Benchmark plans to bench Agilent site

After almost a year of speculation, Benchmark Electronics broke its silence about plans for the company’s Loveland site.

In its third-quarter filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company revealed that it would “cease significant operations” in Loveland by the end of the year. Ellen Sykora, a spokeswoman for the company, said that means the whole site will be closed.

The company’s SEC filing showed that it would incur about $5 million in restructuring charges for the year, largely due to the closure of the Loveland site as well as a facility in Leicester, England.

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Sykora said she was unaware of the number of employees who will be affected by the move and was not able to provide that information prior to this publication. Past estimates have put employment around 100.

In 2003, Agilent Technologies moved a portion of its product manufacturing for the Automated Test Group to Benchmark. Since then, the company has leased 139,000 square feet at Agilent’s Loveland campus. A 2005 SEC filing indicated that the Loveland facility provided systems integration services.

When Agilent announced last year that it planned to consolidate from its original cluster of buildings into a standalone building on the site, the future of Benchmark in Loveland was called into question.

Up until now, Benchmark has kept tight-lipped on its plans. Sykora said that the decision to close the Loveland site was tied directly to its loss of the space.

Agilent put its property on the market in mid-November after completing its employee relocation in October. Agilent’s 600 Northern Colorado employees now inhabit a single, detached building on the campus.

For sale

The company wants to sell four buildings totaling 811,000 square feet, as well as about 300 acres of undeveloped land. The sale could present a daunting task.

“At the present time, Agilent has decided to sell it as one piece,´ said Tom Reznik, a broker with Realtec Commercial Real Estate Services, who is listing the property.

Despite the smaller market posed by a package deal, Reznik is seeing quite a bit of activity.

“There’s been fairly significant interest,” he said. “Especially for the time of the year.”

Before the building can be reoccupied, its must first be emptied.

“All tenants in the buildings for sale are expected to be out of the facility by about mid-year 2007,´ said Agilent spokeswoman Jean Mooney.

Benchmark isn’t the only company that will be affected by Agilent’s property sale. The site is also home to Addison Avenue Credit Union, the credit union for employees of Hewlett-Packard Co. and Agilent.

“We’re planning to move into a community location in Loveland by mid-year 2007,” echoed Kathy Erickson, manger of the Loveland Addison Avenue Credit Union.

The credit union has not yet announced where that location might be. It will first notify its employees, then members and finally make a public announcement. Erickson expects the transition off campus to be a smooth one.

“Addison Avenue has already opened two community branches in California in similar situations,” she explained.

The move will not result in any changes in service or membership for the institution.