Real Estate & Construction  March 30, 2007

Pratt Tech Campus on market for $19 million

JOHNSTOWN – After five years, the real estate development company that owns the empty Pratt Technology Campus at the northeast corner of Interstate 25 and U.S. Highway 60 in Johnstown no longer seeks to develop and manage the 149-acre site itself. Pratt Management Co. instead decided in December to place the entire site on the market for nearly $19 million, said company representative Phil Marti.

“We bought that as our next development,” Marti said. “We selected that site because we believed it was the best corner on the I-25 corridor, at an interchange in a town that is excited about good growth. We selected it because we thought it was a terrific corner to develop.”

Since then, Marti says, the Longmont family business has chosen to slow down and convert its assets into less management-intensive projects. Pratt took advantage of an opportunity to sell its portfolio, including 41 buildings, to Circle Capital Partners in 2005. And now it hopes to sell the Pratt Technology Campus.

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The 149 acres are annexed to Johnstown and zoned PUD-MU, or Planned Unit Development-Mixed Use, said Johnstown planner John Franklin.

“It is intended as a commercial center and an employment center,” Franklin explained via e-mail. “A preliminary plan was approved for the property prior to 2005. I have visited with several prospective buyers and developers in the past three years, but I have no active application at this time.”

Back in April 2005, the Business Report reported and sources including town officials confirmed, that a major pharmaceutical company was interested in building a 50,000-square-foot manufacturing center that would anchor the site at US 60 and I-25 and create 100 jobs. It was reported then that Johnstown businessman Manjit Sahota was planning to purchase the entire holding from Pratt for $12 million, and that Sahota and the drug company would then develop the research and manufacturing campus.

But that same month, Sahota became the subject of a criminal fraud investigation. Bad checks had been used to pay for fuel delivered to his Johnstown gas station and convenience store. A deal with Pratt never materialized.

Marti now says that the talk in 2005 of a pending deal with a drug company was just rumor, and that Sahota never had anything to do with the property. “[Pratt Management] has no business relationship with that gentlemen,” Marti said. “Not in the past, and not in the future.”

Marti said the property’s basic design has been in place for almost five years. The zoning allows for office, retail, hospitality, research and development, manufacturing, service and light industrial – everything but heavy industrial. It’s designed to be high-tech R&D supported by retail, commercial and hospitality to provide for those businesses and the surrounding area. The site has water and sewer lines ready, and a water agreement with the town.

“It’s available,” Marti said. “We are the only owners. There are no encumbrances with respect to partial deals. There’s nobody else involved in its ownership or marketing.”

JOHNSTOWN – After five years, the real estate development company that owns the empty Pratt Technology Campus at the northeast corner of Interstate 25 and U.S. Highway 60 in Johnstown no longer seeks to develop and manage the 149-acre site itself. Pratt Management Co. instead decided in December to place the entire site on the market for nearly $19 million, said company representative Phil Marti.

“We bought that as our next development,” Marti said. “We selected that site because we believed it was the best corner on the I-25 corridor, at an interchange in a town that is excited about good…

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