Developer targets smaller user with Arena project

FORT COLLINS – Construction on a new office building should get under way in the next month or two at the Arena Office Park, on John F. Kennedy Parkway between Monroe Drive and Horsetooth Road.The project, developed by Mark Linder of Linder Real Estate & Development Co., mirrors a current trend in office construction in the city. That move has developers creating small, custom spaces for businesses that don’t need a lot of room, but which do want to vacate a less-ideal location or home-based office.
Not too far away, at 300 Boardwalk, the new Landings Office Park is targeting a similar market. The difference, however, is that the seven buildings there are being sold as office condos.
Linder’s building will be 3,500 square feet.
“I expect to divide it into three tenants,” he said. “My building is very small. I’m going for someone who wants to upgrade their space and location.
“There’s very few small-tenant spaces left,” Linder said. “And there’s little vacancy in the immediate area.”
Potential tenants include certified public accountants or financial planners, he added, as well as those who find it convenient being next to the Marriott Hotel.
Linder expects rents to be in the $13 triple net range, with tenant finish to suit. The building likely will cost somewhere between $120 per square foot to $130 per square foot to construct. Its architect is WJ Frick Design Group of Fort Collins.
Linder, who most recently was in residential development, also developed commercial real estate in the 1980s. He spent several years with the former Mitchell & Co. and built Monroe Plaza and Stanford Plaza.
One advantage to land in the Arena Office Park, which is marketed by Sitzman-Mitchell & Co., is that it already has received all go-aheads from the city. Developers can buy the parcels permit-ready.Schrader Oil buys parcel
FORT COLLINS – Schrader Oil Co. has purchased the last remaining parcel of land at the southeast corner of U.S. Highway 287 and County Road 32.
The property, in the 7000 block of South College Avenue, will be used for one of the company’s Country Store gas and convenience locations.
Schrader Oil also is readying plans to construct another Country Store in Windsor at the Westgate Business Park. The two will bring the number of Country Stores in the area to more than one dozen.Bison Ranch for sale in Mead
MEAD – The Colorado Bison Ranch which fronts Interstate 25 north of the Mead exit is for sale, but surprisingly not for commercial development.
The 30-acre site differs from many other parcels for sale along the highway, where owners expect to capitalize on the demand for light-industrial and retail sites.
“They’re not looking at it for development potential,´ said Ronn Frank of The Group Inc., who is marketing the ranch.
Rather, the owners, who have raised buffalo there for some time, are in need of more space for their own operation. They expect to build a home and expand their herd on a larger adjacent acreage.
“The challenge on this is that it’s a special use,” Frank said of the current bison ranch. “They want someone who may want to show cattle or exotic animals.”
Asking price is $950,000. Frank said the existing set-up and log home is suited to another similar use.
“It probably will be maintained (as a ranch) for some time,” he said, adding that there’s ample supply of land along the highway for those who want commercial parcels.Cities to buy open space
LOVELAND – Both Loveland and Fort Collins now may be joining the purchase of a 478-acre piece of land between the two cities.
The Ute/Snowy River Parcel, on the west side of south U.S. Highway 287, already was expected to be purchased by Larimer County as a buffer between its two largest cities. The property has a mile of frontage along U.S. 287. That contract was signed in December between the county and landowner LGT Real Estate Advisors Inc.
Now, however, said Stan Whitaker of LGT, the county wants to join in a joint-venture purchase with the municipalities.
The issue will go to the city councils March 18.Wal-Mart headed for review
FORT COLLINS – The planned Wal-Mart center at the northeast corner of Mulberry Street and Lemay Avenue is scheduled for a review of its overall development plan March 10 by the city.
“I feel we got a lot of issues out of the way,´ said developer Ronn Frank of The Group Inc.
In addition to Wal-Mart, a major home-improvement center still is considered a likely addition to the project, Frank said.
“The demographics on the north side of town are right,” he said. “The south side is getting pretty loaded-up.”Meadowlark breaks ground
FREDERICK – Meadowlark Optics Inc. has broken ground on its new 20,000-square-foot manufacturing facility on five acres in the Meadowlark Business Park.
The company, headed by Tom and Jeanne Baur, is in the polarization-optics industry and has been recognized by the optics community with seven national technology awards.
It employs 39 researchers, engineers and production workers and will add approximately 15 new jobs during the next several years.
Meadowlark is relocating from Longmont.
Infrastructure at the new site is being constructed with a Community Development Block Grant obtained through the Greeley/Weld Economic Development Action Partnership Inc. and awarded to Frederick.
The facility should be complete this summer.Co-housing project moves ahead
FORT COLLINS – The city’s first co-housing project is moving forward with a hearing before the planning and zoning commission scheduled for next month. The 11-acre Martinez Park project may have approval by late summer, said developer Jim Leach of Wonderland Hill Development Co. of Boulder.
Co-housing, where residents share common areas such as a kitchen, dining room, play area and gardens, returns residents to simpler neighborhood living.
The local project could have up to 40 homes. Leach said that approximately 10 families have committed to the development. He hopes to have at least double that by ground breaking.
This particular co-housing project differs from others Leach has done in Boulder County and elsewhere because it is developer-driven. That means Leach’s company is assuming the up-front investment risk and assembling the project. In the past, groups of families have put together the co-housing design and concept, then sought a developer to build it.
Leach is considering several other projects as well. One is a site on the Provincetown property in south Fort Collins. Others are at the former Stapleton International Airport and old Elitch Gardens.Sales and leasesAJ Riverside Management purchased a 6,500-square-foot building at 1355 Riverside Ave. in Fort Collins for $610,000. The seller was Pastoral Dynamics. Jim Mokler and Steve Stansfield of Realtec Commercial Real Estate Services Inc. in Fort Collins handled the deal.
Last month, the seller and buyer in a deal were reversed. The item should have read: Drs. Roy Shore and John Mills of Greeley sold 3208 W. Eisenhower Blvd. and 1.4 surrounding acres in Loveland to Dana Geyer as investment property for $360,000. The building houses the Summit Restaurant.
Dan Stroh of Stroh & Co. Realty & Auctions Inc. and Chris Wells of Veldman Morgan Commercial handled the deal.
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