Rocky Mtn. Instruments to build in Lafayette

Longmont’s Rocky Mountain Instrument Co. is leaving its home of 13 years at 1501 S. Sunset St. to build in Lafayette.

The company finalized the purchase of 8.27 acres at South Boulder Road and Highway 287 in late December. According to Sales Director Debbie Hunt, groundbreaking on a 90,000-square-foot building is scheduled for January or February, with completion in July or August.

Hunt says Rocky Mountain Instrument, which employs 100 and expects to add another 30 workers in 1998, simply outgrew its leased space in Longmont. Lafayette got the nod for the new building because city officials were “really, really excited to have us,” Hunt says.

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Hunt estimates the cost of the land and building at $6.8 million. Part of the money will come from the state’s industrial and development program tax-free bond issue. The bonds were approved by the Lafayette City Council in late 1997.

Hunt says the new building will have a two-story glass entryway, but as of late December, the site plan was still evolving. Fort Collins’ The Neenan Co. is the contractor on the project.

Boulder

The Boulder office of Quest Real Estate Strategies Inc. and the Denver office of Heller Real Estate Finance have arranged and funded an $18 million first trust deed, fixed-rate loan to refinance the Boulder Marriott Hotel.

The 155-room Marriott, located near the southwest corner of 28th Street and Canyon Boulevard, opened in May 1997. The refinancing will help pay off a construction loan incurred by developer John Cohagen of Snow Goose Investments, as well as reimburse other development costs.

“The property has performed much better than originally projected, and as the premier business hotel in Boulder, it has demonstrated an ability to achieve a much higher average daily rate than its competitors,” says Heller Investment Officer Rhett Nunnally.

A local organization plans to build a trendsetting Jewish community campus, featuring synagogues, Jewish schools and a 15,000-square-foot community center.

The Boulder Jewish Community Foundation has put 30 acres at Arapahoe Avenue and Cherryvale Road under contract, with an intent to buy in January 1999. Purchase price will be about $2.7 million.

According to Foundation member Mark Loewenstein, the 2-year old group is raising money locally from private and public sources. He says while there are many Jewish community centers throughout the United States, there’s only one other campus, in Charlotte, N.C.

Along with the community center, the campus will have room for the Jewish Community Pre-school, currently at the corner of Folsom Street and Glenwood Drive, along with space for three synagogues.

The Foundation intends to spend $2.5 million to lay down campus infrastructure — including water, sewer, roads, bike and walking paths and landscaping — and build the community center.

The center is envisioned as a place for Boulder County Jews, especially those in the east county, to meet. It will feature a library, meeting space, teen lounge, snack bar, auditorium and office space.

The building will also house the Boulder Jewish Day School, which is currently in Lafayette.

The Boulder County Commissioners spent about $4.25 million on open space acquisitions in November, picking up 558 acres in land.

The three parcels the county acquired include the Pierce Property, 131 acres on U.S. 36, south of St. Vrain Road and north of Nelson Road; the Harless Property, 157 acres half a mile east of Ish Reservoir on the south side of County Road 902 near the Boulder/Larimer county line; and the Gage Property, 270 acres south of Hygiene Road, north of St. Vrain Road, between North 61st Street and North 75th Street.

According to county Land Officer Nancy Dayton, purchase price for the Pierce Property was $853, 250. The Harless Property, which will be bought over four years, sold for $815,000, with interest totals increasing the sum to $887,730. The Gage Property cost the open space fund $882,100 and the county general fund $1.7 million.

Broomfield

Lincoln Property plans to build a $40 million office development on 21 acres south of Interlocken Advanced Technology Park.

The Foster City, Calif.,-based Lincoln filed a site development plan and annexation application with the city of Broomfield in late December. City planners say the process usually takes three to four months, which means construction could start as early as March on the 350,000-square-foot, three-building project. Completion is set for early 1999.

The buildings will be built “on spec” at a location one-third of a mile northeast of the Jefferson County Airport terminal. Most of the land is in Broomfield, but a small amount will need to be annexed from unincorporated Boulder County.

Tenants for the Lincoln property are expected to be high-tech companies. Boulder’s OZ Architecture is the project designer.

Nearby, on the south side of Highway 128, across from Interlocken, Sacramento, Calif.-based Panattoni Development Company The Catlin Group plans to build two 110,000-square-foot buildings on 13.9 acres. The development will be known as Flatiron Ridge office park.

Construction is set to begin in January, with completion by October. Construction on the second building will follow when the first one is at least 50 percent leased. Total development cost is estimated at $30 million. Lease rates are expected to be $16.50 a square foot — $2 to $3 less than Interlocken.

Project designer is OZ Architecture.

A high-end office building which is expected to rent for as much as $27 a square foot will be built at 370 Interlocken Blvd.

The 150,000-square-foot, six-story building is being developed by Englewood’s Prime West Cos., at a cost of about $20 million. The building is expected to be completed in late 1998.

By the end of 1998, Broomfield is expected to have three in-line hockey rinks.

The city already has a rink near The Bay aquatic park and plans to build another in Country Estates Park. In addition, Conoco Inc. is set to construct a rink as part of a gas station and convenience store for a site northeast of Lowell Boulevard and West 128th Avenue.

The 50-foot by 100-foot rink will be part of a ritzy new gas station/convenience store called Westlake Village Breakplace. The complex will be designed to attract consumers who want to shop as well as buy gas. The convenience store will feature a self-service coffee bar and hot food counter.

The hockey rink is expected to bring in a never-ending supply of teenage shoppers for the convenience store.

Lafayette

Two Boulder-based companies, Jacobsen Brothers Painting and

Paneltec Inc., are moving to a new building at 1218 Commerce Court in Lafayette.

Mark Jacobsen of Jacobsen Brothers Painting is developing a 12,000-square-foot office and manufacturing facility, with groundbreaking set for January or February and completion in June.

Paneltec, which manufactures panels, will lease 9,000 square feet, and Jacobsen will occupy the remaining 3,000 square feet. Contractor and architect is Boulder’s Quinlan Construction Inc.

Boulder Community Hospital plans to build a 40,000-square-foot medical facility in Lafayette that will include physician clinics, an urgent-care center, surgery center, endoscopy suite and several major rehabilitation programs.

The $9.6 million expansion will be located on a seven-acre site on South Boulder Road at Minotaur Drive, across the street from Angevine Middle School. The new medical facility will replace the 12-year-old Community Medical Center at 2000 W. South Boulder Road, which will be converted to office space.

Community Medical Center’s urgent-care center had more than 10,000 patient visits in 1996, enough volume to convince Boulder Community Hospital to build the bigger facility. It will serve the booming east county communities of Lafayette, Louisville, Broomfield and Erie.

The hospital plans to submit its site plans to the city of Lafayette in early 1998, with construction slated to begin in May. Completion is set for spring of 1999.

The building will be designed by Louisville-based architectural firm Hartronft Associates in conjunction with Boulder-based Boulder Associates. A general contractor has not yet been chosen.

Louisville

Building in the second filing of the Colorado Tech Center is set to get under way the first week in January, as Etkin/Johnson Development breaks ground on a 77,958-square-foot office/warehouse building.

According to Ron Roberts of Etkin, the build-to-suit building at 321 S. Taylor Ave. will feature Class A office space with 24-foot clear ceilings. There will also be drive-in doors and large glass windows.

The building is divisible to 18,000 square feet and up, with a maximum of four tenants.

Etkin and Boulder’s O’Connor Construction are the major landholders in CTC’s second filing, with a combined 250 acres. According to Michael Guidarelli, sales and marketing manager at O’Connor, CTC II will be “a step above” the first filing, with more emphasis on glass and landscaping.

In addition, Guidarelli says eventually the office park will connect to the Coal Creek Canyon bike path, which will allow employees in Louisville and Lafayette to bike to work.

In other CTC news, Broomfield’s CG Press is working with O’Connor to build in the park, but construction, originally slated for January, is on hold as a co-owner recuperates from an illness.

Gunbarrel

Sievers Instruments Inc., which manufactures scientific analysis instruments, will more than double its office space by spring 1998.

According to Chief Financial Officer Mike Carruthers, the company will move to new leased space at 6060 Spine Road in April or May. The company currently rents 35,000 square feet at 6185 Arapahoe Road. The Spine Road space will be 74,119 square feet.

Sievers’ leasing agent is The Colorado Group Inc.

Hygiene

Plans for the Pella Ponds housing project in Hygiene are on indefinite hold, according to developer Jeff Holmes.

The problem lies in a complicated new planning designation adopted by the Boulder County Planning Commission.

Pella Ponds’ application will be a TDR–Transferred Development Rights project. The TDR designation is set up when a developer has two parcels of land, one of which is valuable agricultural land or designated open space.

Under a TDR, one parcel is a sending area and one a receiving. The sending area is the open space and the receiving area is where the developer builds. The developer literally sends density over to the receiving area, allowing a higher density than originally platted.

Holmes’ two lots, at Hygiene and North 75th Street, are 136 acres (the sending area) and 57.6 acres (the receiving area). According to Rosi Koopman of Longmont’s Strategic Planning Inc., who is preparing the application, 160 acres will be open space, and 12 high-end custom homes will be built on the remaining land on one- to 3.4-acre lots. There are already three existing homes on the land.

The preliminary sketch plan originally was scheduled to be sent to the planning commission in January, but Holmes says because the TDR is so complicated, there are parts of the application still to be done.

When, or if, the application will be completed is questionable. When asked if it will be sometime this century, Holmes laughed and said, “Who knows?”