October 12, 2012

Homes could rise at foot of Mount Sanitas

BOULDER — A 23-home development soon could be coming to the former home of the Boulder Junior Academy at the foot of Mount Sanitas.

Moonbeam Boulder LLC, a Boulder-based company, is planning the development of single-family detached homes for the 5.84 acre parcel at 2641 Fourth St. Moonbeam Boulder purchased the lot for $4.6 million in October 2011.

The development, which Moonbeam Boulder has named the Trailhead, is in the area where the historic Mapleton and Newlands neighborhoods meet the open space around the city of Boulder’s borders. The Mount Sanitas trailhead is on the property.

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For several decades, the property was the home of the Boulder Junior Academy, a school run by Seventh-day Adventists. The school building was demolished in 2008 after being sold in 2003 and 2006. Since its sale, several plans have been proposed for the site, including proposals to build homes or a senior living community. An area plan for the site was approved by the city in 2009.

Moonbeam Boulder’s plan has been through the concept review stage and is scheduled to come before the Boulder Planning Board Nov. 1. The architect is Surround Architecture Inc., a Boulder-based firm.

Representatives of Moonbeam Boulder could not be reached.

E SOURCE: E Source Companies LLC, a Boulder-based firm that provides research and advisory services for utilities and large energy consumers, announced it will relocate to a new headquarters in Boulder.

E Source will move to a 24,000-square-foot space at 1745 38th St. The company has signed a 10-year lease for the space and is anticipating moving in January.

E Source employs 70 people in Boulder and 80 in all, and has been in business for 25 years.

“Our company’s mission is to advance the efficient use of energy, and the new facility lets us ‘walk our talk,’ ” said Gary Sunshine, E Source’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, in the announcement. “We’re excited about the building, and the improvements will put us well above Boulder’s exacting energy codes.”

E Source conducts industry and market research that is used by more than 300 companies, said Wendy Bloechle, vice president for marketing and customer service. Its clients primarily are natural gas and electric utilities and companies that use large amounts of energy. E Source’s specialties include best-practices research in energy-efficiency, marketing and customer service, Bloechle said.

E Source and the building’s owner, Bancroft Capital, will cooperate in making extensive modifications to the property.

“We’re basically gutting the whole thing,” Bloechle said.

The decision to relocate primarily was driven by a desire to be able to upgrade a property as an example for clients. E Source’s staff size will not change much after the move, she said.

The property’s owner has been E Source’s landlord before and supports the company’s desire to remake the building.

“We came to appreciate the environmental focus of E Source when they were a tenant of ours at 3333 Walnut 10 years ago,” Bancroft Capital principal Joe Lamkin said in the release. “We jumped at the opportunity to welcome them back, and for the great opportunity to learn from them how to transform an older building into an energy-efficient showpiece … and that’s exactly what is happening at 1745 38th St.”

Gary A. Aboussie of The Colorado Group represented E Source. Becky Gamble with Dean Callan & Co. represented Bancroft.

E Source currently is located at 1965 N. 57th Court in Boulder, a 24,900-square-foot space.

REYNOLDS RELOCATING: Finding 10,000 square feet of office space in downtown Boulder is a challenge for everyone — even if you own about 300,000 square feet of it.

W.W. Reynolds Cos., one of the largest developers and owners of commercial real estate in Boulder, has relocated its headquarters to 1375 Walnut St., which is in the Colorado Building complex.

W.W. Reynolds owns the Colorado Building, best known for being the tallest building in downtown Boulder. It also built and owns the One Boulder Plaza complex, one of the newest commercial developments in Boulder.

W.W. Reynolds is leaving its old 7,500-square-foot space in One Boulder Plaza to accommodate the growth of Holland & Hart LLP, the Denver-based law firm that is expanding its Boulder office, W.W. Reynolds’ partner Jeff Wingert said.

“They’ve been in a growth mode and needed to expand,” Wingert said. “They were on the entire floor above us, and it made sense. It’s something developer/owners do to accommodate good tenants.”

W.W. Reynolds’ decision to take a space in the basement of the Colorado Building also was a pragmatic one.

“It was the only space in downtown Boulder that was big enough to house our operation,” Wingert said.

The company wanted to stay in a property it owns, but in the end it didn’t have much choice.

“There weren’t really any other spaces that would fit us anyway, even that were outside of our portfolio,” he said.

The lobby, basement and first and second floor offices at 1375 Walnut St. are going through an extensive makeover.

“We basically gutted the entire thing,” Wingert said.

While W.W. Reynolds is taking over the basement, Newton Running Co. Inc. has relocated its headquarters to the building’s first floor.

W.W. Reynolds is determining whether to upgrade the tower, which is at 1919 14th St., Wingert said.

REC REMODEL: The University of Colorado-Boulder has broken ground on a $63 million remodel and expansion of its Student Recreation Center.

The project includes a new outdoor pool, an indoor turf gym, an expanded space for weight and cardiovascular fitness training, more fitness studio space, a renovated ice rink and a new climbing gym and bouldering area.

When it is complete, the recreation center will be about 30 percent larger than the existing building. The remodel also includes about $25 million for deferred maintenance, including heating and cooling and fire safety upgrades.

Student leaders initiated the project. Funding will come from bond sales, which are to be repaid through student fees collected during a 25-year period. The center will remain open throughout the construction, which is scheduled to last through fall 2013.

Architectural design for the remodel and expansion was done by the Davis Partnership LLC architectural firm in Denver in conjunction with Cannon Design, based in Chicago. The general contractor in charge of the project is Saunders Construction Inc. of Centennial.

BARA TO MOVE: The Boulder Area Realtor Association has sold its 8,896-squre-foot office building at 4885 Riverbend Road to the Community Hospital Association for $2 million.

The association needed more room and got a good offer, president Mike Bader said.

“We kind of outgrew it,” he said. “Our building was a little bit small for us, and the opportunity was right. We figured this was a good time to move forward for us.”

It also found an eager buyer. The Community Hospital Association, the nonprofit that runs Boulder Community Hospital, has been buying property in the Riverbend subdivision, which is due east of its Foothills campus at 4747 Arapahoe Road. According to the Boulder County Assessor’s Office, the association already owned six of the 12 buildings in the subdivision.

Gail Mock of Mock Realty represented BARA in the sale, Bader said.

BARA will relocate in about four to six months to a new building it recently purchased at 4790 Table Mesa Drive, Bader said. The property cost $1.55 million.

According to BARA, B. Scot Smith and Jason Kruse of the Colorado Group represented BARA, and Hunter Barto of Dean Callan & Co. represented the seller, One Walden Building LLC.

SOPHONO: Hearing-device company Sophono Inc. has moved to a 10,000-square-foot location at 5744 Central Ave. in Boulder, nearly tripling its space.

Sophono received $7 million in venture-capital financing in August. The company has added 10 new employees in recent weeks and plans to add 10 more in marketing and manufacturing jobs by the end of the year, said Jim Kasic, company president and chief executive officer. Sophono currently has 22 employees.

Sophono previously was located at 3022 Sterling Circle, Suite 100, in Boulder.

Michael Davidson can be reached at 303-440-1943 or mdavidson@bcbr.com.

BOULDER — A 23-home development soon could be coming to the former home of the Boulder Junior Academy at the foot of Mount Sanitas.

Moonbeam Boulder LLC, a Boulder-based company, is planning the development of single-family detached homes for the 5.84 acre parcel at 2641 Fourth St. Moonbeam Boulder purchased the lot for $4.6 million in October 2011.

The development, which Moonbeam Boulder has named the Trailhead, is in the area where the historic Mapleton and Newlands neighborhoods meet the open space around the city of Boulder’s borders. The Mount Sanitas trailhead is on the property.

For several decades, the property was the…

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