's not West Germany's Baden-Baden, but Colorado Springs (pop. 284,400), right in the U.S.A. Situated 6,035 feet above sea level in the aspen-covered Rockies, the Springs, as locals call it, has never been a better place to do business. The reason: It is in the early stages of recovery from a massive real estate and financial collapse. The savings-and-loan shambles hit Colorado Springs particularly hard. Its three biggest local thrifts, which held mortgages on about 25% of the real estate, are insolvent, as are many of the borrowers. All three S&Ls have been turned over to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. As a result, the government, which already owned military bases and the U.S. Air Force Academy, now probably owns more than half of the acreage in the county. Colorado Springs's real estate market, which was hotter than Houston's three years ago, is in limbo. It will remain that way until Congress passes a version of President Bush's S&L bailout plan, expected by July. After that, the FDIC will begin to sell its enormous national portfolio, which in the Springs includes industrial parks, office buildings, and apartments -- all of them in various stages of completion -- and chunks of unused pastureland. Developer Steve Schuck believes many of these properties will go for knockdown prices. He and other community and business leaders have been touring the U.S. trying to sell Colorado Springs to corporations as an ideal location, particularly for its affordable housing and office space. Rocky K. Scott, director of the economic development council, says that a West Coast aerospace company looking to relocate has added Colorado Springs to its short list. One big reason: no more long commutes.