I-25 Corridor, already home to distributors, attracting new business

LONGMONT — As the Interstate 25 Corridor becomes a focus of development plans for many companies, from Fort Collins south to Denver and beyond, more development in the Longmont area is becoming concentrated along the nearby and easily accessed highway.

Although portions of the I-25 Corridor have been annexed by other cities such as Frederick, Erie and Mead, the area remains in the recruitment arena of the Longmont Area Economic Council (LAEC), said Wendi Nafziger, vice president.

Distribution companies have been locating along the corridor because of easy access to the interstate, she said. Now, manufacturing companies are beginning to locate there as well because of lower lease rates. “They are lower right now,” Nafziger said. “I don’t see it staying that way, though as costs everywhere are increasing.”

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Lease rates along the I-25 Corridor range from $5.75 per square foot at the low end to $8 for office and warehouse space. Rates for R&D range from $7.50 to $10 per square foot, said Noreen Canaday, an associate broker at Century 21 The Parker Group in Longmont.

Rates in the rest of Longmont, by contrast, range from around $6.75 to $9 for warehouse space and go up to about $10 for retail space, she said. If these properties were offered triple net, which requires tenants to pay all ongoing maintenance expenses, such as utilities, taxes, insurance and property upkeep, approximately $1 to $1.50 would be added, Canaday said. “Leases along the I-25 Corridor used to be lower,” she said. “They are a little lower than the rest of Longmont but not much.”

By comparison, average lease rates in the city of Boulder are approximately $12 per square foot, triple net, for R&D/flex space, said Andrew Freeman, managing broker for Freeman Property Advisors. Boulder retail properties range from $11.50 to $30 per square foot triple net, according to property listings on the Denver Metropolitan Association of Realtors Web site. Boulder warehouse rates range from $7 to $12 triple net and office space ranges from $10 to $36 per square foot triple net.

Here are some of the development projects that have located along the I-25 Corridor:Sekich Business Park and Valley 66 Business Park

Sekich and Valley 66 business parks are located off I-25 at Highway 66. The park’s tenants include DS Machine, Advance Molding, Aerospace Design, Ralph’s Electric, Camtec, 4X4 Off Road Performance, Sampton Plumbing, Purchase Partners, Counties Corp. and Garney Construction.Del Camino Center

Del Camino Center is a 160-acre business park one mile south of the I-25 and Highway 119 interchange. Nine buildings are there now, said Keith Kanemoto, a broker associate with Prudential LTM, and 50 acres still are available. Companies located there include TSN Inc., Applied Films, Specialty Products, Hauser Research, Gerard’s Bakery, Sopris-West, Magnelab and Flextronics, he said.

Flextronics, a provider of flexibility and speed in electronics manufacturing services to original equipment manufacturers in the communications, networking, computer, medical and consumer markets, is constructing a second building on its approximately 30-acre campus at the center.

Flextronics’ first building at the park is 98,000 square feet, and the company occupies the entire building, Kanemoto said. The second building, which will be 120,000 square feet, will be completed shortly, and Flextronics plans to move in by July. The company has plans for more buildings on the campus as it continues to grow.Del Camino Junction Business Park

Del Camino Junction Business Park consists of 19 1.2 to 3.6-acre lots for office, retail and commercial development at the northeast corner of I-25 and Highway 119, approximately one mile north of Del Camino Center. Of these lots, 14 still are available.

Wendy’s and Phillip’s 66 located at this intersection in 2000. One 50,355-square-foot lot has been sold to a company that plans to erect a Best Western with approximately 70 rooms, said Terry Matthews, senior vice president of Fuller & Co., the company handling the land sales. Other lots are under contract for office and retail buildings. One 24,000-square-foot office building is nearing completion at the park and is almost fully leased, she added.

“We’re really excited about it,” Matthews said of the park. “We just think this is the best location for businesses, on the I-25 Corridor.”

Del Camino Junction Business Park is hoping to attract a variety of businesses, including restaurants, hospitality, home improvement, home furnishings, medical, telecommunications, flex-office space, light industrial and distribution.Southwest Weld County Services Building

Weld County is building a 20,000-square-foot, single-story office building to serve residents of southwestern Weld County at the I-25 Frontage Road and County Road 24 1/2, north of Del Camino Junction, said Pat Persichino, Weld County’s director of general services. “The county commissioners decided southwestern Weld County was the best place to locate a service center because of projected growth in that area,” he said.

The building, which is under construction and slated to be complete by mid-October, will house a sheriff’s operations unit, a clerk and recorder’s office, license plates, a health department, social services, a district attorney’s office, planning and building inspection and conference rooms, he said.

Weld County’s headquarters will remain in Greeley, and some of the staff will move to the new location, Persichino said, adding that only a few new employees will be added.

Open space trails will be built around the lake on the property, Perischino said, and the area eventually will be connected to nearby Barbour Ponds State Park. The land north of the property, which is now the county’s gravel pit, will be given to the state to add to Barbour Ponds, he added.

Vista Commercial Center

Vista Commercial Center, a 144-acre light industrial/commercial park at the south side of Highway 119 just west of Interstate 25, is entering phase two of its development. Of the 40 lots for sale in phase one of the project, which is 77 acres, only three remain that are not sold or under contract, said Russ Stacey, manager of Horizon Investments, the center’s developer.

Sale of the 20 lots of phase two, which consists of 67 acres, has begun, and six of these are under contract, he said. The average lot at Vista Commercial Center is just over an acre, and lots can be combined to create parcels of up to ten acres.

Pending approval from the Colorado Department of Transportation, a traffic signal will be put in the park at Highway 119 and Road 31/2, Stacey said.

Horizon Investments began selling lots at the park four years ago, and since then, a diverse range of companies, including the headquarters for Columbia Sportswear’s Rocky Mountain territory sales, Diad Inc., a weather tracking company, and Precise Cables Inc., a manufacturer of cables for computers, have located there.

The groundbreaking of a 140,000-square-foot indoor sports center, to be called The Center For Athletic Performance, occurred recently at the park, Stacey said. The center is planned to include three indoor soccer fields and two inline skating/hockey rinks, as well as a climbing wall and parking for 500 people.Frederick West

Star Precision, a precision sheet metal manufacturer that sells its products to companies such as Advanced Energy Inc., Ball Telecommunications, Storage Technology and Sea-Med, is moving its operations from its present location along I-25 at Highway 66 to the Frederick West Business Center, two miles north of Highway 52 along I-25, said Mark Hayes, the company’s vice president of finance. “The area has great access and Highway 52 has a better interchange, which is safer for employees,” he said.

The I-25 Corridor is a good location for Star Precision because most of its customers are between Fort Collins and south Denver, Hayes said.

The new building will include 100,000 square feet of manufacturing space and 8,400 square feet of offices, which is a substantial increase from the company’s present location, where it has 36,000 square feet. “We’ve been growing,” he said. “We started in 1997 with six employees and now have 142 employees.”

Star Precision purchased the land from Gibbons-White, and the building is scheduled to be complete by September, when the company plans to move in, Hayes said.