Real Estate Showcase to tour commercial sites Oct. 12

LONGMONT ? Available commercial and industrial space in Longmont will be previewed for commercial brokers during the third annual Real Estate Showcase on Wednesday, Oct. 12.
Sponsored by the Longmont Area Economic Council, the program will give metro-area commercial brokers a tour of available space in the greater Longmont area.

The program begins at 8:30 a.m. at the Marriott Hotel, 1450 Dry Creek Drive in Longmont. The event will feature an overview of the city and presentation of commercial properties.
The three-hour program includes a bus tour within the St. Vrain School District boundaries out to the Frederick-Firestone-Mead area, said Wendi Nafziger, vice president of the Longmont Area Economic Council.

“We?ll see a lot of properties and stop at three stops for about 10 minutes each,” she said.
The program is designed to provide a snapshot of development opportunities and lease options available in the area. The event will include a breakfast meeting with Longmont Mayor Julia Pirnack and economic council President John Cody.

Each participant will receive a detailed notebook of information on the council?s real estate database, city staff directory, key incentives available in Longmont as well as other information pertinent to doing business in the Longmont area.

One of the tour stops will be hosted by the town of Frederick at the Glacier Business Park at Highway 52 and Interstate 25. “Frederick?s town manager, Derek Todd, will talk about retail and industrial space in the Frederick area,” she said.

Nafziger said the council hopes to see about 100 commercial brokers attend from Northern Colorado and metro Denver. “We?ll show them the development opportunities within our area,” she said.

More information about the tour can be found online at www.longmont.org. The program is free to commercial brokers. Reservations should be directed to Wendi Nafziger at wendi@Longmont.org or (303) 651-0128.

As of June, the latest figures available, the Longmont commercial industrial space recorded a 19.8 percent vacancy rate, down from 21 percent at the same time last year. That represents about 2 million square feet of vacant space, Nafziger said.

“We?re seeing some rebounding slowly,” Nafziger said.

At the end of 2004, total occupied space in the Longmont area was 8.3 million square feet. At the end of June 2005, primary employers occupied 8.4 million square feet of space.

Several industry observers are optimistic about leasing new available space.

“We?re seeing a lot more activity. It?s a lot stronger than residential real estate,´ said Ken Kanemoto, partner and broker with Prudential LTM Realtors, one of the sponsors for the program.

“We just have a lot of vacancies because Seagate Corp. built a new building and Maxtor built new facilities,” he noted. “We?re starting to fill up those vacancies. It will take a while, but the trend is good.”

Phil Irwin, a commercial broker, developer and owner of the Irwin Companies, said land opportunities abound in the Frederick and Firestone areas.

“There?s a lot of opportunity for people to acquire and build owner-occupied space. That?s what we?re seeing out there,” he said.The region provides an opportunity for business owners to move from higher-priced space to a more affordable area, he said.

“We?re also seeing a lot of activity along the I-25 corridor with major emphasis at Highway 119. There?s also activity at Highway 52, which will be developed rapidly and that will spread into other towns along the way,” he said.

“Now we?re seeing more industrial/flex space. You can find a nice building with the potential for parking outside for trucks or raw materials,” he added.

Nova Investments Inc. is the main sponsor of the Showcase event. Other event and tour sponsors include TrammellCrow Co., Colorado Portfolio of Rothenberg-Rosenfield Inc., Kanemoto.com, Prudential LTM Realtors, the Marriott, the town of Frederick, Ed & Keith Kanemoto, CB Richard Ellis/Circle Capital, The Boulder County Business Report and the Colorado Real Estate Journal.

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