Eye bets again on ‘epicenter’

These nondisclosure agreements that everyone seems so eager to sign are getting in the Eye’s way.

But by reading between lines, and listening between noncommittal sentences, the Eye is homing in on the substance of another business expansion rumor that has developers and local economy boosters huddled up together.

This one concerns fallout from the (get ready) Hewlett-Packard Co.-The Dii Group-Dii-Dovatron-Flextronics International Ltd. deal.

Whew.

Dii-Dovatron, a Longmont-based manufacturing unit of the Niwot-based Dii Group, announced in November that it would acquire manufacturing assets of H-P’s Greeley-based storage systems division.

News of the memorandum of understanding (complete with, yes, a nondisclosure agreement) was accompanied by the announcement that Dovatron would seek new growing room in Northern Colorado to house itself and its new H-P acquisition.

A Larimer/Weld battle royale is shaping up over who can swing the best deal for Dovatron.

The company’s criteria:

* 250,000 square feet of manufacturing space, to be built PDQ, with room to expand to 600,000 square feet.

* A site within eyesight of Interstate 25’s northern strip.

* Easy, quick access to I-25 and Denver International Airport.

Mum are most of the I-25 landowners and developers, who hope to lure Dovatron and its 680 jobs. Mum is Dovatron, which will only acknowledge that a shopping trip is under way.

Less mum is McWhinney Enterprises, developer of the I-25/U.S. 34 interchange — the place everyone and her brother are referring to now as Northern Colorado’s “epicenter.”

“They’re talking to us,” McWhinney real estate guru Nick Christensen said, adding that Dovatron is eyeing a specific site.

McWhinney is expensive — a few bucks a foot more than lots of other I-25 land. But Dovatron’s new parent, Flextronics, has lots of money to throw around, given their rising fortunes in the global contract electronic manufacturing business and on the Nasdaq (FLEX).

The Eye, putting its money where hunches lead it, bets on the epicenter.

Dovatron moves to McWhinneyville. Watch. The Eye will, too.

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