Sunblest moves to buy tomato holdings

LONGMONT – Colorado Greenhouse Inc., the hydroponic-tomato company headquartered here, has been sold to Sunblest Management LLC.

The sale price – which encompasses Colorado Greenhouse’s 38-acre greenhouse in Brush, 40-acre facility in Fort Lupton and 13.5-acre greenhouse in Rifle – was not disclosed by David Bailey, one of the company’s new owners. Colorado Greenhouse facilities in Grants and Estancia, N.M., were not sold.

The sale was final last month.

Colorado Greenhouse, which produces more than 35 million pounds of tomatoes each year, filed for bankruptcy earlier this year despite grossing about $1 per pound in sales. Sunblest bought the company from a creditor that had put the Colorado Greenhouse in receivership, Bailey said.

The bankruptcy and sale came on the heels of March 1999 rumors that Colorado Greenhouse was about to take an initial public offering to market. The company filed to sell five million shares in order to expand its operations and had hoped to raise more than $30 million when it converted to public status.

Sunblest Management is owner of Sunblest Farms in Payton, which began selling tomatoes in April. With the purchase of Colorado Greenhouse, Sunblest Farms’ 12.5 acres in Payton will begin producing gourmet bell peppers, Bailey said.

Eight-year-old Colorado Greenhouse was co-founded by Bill Coleman, via his Boulder-based venture-capital fund, Colorado Venture Management.

The greenhouses, which employ about 500 people and produce about 425,000 pounds of tomatoes annually per acre, were originally linked to power plants. The steam to heat the enclosed growing facilities is supplied from electric cogeneration plants. Water used to cool power-producing turbines is pumped into the greenhouses at 190 degrees and the “waste” energy is captured to heat the growing operation.

Colorado Greenhouse’s heat source isn’t the only thing that sets it apart from traditional farming – using hydroponics to grow the tomatoes also makes the crop stand out from the rest.

Hydroponic production describes a technique of growing plants in a way that they derive their nutrients from sources other than soil. It is common for a plant to grow as high as 30 feet and produce 50 to 60 pounds of fruit. No chemicals are used to control pests and, through the use of bees in the enclosed environment, pollination is thorough and effective.

Further, the climate-controlled environment makes tomatoes a year-round crop.

Colorado Greenhouse tomatoes are shipped to markets in the United States and Canada, with most of its crops going to the Denver market and the upper Midwest. They can be found across the country, though, at such national grocery-store chains as Safeway.

Sunblest, based in Colorado Springs, plans to move the Colorado Greenhouse headquarters from Longmont to Fort Lupton; where the company was based for years before moving to a Longmont location.

The move is the only significant change that will come from the sale, Bailey said. None of the greenhouses will stop operating and no employees will lose their jobs, he said.

“Everything will be better,” Bailey said.