Colorado has lost out on a bid for a Vestas Wind Systems research center.

Vestas, which opened a major blade-manufacturing plant earlier this year in Windsor, announced Monday it will locate the research facility in Houston.

Colorado was the other finalist, according to Tom Clark, executive vice president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp.

"Colorado made as good a run at it as we could," Clark said. "We thought we had the intellectual firepower to make it attractive to them, but it's always difficult to compete against the Texans because they bring a lot of money to the table."

The research facility is expected to employ at least 100.

Vestas makes blades for wind turbines at the Windsor factory, where the workforce is expected to reach 650. The Danish firm also recently announced it will build a $250 million wind-turbine-tower factory at an undisclosed Colorado location, creating 400 jobs.