Boulder Scientific building new R&D lab at Longmont offices

LONGMONT — Boulder Scientific Co., a chemical manufacturer with facilities in Mead and just outside Longmont in unincorporated Weld County, announced Monday that it will build a 4,000-square-foot research and development lab within its 30,000-square-foot Longmont office facility.

Boulder Scientific makes specialty chemicals for a variety of industries, including defense, electronics and pharmaceuticals.

Boulder Scientific’s current 1,200-square-foot lab is at the company’s site at 598 Third St. in Mead. That facility will remain the company’s main research and development center “for the foreseeable future,” company officials said in a press release. Some scientists, however, will be reassigned to the new facility, and CEO Scott Birmingham said in an email that the new lab should also lead to about five new hires over the coming year for the 150-person company.

Boulder Scientific’s Longmont offices are at 4161 Specialty Place on the east side of Interstate 25. The new $750,000 lab, going into vacant space in the building, is slated to be complete by the middle of next year, and will be equipped with analytical facilities and larger experimental instrumentation.

Founded in 1972, Boulder Scientific earlier this month suffered a chemical fire that injured two workers at its Mead facility.