Shovels fly at Harmony Technology Park

FORT COLLINS — About 200 members of the real estate development and banking community gathered June 19 to witness first steps toward building more than 1 million square feet of commercial space on East Harmony Road in Fort Collins.

MAVD West LLC, the Colorado arm of Ann Arbor, Mich.-based MAVDevelopment Co., officially launched its Harmony Technology Park project that will spread over the largest open land holding left on the Harmony corridor.

“It’s a wonderful day for us and for the city,” MAVD President Rob Aldrich said prior to the official groundbreaking that brought members of the development team together with city and economic development officials. “The quality of life here, the skilled labor, the university all make this a perfect location, and this city has done everything to make this possible for us. It’s just a great relationship.”

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MAVD in February 2007 purchased the 104-acre land parcel, one that wraps around the Intel Corp. semiconductor design center on the southeast quadrant of Harmony and Zeigler roads, for $14 million from Hewlett-Packard Co.

HP in 2000 had planned to build a cluster of as many as six buildings on the site, extending its corporate campus to the south. But the years-long technology downturn, and the reorienting of HP’s business strategy, led the company to scrap the expansion plan and sell the land.

Aldrich described plans for a five-story, 80,000-square-foot office building, a $15 million project that he said would yield “the finest office space in Northern Colorado.” Construction on that project will start in the fall and finish by late 2009.

The Harmony Technology Park master plan also calls for retail and restaurant development on lots totaling about eight acres at the southwest corner of Harmony Road and Lady Moon Drive. That street separates the MAVD development from the mixed-use Presidio Fort Collins project planned on about 80 acres just to the east.

Construction is already under way for a 30,000-square-foot building that will house MAVD’s first user, Custom Blending Inc. of Fort Collins. The company, which makes flavors and seasonings including Rodelle vanilla for home bakers and the food industry, is relocating from a site it outgrew near the former Downtown Fort Collins Airpark.

The MAVD development company was formed in 1989 by members of the Vlasic family, best known for food products that include the namesake pickles.