Announcing ‘Deals of the Year’

What were the biggest deals of 2015 in the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado?
Pinnacle Foods Inc. might have a case. Its $710 million acquisition of troubled foods company Boulder Brands, announced in November but finalized in January, certainly ranked as one of the most significant deals of 2015.
Of course, there was the $1.45 billion acquisition of Cargill Inc.’s U.S. pork business by Greeley-based JBS USA, using $1.2 billion in long-term financing to help close the deal.
Or how about UCHealth’s expansion, including a new stand-alone emergency center in Fort Collins, and new hospitals in Longmont and Broomfield?
Then there was Greensboro, N.C.-based Bell Partners Inc. purchasing the 1,206-unit Horizons at Rock Creek apartment complex in Superior for a cool $250 million.
And … you get the picture.
These and many other deals have been named finalists for BizWest’s inaugural “Deals of the Year,” honoring the top deals in a variety of industries for 2015. Deals included mergers, acquisitions, construction projects, leases, sales, venture-capital funding, expansions, etc.
Deals were evaluated by the BizWest editorial team, with consideration given to impact, complexity and size of the deal, both in terms of dollar volume and — when appropriate — square footage.
It wasn’t easy. The Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado have produced some amazing transactions in many different sectors, and we refined the rules as we went along. In some cases, deals that were announced before 2015 — but with a significant “advancement” of the project in 2015 — were considered.
In other cases, a deal announced in 2015 but not yet advanced enough to ensure its completion, or about which doubt has been expressed that it would become final, was eliminated.
Nominations were submitted for the BizWest region of Boulder, Broomfield, Larimer and Weld counties. BizWest reserved the right to shift a nomination from one category to another, or to add or eliminate industry categories at its discretion.
Finalists were announced in mid-January at bizwest.com, with finalists and winners to be featured in a special edition of BizWest on Feb. 5, which also will feature the players behind the deals, a look at how the deals came together and what’s next.
Deals were divided into 13 categories, including Apartments, Banking and Finance, Commercial Real Estate, Construction, Economic Development, Food & Beverage, Health Care, Hospitality & Tourism, Jobs, Natural & Organic, Retail, Technology and Venture Capital.
This has been a fun project to launch, and we welcome your feedback on the list of finalists and — as of our next edition — the winners.
More than that, we look forward to seeing what deals occur in 2016! Will we see, as has been rumored, a sale of New Belgium Brewing Co., and will it be in the $1 billion-plus range, as has been reported? Will Otter Products LLC sell? (The company began exploring a $2.5 billion sale back in August 2014.)
Time will tell. In the meantime, it’s fun to look back on a very eventful year.

Christopher Wood can be reached at 303-630-1942, 970-232-3133 or cwood@bizwestmedia.com.