Briefcase, April 1, 2016
BRIEFS
Aims Community College in Greeley received $2,000 from the Northern Colorado Manufacturing Partnership toward scholarship support for students who are pursuing an education in or related to manufacturing.
Boulder-based Spectra Logic was chosen by the Women’s Council, part of the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business, to underwrite its WILD Summit IV event on April 1. The summit brings together students and inspiring leaders at all stages of their professional careers to discuss trends driving tomorrow’s business opportunities and discover how women are influencing change.
SPONSORED CONTENT
Exploring & expressing grief
Support groups and events, as well as creative therapies and professional counseling, are all ways in which Pathways supports individuals dealing with grief and loss.
CLOSINGS
The entrepreneurs who opened coworking space Launch Longmont in the former Times-Call newspaper building at 350 Terry St., last year have pulled the plug on the venture.
CONTRACTS
Fort Collins-based Riverside Technology Inc. was selected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to be part of a team to support its efforts to provide accurate weather information to planners, emergency managers and other decision-makers. The contract, expected to run through 2017, calls for Riverside to take the lead and work with Centennial-based Integrity Applications Inc. in providing scientific, technical and management support to NOAA’s Technology, Planning and Integration for Observation program. Riverside and Integrity have been working with NOAA on this project since 2007, and Riverside has been awarded NOAA contracts for the past 25 years.
Technology developed by Boulder-based 3D at Depth was successfully used by London-based Subsea 7 LLC, a global contractor in seabed-to-surface engineering, construction and services, in mapping the ocean floor in the Gulf of Mexico that could increase overall efficiencies in offshore oil and gas applications. Subsea 7’s project stationed two of 3D at Depth’s SL1 systems to collect measurements simultaneously.
Denmark-based wind-turbine maker Vestas Wind Systems A/S (CPH: VWS), one of Northern Colorado’s largest employers, with factories in Windsor and Brighton, will provide 31 megawatts of its turbines to repower a wind farm in Germany and service it for 20 years. Vestas will supply nine of its V112-3.45-megawatt turbines for the repowering of the Odervorland wind power plant in Brandenburg, Germany. Deliveries of the turbines should start before the end of this year. Windpark Jacobsdorf GmbH & Co KG ordered the turbines.
EARNINGS
Gaiam Inc. (Nasdaq: GAIA) reported a loss of $11 million, or 48 cents per share, for its fiscal year 2015 that ended Dec. 31. The Louisville-based developer and marketer of yoga and fitness accessories, apparel and media reported a profit of $2.2 million on revenue of $57.9 million for its fourth quarter that ended Dec. 31. Gaiam reported revenue for the year of $188 million, a 12.8 percent increase compared with $167 million for 2014, when it lost $9 million.
The year-end earnings report from GlobeImmune Inc. (Nasdaq: GBIM) included a $2.8 million net loss. Company officials said the troubled Louisville-based pharmaceutical company continues to seek strategic transactions that would help maximize shareholder value. The company’s 2015 loss amounted to 48 cents per share, compared with a loss of $8.04 per share, or $23.4 million, in 2014. Revenue, meanwhile, climbed from $6 million in 2014 to $6.5 million in 2015. Revenue was boosted by $1.8 million in licensing revenue for its GI-6200 program with Celgene. Lower research and development expense and reduced salary expense because of layoffs last year also contributed to the net loss shrinking. The company finished 2015 with $9.9 million in cash and cash equivalents, enough, company officials said, to operate through the end of the year as it continues to look for strategic alternatives.
FLOOD RECOVERY
Demolition of the city of Boulder’s flood-damaged event center at Flatirons Golf Course has begun. Colt and Steel, a contractor in Boulder, was awarded the job that includes demolition and asbestos abatement on the existing 17,400-square-foot event center at 5706 Arapahoe Road. The project is expected to last through the end of May depending on weather conditions. The golf course will remain open during the construction period, according to Boulder Parks and Recreation, which operates the course. The site will be restored with turf and landscaping while city staff continues to analyze needs and opportunities for future development. The flood of September 2013 damaged the event center to the point it could not be used.
KUDOS
Bill Reynolds of The W.W. Reynolds Cos. and Stephen Tebo of Tebo Properties received the 2015 Dean Callan Recognition Award. Boulder-based commercial real estate firm Dean Callan & Co. hands out the award annually to a member or members of the community in memory of Dean Callan. The award recognizes recipients for professional service, integrity, community involvement and leadership. As part of the award, Dean Callan & Co. made a $2,500 charitable donation on behalf of each recipient, which both Reynolds and Tebo chose to match. They both chose the W.W. Reynolds Foundation as their charity of choice. The foundation is sponsoring the Hernando de Soto World Capital Markets program that will commence this fall at the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business.
Boulder-based Shelly D. Merritt was selected for inclusion in 2016 Colorado Super Lawyers, in the practice area of estate planning and probate; in Best Lawyers in America 2016 in the area of trusts and estates; and in U.S. News’ 2016 Best Lawyers under best law firms.
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
Green Alpha Advisors, a Boulder-based asset-management firm that focuses on eco-friendly companies, merged Nia Global Solutions’ investment strategy into the firm’s product offerings. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Kristin Hull, who co-founded the Nia Global investment strategy in Oakland, joined Green Alpha Advisors.
Littleton-based Oldcastle Precast Inc., which makes precast concrete- and plastic-building products, acquired the assets of Colorado Precast Inc., which has a manufacturing plant in Loveland. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Oldcastle Precast is part of Atlanta-based Oldcastle, the North American arm of Ireland-based building materials company CHR plc. It has an 86,000-square-foot plant in Littleton and 52,000-square-foot plant in Platteville. In 2006, Oldcastle Precast acquired Foothills Concrete Pipe and Products in Platteville and a year later expanded that plant. The Colorado Precast plant in Loveland at 1820 14th St. S.E. produces products such as storm-drain inlets, water cisterns and concrete vaults for water meters, electrical systems and fuel storage.
Guaranty Bancorp and Home State Bancorp, the holding companies for Guaranty Bank and Trust Co. and Home State Bank, signed a merger agreement that would create one of the largest Colorado-based bank holding companies. The combined company will have approximately $3.3 billion in total assets, $2.5 billion in deposits and $2.3 billion in total gross loans. The aggregate merger consideration is estimated at approximately $133.7 million, based on a $15.11 closing price of Guaranty Bancorp’s (Nasdaq: GBNK) common stock on March 15. Shareholders of Home State Bancorp will receive aggregate cash consideration of $35 million and 6,533,914 common shares of Guaranty Bancorp valued at approximately $98.7 million as of March 15. Home State Bank operates 11 branches with four in Loveland, three in Fort Collins and one each in Windsor, Berthoud, Longmont and Lafayette. Guaranty Bank has 26 locations, including three each in Fort Collins and Longmont, two in Greeley, and one each in Loveland, Boulder and Berthoud.
MOVES
Denver-based Blue Heron Specialty Products will move to the former home of Loveland Screw Machine in Berthoud. Boulder County investor Chuck Miller’s business CEM & Associates, which has an ownership stake in Blue Heron, bought the building at 1005 Second St., for $2.3 million. Blue Heron is an injection-molding company that makes plastic parts.
OPENINGS
Nebraska-based First Bank & Trust Co. received approval from the Colorado Division of Banking to open a loan-production office at 2114 N. Lincoln Ave. in Loveland, scrapping plans for an office at 1155 S. Main St. in Longmont.
A Longhorn Steakhouse, owned by Orlando, Fla.-based Darden Restaurants Inc. (NYSE: DRI), opened March 29 at 3450 S. College Ave. near the redeveloped Foothills shopping area in Fort Collins. The 5,825-square-foot, 200-seat restaurant is led by managing partner Richard Kerr.
Ron Brown opened the first Window Genie franchise location in Colorado on March 14 at 1668 Hemlock Way in Broomfield. The Cincinnati-based company’s services include window washing, pressure washing, gutter cleaning and re-securing, holiday light installation, chandelier cleaning and dryer-vent cleaning.
Construction delays continue to push back the opening of New Belgium Brewing’s taproom and brewery in Asheville, N.C., but company officials now have nailed down a specific opening day.
Fort Collins-based New Belgium said the Asheville “Liquid Center” — the 6,000-square-foot taproom at the new brewery — will open its doors May 2. The taproom originally was slated to open sometime in February.
University of Colorado Health on March 22 celebrated the opening of a freestanding emergency room at 2101 N. Main St. in Longmont with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and donated $5,000 to Longmont High School. The 7,000-square-foot UCHealth Emergency Room is a collaboration between UCHealth and Texas-based Adeptus Health Inc. (NYSE: ADPT), which operates First Choice emergency rooms.
Trent Newcomer, a veterinarian and owner of Front Range Veterinary Clinic in Fort Collins, has launched Velofix Colorado, a mobile bike-repair service in Fort Collins and Boulder. Newcomer has bought a franchise from Velofix, a franchisor of mobile bike-repair services based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Newcomer began offering service in Fort Collins and Boulder in February, and hopes to have service up and running in Denver in April.
Urban-gro, a Lafayette-based provider of products used by cannabis cultivators, is expanding sales efforts to the Southwest, opening an office in Phoenix to generate sales in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico.
Verizon Wireless opened its newest Smart Store on March 25 in the Village of the Peaks shopping center in Longmont.
PRODUCT UPDATE
Boulder-based Active Interest Media Inc. is creating a fishing show for television to complement its Anglers Journal magazine. Anglers Journal Television will be produced in conjunction with Warren Miller Entertainment and AIM Studios of Boulder, both subsidiaries of Active Interest Media. The show, which began production in January, will begin airing in July on the Discovery Channel’s Destination America network.
Longmont-based Oskar Blues Brewery launched Beerito, a Vienna Mexican lager. A launch party will be held at 4 p.m. April 8 at the Tasty Weasel Taproom, 1800 Pike Road in Longmont.
Fort Collins-based New Belgium Brewing launched Botanical Imperial IPA with essential oils from backyard botanicals, basil, sage and juniper, with Bravo, Cascade, Sterling, and Willamette hop varieties. It is available on draft now through mid-April.
The Intuicom RTK Bridge-X communications hub from Boulder-based Intuicom Inc., a supplier of wireless solutions for the precision agriculture and machine-control industries, now is compatible with all available precision guidance systems
SERVICES
Eagles Nest Storage, 1800 Delaware Place in Longmont, signed on as a neighborhood dealer for U-Haul Co. of Colorado, offering U-Haul trucks and support rental items.
The Weld County Office of Emergency Management will host a free Weather Spotter Training Class at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 5, at the Weld County Administration Building, 1150 O St. in Greeley. Contact Gracie Marquez at 970-304-6540 or gmarquez@weldgov.com to reserve a seat.
