Developers freeze iPark; plan a later opening date

GUNBARREL ? Developers are in a holding pattern on a proposed 10-acre technology park at the site of the Boulder Front Range Community College campus.

“We haven’t changed anything in our project. We’re just putting it on freeze for a while,´ said developer Michael Tagliola, who had hoped to open the $17 million park in spring 2002. At this point, iPark is expected to open in spring 2003.

Many companies suffered economic lumps in the first half of the year, forcing them to sublease some space, which Tagliola said is plentiful in the Boulder-Longmont area.

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“Right now, the market is such that we don’t feel comfortable specking office buildings,” Tagliola said. “The market’s dropped $1 to $1.50 per square foot.”

Average rents per square foot in Boulder County business parks ranged from $15 to $18 last year, according to the Business Report’s Boulder County Business Parks List, compiled from information provided by property managers.

Andrew Freeman, principal of Freeman Property Advisors Inc., a commercial real-estate firm in Boulder, said the Boulder area market is fairly strong but that Corporate Place, a four-building office project, has just been built in Gunbarrel.

“If someone built more buildings like that, I think they would be waiting in line to see who gets leased first,” Freeman said. He said he was familiar with Tagliola’s project, and that he thinks Tagliola is smart to slow it down.

Vacancy rates in Gunbarrel at the end of the first quarter were about 9 percent, with 426,000 square feet available, mostly due to Corporate Place. The project, built by Chrisman Construction Inc. of Boulder, was built on spec and has yet to lease much of it, Freeman said.

Vacancy rates throughout Boulder County increased 5 percent during the first quarter 2001, from 8.5 percent at year end to 13.5 percent. Downtown Boulder had the fewest vacancies, 4.8 percent. The rest of the city was at 8.4 percent.

Tagliola’s project will feature broadband access, hardware and other amenities to accommodate mid-sized technology companies. Tagliola said he will likely proceed with constructing the buildings and wiring services before looking to lease the space.

A similar project meant for Denver is also on a careful track. Enfrastructure, an Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based company, was beginning plans last fall for an office environment with computer equipment, a data-center, telephone systems and other services. In April, the company finished building its first such office park in Aliso Viejo. The first clients moved in amid construction in January.

Mike Drury, Enfrastructure vice president of marketing, said the company isn’t rushing into building in Denver though the city is still on the company’s radar screen. “We want to make sure before we expand too quickly that we can transplant this model successfully,” he said. He wouldn’t say when the company planned to move forward on the project.

Tagliola has planned with Arch 11 Inc., a Boulder-based architecture firm, for about 120,000 square feet of leasable space in six buildings in a cul-de-sac at the end of Spine Road near the Gunbarrel King Soopers grocery store. The land is known as the Greens Industrial Park and is appraised at $2.97 million, $8 per square foot for its 370,808 square feet. Boulder-based Quinlan Construction was recently chosen to build the project.

Front Range Community College houses 1,700 students at its Gunbarrel campus, which occupies most of one of the four lots and one of the buildings, which will be renovated. The school has about three years left on a five-year lease signed with Paul Tagliola, Michael Tagliola’s father and owner much of the office park land. Paul Tagliola owns outright two of the four lots, and he owns the other two lots in a 50-50 split with Alison Matsik, wife of former Ball Corp. President George Matsik. The Matsiks are not part of the actual project development.

Tagliola said he is negotiating with Front Range Community College to determine what presence the school would have at the park. Last September, when plans for the park were first coming together, Front Range didn’t know about its Gunbarrel campus plans. At the time, the school was looking for more classroom space, because it was at capacity. The school is considering a long-term lease at a proposed 22-acre Longmont campus and is awaiting approval from the Colorado Commission on Higher Education.

Contact Alisha Jeter Rhines at (303) 440-4950 or e-mail research@bcbr.com.