Reynolds plans 55th St. office project

BOULDER – The W.W. Reynolds Cos. “very shortly” will be submitting for building permits for its 2500 55th Street project and hopes to have those in hand by mid-November, reports Jeff Wingert, leasing agent for the developer.

Reynolds expects to break ground on the project that – at this point – will encompass 168,000 square feet in four buildings on 55th Street south of the Pearl Street Parkway, where the zoning accommodates industrial manufacturing.

The planned unit development (PUD), which was approved in June, supports a total of five buildings, but Wingert said the fifth building either won’t be built right away or won’t be built at all.

At 2500 55th St. will be a 37,900-square-foot two-story building; 2520 55th will be a 29,800 square-foot two-story building; 2560 55th will be a 44,500-square-foot three-story building; and 2580 55th will be a 56,700-square-foot building.

Lease rates will run from $16 to $19 per square foot, with tenants paying operating expenses; tenant-finish allowances will run $25 per square foot.

“Right now they’re no big blocks available if you want to stay in Boulder with the exception of the Amgen (campus),´ said Staubach’s Ken Gooden, who is representing software maker Genomica in its search for 25,000 to 35,000 square feet in the city.

The Reynolds project would add needed space.

“It’s definitely going to be a successful project – there’s nothing else out there right now. Anything over about 10,000 square feet is an awfully tough deal right now.”

Reynolds also broke ground in late September on a 82,000-square-foot building at 5400 Airport Blvd. that is anticipated to be complete by April next year. Build-out for the Airport Boulevard site – which has two more vacant lots – could come in as soon as a year.

CONVERSION: The Colorado Group’s Andrew Freeman represented MagPie Properties LLC in its $1.2 million purchase of 4735 Walnut St. from Principal Life Insurance Co. Dan Bess of Trammell Crow represented Principal Life.

MagPie bought the industrial building empty. It has 9,000 square feet of “very nice” office space, Freeman said.

The plan is to convert the remainder to office/research and development and market it as a multi-tenant building. The conversion will run $300,000 to $400,000.

“There’s really not a huge demand for warehouse space,” Freeman noted.

Boulder-based Internet company Centera Information Systems, which will move from its 3,000 square foot space on Sterling Drive, has signed a lease to take all of the existing office space and 3,000 square feet of the warehouse in what’s now called Walnut Creek R&D Center.

Lease rates run $10.95 to $12.95 per square foot with tenants paying operating expenses. Freeman has the lease listing.

ELBOW ROOM: PlanetOutdoors.com has expanded from its approximately 4,000-square-foot spot in the old Alfalfa’s corporate headquarters at 1645 Broadway to a second location, taking 4,359 square feet in Suite 20 at 1300 Walnut St. The company sells wares to outdoor enthusiasts over the Internet.

“They are an e-commerce company – that’s what they concentrate on. They don’t have retail outlets,” explains Chris Jensen, who, with Geoffrey Keys, both of Boulder-based Keys Whiteside & Hart, represented PlanetOutdoors.com.

Linda Gibbons of Boulder-based Gibbons-White Inc. represented the landlord.

EATS INC.: The Stick Oven, run by husband-and-wife team James and Mary Rianoshek, is going in the approximately 4,550-square-foot location formerly occupied by Dave Query’s Blue Plate Kitchen at 2525 Arapahoe Road.

The Rianosheks took over the existing lease and bought all of the restaurant equipment from Village Kitchen LLC DBA Blue Plate Kitchen.

Chris Jensen and Geoffrey Keys, both of Boulder-based Keys Whiteside & Hart, represented The Stick Oven in the deal.

MO’ BETTER: Developers Erich Bussian and Chris Hansen expect to break ground on their second building in late February or early March. This time it will be a 38,000-square-foot three-story office/light industrial building on 1.73 acres, to be dubbed The Valmont Building, on the south side of Valmont Road, west of the U.S. Post Office on 55th Street in Aspen Industrial Park.

Bussian and Hansen closed on the land, for which they paid $800,000, in late September.

The building, expected to be brick or textured block, should be complete next summer. The contractor will be Wyatt Construction; Boulder-based Phil McEvoy is the architect.

Durango-based Bussian and Boulder-based Hansen completed their first project, The Sanitas Building on Sterling Circle in the same vicinity, in June. The building, about 17,000 square feet on about an acre, was almost 100 percent leased by the time it was complete.

WINDOW-SHOPPING: Chief Financial Officer Dan DeGolier of Boulder-based Gold Systems Inc. reports that the company has signed a letter of intent to occupy about 25,000 square feet at 1780 Conestoga St.

The company’s leases – for 10,000 square feet at 4865 Riverbend Road (owned by Jim Fetterman of the Colorado Group) and about 4,200 square feet at 4801 Riverbend Road (owned by Burton Lee, Bristol Realty Counselors) – would become available in late December.

Space may be sublet in the new building, which is owned by Piedra Properties.

Gold Systems employs about 42 people and expects to expand to 70 by next summer. It produces custom software for call centers. Notable clients include Lucent Technologies.

The company has been looking for new space for close to a year now, and had hoped to stay in Boulder, although it has ventured out into the U.S. 36 Corridor.

Boulder was tough to find 25,000 square feet in, but most of the firm’s employee base is in Boulder.

For now Gold Systems is looking forward to this new building. It would be great for the company to be all in one building, DeGolier noted.

“Most of the offices have windows, which is something else we value,” he said.

VACANCY: About 55,000 square feet of Exabyte Corp.’s approximately 350,000-square-foot space on 38th Street near Arapahoe Road will become available Feb. 1 from Manhattan Beach, Calif.-based Bancroft Capital Partners and Great Point Investors, operating as 38th Street LLC.

“They’ve reduced staff, and they’re consolidating,´ said the Staubach Co. broker associate Ken Gooden, who represents Exabyte.

Becky Gamble of Boulder-based Dean Callan & Co. represented Bancroft and Great Point.

Exabyte (Nasdaq: EXBT) announced in June that it expected to cut about 80 jobs beginning in July as a result of a decision to contract out repair services. The company in August eliminated 140 positions and expected 45 more to be cut by January, with the bulk of the layoffs coming from its Boulder headquarters.

Boulder-based Dean Callan & Co. is marketing the unneeded space with the Frederick Ross Co.

AMERICAN BEAUTY: Dean Callan & Co. is also marketing the 20,000-square-foot office building going up in the Forest Park complex at the southeast corner of 95th Street and Arapahoe Road.

“That’s a beautiful new building,” says Becky Gamble of Dean Callan, who reports that the shell is expected to be complete in November.

Local businessman Fred Bickford is the developer.

LAFAYETTE

STAR REPORT: The Etkin Johnson Group is planning to purchase 114 acres located southeast of the intersection of Colo. 287 and Colo. 42 from American Pacific to develop what’s being called the Lafayette Corporate Campus.

The land is zoned industrial, and Etkin Johnson, which plans to build 19 “flex-space” buildings from 50,000 to 100,000 square feet, anticipates the construction would mean the addition of 4,000-plus jobs.

The developer received unanimous approval of its preliminary plan from the planning commission in late September.

“This area has great visibility from and access to the future Northwest Parkway,” says Lafayette Planning Director Bonnie Star. Etkin Johnson “plans a real upscale development, capturing the market just under Interlocken.”

She says the project includes “heavy” landscaping along Colo. 287.

Star says increased traffic was the main concern expressed by those associated with the neighboring South Pointe residential development, and that conditions of approval include a mandatory inclusion of the Eco Pass program in ownership association dues and developer construction of bus shelters.

LONGMONT

FUSION: The Longmont City Council at its second reading and second hearing on Sept. 28 OK’d the Peppler Neighborhood land use amendment, rezoning and concept plan. The neighborhood is south of Colo. 66 and east of the Burlington Northern railroad tracks.

Planner Brien Schumacher reports that the 156 acres will be developed by property owners Vernon Peppler and the Washington-based Hartland Group. into a mixed-use development with a variety of residential densities, a small commercial retail center of a couple acres and 15 acres of business park.

Schumacher says the next step of the developers will be to submit a preliminary development plan to the Longmont planning department.

DOUBLE-DAY: If you’ve been out of town, note that Tim Hill of Prudential LTM Realtors is running for Longmont City Council. He is the son of Tom Hill, a well-known commercial broker in Boulder, where Tim grew up.

In the race, nine people are running for four seats.

Hill, in his fifth year as a planning commissioner – he is vice chairman this year – also ran for council in 1997 when seven candidates ran for two seats. “It was a little more crowded race then,” Hill says.

Hill reports that so far the campaign trail has been subdued.

“Actually it has been really quiet,” he says.

In the issues arena, Hill is promoting his belief in “Smart Growth.”

Hill also supports the upcoming bond issue for the construction of a recreation center, new museum and improvements to the senior center and Roosevelt Park as well as a permanent campus for Front Range Community College.

DOCS: Houston-based Integrated Orthopedics Inc. (AMEX, IOI) has a Longmont practice that soon will outgrow its current facility and that is looking to grow through the development of satellite facilities and ancillary services. According to a press release issued by the company, “The objective is to build a medical complex unparalleled in the community.”

NEW CONDOS: Sun Construction broke ground in late September on its new business condos, which will constitute a total of 65,100 square feet at 1792 Skyway Drive in Vista Commercial Center. Marvin Dyer of Longmont-based Dyer Realty is the listing agent.

HIGHTAIL: Roy, Utah-based Iomega Corp. (NYSE: IOM) plans to vacate its space in the Longmont Business Center, where it leases more than 110,000 of 553,000 square feet, as part of a consolidation move. The company, a maker of storage devices, expects to lay off 140 workers – mostly in France.

COMPELLING: In response to “overwhelming” support from its 700 members, the Longmont Area Chamber of Commerce board of directors has voted to support the city’s proposal to sell $22.8 million in bonds to finance construction of “major quality of life amenities” such as a new recreation center, an expanded museum and cultural center and improvements to Roosevelt Park including additions to the senior center.

DETAILS, DETAILS: The Longmont Area Economic Council is behind Longmont’s first-ever one-stop database of concise and comprehensive information on the availability of industrial and office space for lease or purchase. To access the new real estate database, call (303) 682-5446.

WESTMINSTER

CONSUMER CULTURE: Vans Inc. (Nasdaq, VANS) – yes, maker of the cool shoes – will open its seventh VANS skatepark, with 45,000-square-feet of indoor space and 10,000-square-feet of outdoor space, in Westminster. The project is scheduled to open next fall as part of an entertainment center that includes the existing 24-screen AMC Theater at 104th Street and U.S. 36.

The developer is Westcol Center LLC, a joint venture of Entertainment Properties Trust and Excel/Legacy.

“This facility, which will incorporate both retail and entertainment components, allows us to connect with the younger consumer on multiple levels through a single destination,” Vans’ President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Schoenfeld said in a prepared statement.

“We remain committed to the goal of becoming the premier lifestyle brand for the youth market, and we will continue to implement these types of strategic initiatives.”

CONFIDENCE: Catellus Development Corp. (NYSE, CDX) in September closed on an 80-acre parcel it purchased from the city of Westminster for $16.5 million. The land, adjacent to U.S. 36 and west of the Westminster Promenade development at 104th Avenue, will be the site of a $150 million, nine-building office park. Being designed is the first building, 120,000 square feet in four stories.

As much as 1.5 million square feet of office space could be built over the next seven or eight years.

It will be called the Northwest Business Park.

NAMING NAMES: Sun Microsystems Inc. has purchased the naming rights to the Ice Centre at the Westminster Promenade for $1.5 million. The new three-rink ice complex will be known as the Sun Microsystems Ice Centre.

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