Eckerd books motel’s room

FORT COLLINS — Eckerd Corp., eager to put one of its drug stores in central Fort Collins, is ready to tear down another building to make room.

In documents filed with the Fort Collins planning office, Eckerd said it wants to build at 2612 S. College Ave., currently the site of the Inn at Fort Collins. Eckerd is under contract to buy the 62-room motel, as well as a nearby retail building, contingent upon the city’s approval of the project.

Eckerd, the No. 4 drug store chain in the United States, has moved aggressively into the Northern Colorado market this year. The Florida-based company is currently building stores in southeast Fort Collins, at the corner of Harmony and Timberline roads, and in Evans at the intersection of 35th Avenue and 37th Street.

Eckerd has also targeted future store sites in Windsor, Loveland and Greeley, as well as a third location in Fort Collins at 6541 S. College Ave. Long-term plans call for four stores in the Greeley-Evans area, five in Fort Collins and three in Loveland, according to a report in the Colorado Real Estate Journal.

Earlier this year Eckerd said it was planning to open 20 stores in Colorado in 2004 and another 25 in 2005. Neither the company nor its representative, real estate development firm Hunt Douglas Inc., discusses store locations until the building is under construction.

But Eckerd has won supporters for its latest proposal in Fort Collins.

The owners of The Moot House restaurant, 2626 S. College Ave., currently own parking spaces in the lot between the restaurant and the Inn at Fort Collins. The restaurateurs have agreed to sell some of their spaces to Eckerd in order to make the project possible.

“Redeveloping that site will be a terrific asset to us,´ said Steve Taylor, co-owner of The Moot House. “(Eckerd) will be great neighbors.”

Eckerd needs the extra spaces from The Moot House to meet city standards for parking availability and landscaping.

“Overall, I think, we won’t lose a ton of parking and we’ll certainly see a significant advantage to having a thriving drug store instead of a blighted motel,” Taylor said.

The Inn at Fort Collins, once a Best Western hotel, has operated for approximately 40 years. In recent years the owners have geared the property toward long-term stays, promoting weekly and monthly rentals.

Calls to the motel owner were not returned.

Taylor said Eckerd’s new building, plus his own plans to remodel The Moot House, amount to an ongoing beautification project for the central Fort Collins vicinity.

“We’re so tickled about the fine (remodeling) job the Homestead House did on their building” at 2700 S. College Ave. “We’re very happy to see that continue.”

The momentum has been continued by the restoration of the former Montgomery Ward building, 2201 S. College Ave. Whole Foods, a natural foods grocery store, plans to move into the building later this year.

“When operators of that magnitude decide to come on to College Avenue, it reaffirms to me that there is good (customer) traffic,” Taylor said. “We’re still bullish on it. We have no plans to relocate our restaurant.”

Another supporter for the Eckerd project is Bill Tiley, a Fort Collins real estate investor who also owns two retail buildings — 111 E. Drake Road and 117 E. Drake Road — around the corner from the hotel site. Tiley has contracted to sell 111 E. Drake Road, a 2,500-square-foot building, to Eckerd, allowing Drake Road access to the future drug store.

Another nearby business, the Sinclair gas station at 2600 S. College Ave., is not affected by the Eckerd project.

Eckerd serious about Northern Colorado

Eckerd doesn’t like to talk about future stores, but the company is letting its money do the talking to show how badly it wants to grow in Northern Colorado.

The company recently spent $1.73 million for the two-acre lot at Harmony and Timberline where it’s building its first store in Fort Collins.

Hunt Douglas Inc., Eckerd’s development consultant, has leased an office in Fort Collins where it’s posted a full-time employee.

Eckerd’s impact is also appreciated by a local construction contractor. Fort Collins-based Dohn Construction has won the contracts — both nearly $1 million — for construction of the Fort Collins and Evans stores.

Eckerd’s selection of Dohn is a departure from habits of most national retail chains, which tend to employ out-of-state contractors.

“A lot of chains feel like they need to use larger regional or nationwide contractors,´ said Doug Dohn, president of Dohn Construction.

Chains often want to keep a contractor once they’ve established a working relationship, Dohn said. “And they think they will get faster build-out with a larger contractor.”

Dohn won the two contracts through a bid process and feels like it’s in position to win more. In the short-term, the Eckerd jobs are a needed boost for the local builder, which was struggling to make its 2003 revenue match 2002 totals.

“We’re anticipating this will bring us very close to last year,” he said. “We’re very pleased with the relationship. Hunt Douglas and Eckerd’s construction managers have been excellent to work with.”

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