Wild Oats building flagship store in Superior

SUPERIOR — The Superior Marketplace made significant strides toward future expansion with its May 5 groundbreaking for a confirmed new 32,000-square-foot Wild Oats flagship store, a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant and what is likely to become a 10,800-square-foot Gart Sports franchise.

The groundbreaking was hosted by Tom Mulkey, senior vice president of major projects for the New Plan Excel Realty Trust, which owns the shopping center. Other guests included Mayor Susan Spence of Superior; Perry Odak, chief executive of Boulder-based Wild Oats Markets; and Cynthia Cashman, director of real estate for Gart Sports.

?I’m thrilled to be the one welcoming Wild Oats into our community,? Spence declared. ?It’s something that our residents have been asking for since we did our resident survey just a few years back, and I think they are going to do incredibly well. Wild Oats is just such a great community player in terms of giving back to the community and their corporate philosophy. I think that Superior residents are really going to benefit from this project.?

The new store will be larger than the average Wild Oats location and will be a breeding ground for new ideas within all its stores as well as continuing the company’s philosophy of community involvement, according to Odak.

?It’s the first time that we’ve really had a brand new store that we can experiment to make changes,? Odak said. ?We’re making this store about 6,000 square feet bigger than our standard store so that we can experiment with changes and adding new things. We will have a community room to help us understand and relate to the community and be a part of it. We may see a sit-down sushi bar. It’s a lot easier when you can do this in your own back yard and make adjustments that you can see for yourself.

?When I sat down with the mayor to talk about this store, we agreed that it’s going to be a flagship store. Yes, we’re going to create 150 more jobs in the community, but more importantly, it’s about how we feel as a company we need to give back. It’s really important for us to get integrated in this community and make it part of our home,? Odak summarized.

Gart Sports, based in Englewood, is in final negotiations for its space within the complex. Gart is going through a merger with the Sports Authority that will make the company the largest sporting goods retailer in the country. However, Cashman emphasized the company’s commitment to its Colorado roots.

?This store in Superior will be our 26th store in the state of Colorado. I think that really solidifies our whole base here. We are expanding our corporate offices in Englewood so we’re not planning on going anywhere anytime soon. We’re staying in this community,? Cashman said.

The new businesses will anchor an additional 10 acres along Marshall Road near the Superior Marketplace, which also includes Costco, SuperTarget, Michael’s and several other restaurants and retail outlets. New Plan Excel Realty Trust has more than 52 million square feet of retail space across the country and total assets of more than $3.5 billion.BROOMFIELD SIRENZA RELOCATES: Following its recent acquisition of Denver’s Vari-L company, the Sunnyvale-based high-tech company Sirenza Microdevices Inc. plans to relocate its operations to Broomfield. The company has signed a 10-year lease for two office buildings at 303 Technology Court in Interlocken business park that total 74,870 square feet.

Todd Roebken and Alex Hammerstein of CRESA Partners represented Sirenza in the deal, which has been brewing since October. After an initial location in the Colorado Tech Center fell through, Sirenza began considering the office/warehouse site, formerly occupied by Sun Microsystems and owned by New Jersey-based Mack Cali Realty Company. Doug Bakke and Frank Kelley of CB Richard Ellis represented Mack Cali in the negotiations.

The deal is the largest lease signed this year in the northwest corridor. The new headquarters and manufacturing facility will initially employ approximately 200 people, and that number could grow to 300. The company also benefited from an incentive package from the state of Colorado and the city of Broomfield that adds up to approximately $170,000.

Sirenza, a supplier of high-performance radio frequency components for the wireless industry, will consolidate operations from other buildings in the Denver area and Tempe, Ariz. as well as its former headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif.

?One of the strong points about the deal is that it is pure absorption for the Corridor. It wasn’t one Interlocken company moving to another Interlocken location,? Hammerstein said.BOULDERTARGET TO EXPAND: Target Corp. recently submitted a concept plan to the city to affect a 17,126-square-foot expansion on the west side of its Boulder location. While the company has been in preliminary discussions with the city for some time, the concept plan is the first concrete evidence of a coming expansion.

?We’re still in the preliminary stages of determining what that expansion will include,? said Brie Heath, a spokeswoman for Target, who is based at the company’s Minneapolis headquarters. ?It’s been a great store for us, and we’re really looking to make it better for our guests. I don’t know what kind of additions there would be at this point. We will have to go in front of the city, but it’s something that we’re very interested in doing. It’s premature for us to go into the specifics of what it will include because we’re not 100 percent sure yet.? Heath said the expansion would likely allow the store simply to accommodate more guests, products and wider aisles.

The concept plan shows floor addition from the store’s current 118,601 square feet to 135,727 square feet, as well as some restructuring of the parking lot and entrances. Target’s expansion of the 25-year-old store is likely to give it an advantage against potential big-box retailers that could relocate to the Crossroads Mall area in the future.ST. JULIEN UNDER WAY: The long-awaited St. Julien Hotel is finally a go. The 200-room high-end, full-service hotel will be located at Ninth Street and Canyon Boulevard.

?We’ve been working on it a long time, but yesterday we signed all the agreements with the city and there is activity up on the site as we speak,? said developer Bruce Porcelli of St. Julien Partners LLC of Boulder on May 8. The project, a joint development with the city of Boulder, has been in negotiations for more than five years. The Central Area General Improvement District, headed by the Boulder city council, will be building a garage proximate to the site. Now that the project has a green light, Porcelli indicated that construction would take approximately 20 months.

St. Julien Partners and the city of Boulder will hold a formal groundbreaking ceremony at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 21, on the site. The architect is Urban Design Group of Denver, with construction already under way by GE Johnson Construction of Colorado Springs.ONE BOULDER PLAZA: Wells Fargo Private Client Services will finally unite its staff under one roof later this year when it moves into One Boulder Plaza. The financial advisers, who serve high net worth and affluent clients, have been spread over several offices in Wells Fargo facilities throughout the Front Range. The new location has been designated a hub for the office’s Northern Colorado operations.

?We’re very excited about getting everybody together in nicer digs,? said Carolyn Paul, regional manager for Wells Fargo PCS. ?It’s a beautiful building, and the location is perfect, being right across the parking lot from a Wells Fargo branch.?

The office has leased approximately 12,000 square feet on the second floor of the 300,000-square-foot building, which overlooks the Pearl Street Mall. That space will allow Wells Fargo PCS not only to bring together its current staff but also to expand soon.

?It gives us enough space to grow into,? Paul said. ?There are about 20 of us moving into that space, and we have room for 30. We are looking to add some more financial consultants and private bankers once we have more space.?TWIN LAKES REFINANCES: Dean Investments LLC, owned by local developer Dick Deane, has refinanced more than $1 million for Twin Lakes Business Park in Boulder. The new interest rate is 6.375 percent on a nine-year loan.

?We should have had a little bit better rate, but it’s not a bad rate,? said John Richert of Terrix Financial. Richert and his colleague Marsha Blair arranged the loan from Royal Neighbors of America. ?The former loan had some existing prepayment penalties so we had to renegotiate around those,? Richert said. ?What’s good about this loan is that commercial loans are harder to get right now because vacancy rates are up. Of course, this property is 100 percent occupied so that makes a difference.?

The three building office/warehouse complex is located in the 4600 block of Nautilus Court South and occupies 71,292 square feet on a 225,592-square-foot site. Current tenants include Computer Task Group, Nautilus Fitness Products, Foothills Security Systems and Dayspring Medical, Inc.BHA GETS FUNDING: The Boulder Housing Authority has been awarded $190,000 from the State Division of Housing to purchase apartment units for low-income families in Boulder County.

?We’re going to acquire 20 units this year,? said Allison Riley, housing planner for the authority. ?It equates to $9,500 per unit. Primarily, we have bought our properties in Longmont and Lafayette, so those are most likely where we will be acquiring residences this year as well.?

The housing authority, established in 1974, has been hit by the rampant statewide budget cuts despite the significant grant. Last year, the office received $300,000 from the state to purchase 28 units.

?That’s just the way it goes. Last year, we got $12,000 per unit for our 25 units so the budget cuts have impacted even this grant. We’re all affected by it,? Riley said.LOUISVILLE LOVE & ASSOCIATES GROWS: Love & Associates, one of the area’s largest engineering firms, is doubling its size at its Louisville headquarters and relocating upstairs.

?About four years ago, we got a PUD extension on our building,? explained Nancy Love, the firm’s chief executive. ?We finally decided while getting pushed by a potential tenant, to put a restaurant on the lower floor and move our business up to the second floor.? The firm currently occupies 28,000 square feet, but its building will have more than 56,000 square feet following the expansion, not including basement storage and a covered patio for the restaurant. Love & Associates is interviewing architects for the project and hopes to be building by fall.

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