Briefcase, June 10, 2016
BRIEFS
Houston-based Cornerstone Home Lending, which bases its Mountain West Region headquarters in Fort Collins, will host an open house at its recently expanded Longmont office, 916 S. Main St., from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday, June 16. Opened last summer, the Longmont office now includes 12 employees, including the sales division and builder/operations division. Cornerstone also has offices in Greeley, Fort Collins, Loveland and Boulder.
CLOSINGS
Downtown Longmont staple Miller Music closed after 42 years selling instruments, although a portion of the company will continue on across the street. Miller Music general manager Aaron Fausnaugh and his wife still will operate the Miller Music Academy, albeit under a different name and across the street from Miller’s current location of 464 Main St.
Northern Colorado Credit Union merged its two Greeley branches into one in an attempt to alleviate pressure on its small staff. NCCU, which rebranded from College Credit Union in 2014, recently closed its downtown branch and merged it into NCCU’s branch at 2901 27th Ave.
SPONSORED CONTENT
CONTRACTS
The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research will administer the day-to-day operations of EarthCube under a three-year, $2.8 million agreement with the National Science Foundation. Created by NSF in 2011, EarthCube aims to help researchers across the geosciences from meteorology to seismology better understand the planet in ways that can better predict the effects of natural disasters. The EarthCube science support office, currently funded through an NSF grant to the Arizona Geological Survey in Tucson, Ariz., will move to UCAR’s offices in Boulder.
Intuicom Inc., a Boulder-based supplier of wireless solutions to the Intelligent Transportation Systems market, was awarded the Wireless Traffic Communications Expansion contract to supply BroadBand Solutions radios to the town of Castle Rock.
DEADLINES
Applications will be accepted through Aug. 31 from business and commercial property owners in Lafayette wishing to participate in the town’s fifth annual Green Business Recognition Program, which assists and recognizes local businesses of all sizes that are taking positive steps toward sustainability. Apply online at cityoflafayette.com/GreenBusiness.
EARNINGS
Semiconductor giant Broadcom Ltd., which has a major presence in Fort Collins, filed its first earnings report reflecting its merger of Avago Technologies. San Jose, Calif.-based Avago closed its $37 billion acquisition of rival Broadcom Corp. in February, with the new company taking on the Broadcom Ltd. name and trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol AVGO. The new Broadcom — which at the time the merger closed employed roughly 1,600 people between facilities in Fort Collins and Longmont, mostly in Fort Collins — beat analyst estimates for both revenue and earnings for the company’s second fiscal quarter that ended May 1. Broadcom posted a net loss of $1.2 billion, or $3.02 per diluted share, for its second quarter. That’s compared to net income of $377 million, or $1.30 per diluted share for the company’s previous quarter, prior to combining results for Avago and Broadcom Corp. Revenue grew to $3.54 billion, double from the previous quarter. The company also reported a cash balance of $2.04 billion as of May 1. Guidance for the third quarter includes roughly $3.74 billion in revenue and capital expenditures of about $230 million.
UQM Technologies Inc. (NYSE: UQM), a developer and manufacturer of electric motors, lost $6.9 million, or 16 cents per share, during its fiscal year that ended March 31, larger than its loss of $6 million, or 15 cents per share, recorded during its previous fiscal year. For the year, UQM’s revenue grew 32 percent to $5.3 million, compared with $4 million in the prior year. As of March 31, the company, headquartered east of Longmont in Weld County, had $7 million cash on hand. For the fourth quarter, revenue was $1.5 million, compared with $1 million in the fourth quarter last year. Net loss for the fourth quarter was $931,000, or one cent per common share. That compares with a net loss of $1.3 million, or 4 cents per common share for the same period last year.
KUDOS
Adele Morehead, a registered nurse on the Trauma Surgical Unit at Medical Center of the
Rockies in Loveland who serves on the unit’s leadership team as a nurse coordinator, received the 2016 Structural Empowerment Magnet Award at an May 10 awards dinner as University of Colorado Health celebrated Nurses Week.
Best Western Plus Crossroads Inn at 5542 E. U.S. Highway 34 in Loveland received the Best Western Director’s Award for outstanding quality standards.
Boulder-based Techtonic Academy, a division of Techtonic Group, was registered by the U.S. Department of Labor as part of the national apprenticeship system, becoming the first government-recognized technology apprenticeship program in Colorado.
Fort Collins-based design-build company HighCraft Builders won the building industry’s 2016 Chrysalis Award for remodeling excellence. Out of 425 remodeling projects across 40 states, HighCraft won for the transformation of a home in Windsor. To clinch the national title in the Residential Specialty Item category, HighCraft shared credit with local companies Raw Urth Designs and Kustom Theater Kreations.
The Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce announced winners of its 2016 Small Business of the Year Awards. Winning the New Kid on the Block award for businesses in operation for less than three years was 970 Services, which provides roofing, restoration and carpet cleaning services. Accounting, consulting and financial services firm Eger CPA Co. won the small category for companies with from one to 10 employees. In the medium category (11-50 employees), custom homebuilder Frameworks took the honor. Beer distributor High Country Beverage won in the large category (51-200 employees).
For the second year in a row, Island Grove Village Apartments in northeast Greeley received White House recognition for successfully decreasing its energy consumption as part of a nationwide initiative to reduce energy usage by 2020. The “Better Buildings Challenge” is a joint effort of the federal departments of Energy and Housing and Urban Development.
The Boulder County town of Louisville was ranked seventh on a list of the 10 best small towns in the United States for 2016 by Livability.com.
Championship Field at Pleasant View Sports Complex in Boulder won the national award as Sports Turf Managers Association’s “Field of the Year” for the Schools and Parks Sporting Grounds division.
Students who graduate from the Machining Program at Front Range Community College now can show employers that their skills meet or exceed national metalworking standards, because the program earned accreditation from the National Institute of Metalworking Skills.
Lenna Kottke, executive director of Boulder-based Via Mobility Services, was named 2016 Community Transportation Manager of the Year by the Washington, D.C.-based Community Transportation Association of America. The award recognizes excellence by managers of community transportation systems in serving the needs of people in their communities.
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
Powdr Corp., the Park City, Utah-based owner of the Copper Mountain resort, acquired Eldora Mountain Resort near Nederland in southwest Boulder County. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Powdr also owns seven other ski resorts: Soda Springs and Boreal in California, Killington and Pico Mountain in Vermont, Mount Bachelor in Oregon, Lee Canyon in Nevada and Gorgoza Park in Utah. Eldora, which opened in 1962, includes 680 skiable acres about a half-hour drive west of downtown Boulder. It had been owned since 1991 by a group led by Bill Killebrew. The resort employs 35 people in the summer and 600 during ski season, which this year is slated to open Nov. 18.
Core Title of Colorado, which has offices in Boulder and Longmont, was acquired by New York-based Kensington Vanguard National Land Services and opened a Fort Collins office.
Kensington Vanguard’s Colorado offices include six employees in Boulder (2505 Fourth St.), three in Longmont (512 Fourth Ave.) and three in Fort Collins (255 E. Monroe Drive).
A senior-care company with a facility in Loveland and that provides home-care services in Estes Park was acquired by a New York-based private equity firm. A majority stake in Denver-based InnovAge was purchased by Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, allowing InnovAge to complete its transition from a nonprofit to a for-profit company and expand its services. The transaction also establishes the NextFifty Initiative, an independent, Colorado-based grant-making foundation dedicated to the state’s vulnerable and underserved aging population that is the recipient of the net proceeds of $196 million from the sale of InnovAge to WCA&S.
Louisville-based fitness and lifestyle company Gaiam Inc. (Nasdaq: GAIA) is selling its branded consumer products business to focus on its streaming media segment, while also rebranding the company to Gaia Inc. New York-based Sequential Brands Group Inc. (Nasdaq: SQBG) and operating partner Fit For Life LLC agreed to pay Gaiam $167 million in cash for the branded consumer products business, which includes yoga, fitness and other wellness products under the Gaiam and SPRI brands.
Boulder investment firm 1908 Brands acquired Boulder-based Appleooz, known for its organic apple chips. The deal is expected to help Appleooz quadruple production.
MOVES
Crunch Technologies, a Boulder-based startup specializing in contract opto-mechanical and ultra-fast optical design, will move into a new production and development facility in July. The 1,700-square-foot space at 4699 Nautilus Court, Suite 203, will allow the company to add “in-house opto-mechanical fabrication capabilities to the existing design and maintenance services for the ultra-fast laser community,” said Crunch Technologies founder Benjamin Langdon.
OPENINGS
Fort Morgan-based FMS Bank is opening a loan-production office at 155 E. Boardwalk Drive in Fort Collins. The bank currently handles some commercial loans for customers in Northern Colorado through its branch at 2425 35th Ave. in Greeley.
Bank of Colorado will open a branch bank in Longmont this summer, expanding the Fort Collins-based community bank’s footprint in the state. The new branch will be at 636 Coffman St., Suite 101, in Burden Inc.’s Roosevelt Place. The building is across the street from a Wells Fargo branch bank.Home State Bank previously occupied the 2,934-square-foot suite before relocating its Longmont branch farther south at 351 Coffman St.
Dan Williams and Darrell Daley partnered to form Williams & Daley LLC, a law firm at 1426 Pearl St., Suite 207, on Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall, specializing in complex commercial litigation. Williams and Daley began practicing law in 2001 and 1987, respectively.
Boulder County Farmers Markets, the nonprofit organization that operates seasonal outdoor markets in downtown Boulder and at the Boulder County Fairgrounds in Longmont, opened its third location June 4 at the newly renovated Union Station transportation hub in Lower Downtown Denver. The Union Station Farmers Market will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Saturday through Oct. 22 on the north side of Wynkoop Plaza at 17th and Wynkoop streets.
Oskar Blues Fooderies, the food-service arm of Longmont-based Oskar Blues Brewery, plans to open a restaurant and music venue in summer 2017 in the Market Center building at 1624 Market St., just off the 16th Street Mall and across from the Regional Transportation District’s former Market Street Station in Lower Downtown Denver. Oskar Blues also plans to open a CHUBurger fast-casual restaurant and a Hotbox Roasters coffee and doughnut shop this fall at 35th and Larimer streets in the RiNo arts district.
The makers of Motherlode Provisions barbecue sauce are setting their sights on a new restaurant and bar in Longmont. Motherlode, owned by Leland and Carolyn Oxley, is planning to open later this month at 950 S. Sherman St., serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. Motherlode, whose sauces sell in Whole Foods and King Soopers, among others, also make hot sauces and bloody mary mix.
Steve Rand opened a new Anytime Fitness at 1107 Eagle Drive on June 1. The location had been home to a Blockbuster Video store.
Englewood-based Centura Health opened its emergency and urgent-care center at the Indian Peaks Medical Center building at 4943 Colorado Highway 52 in Frederick.
ZingFit, a software company recently awarded a $2.8 million incentive package by the state of Colorado to relocate its headquarters from New York to Boulder, is negotiating a lease for office space at 314 Mapleton St. in Boulder. The company, based in East Hampton, N.Y., has six employees at its headquarters now and another eight spread around the country. Twelve of the 14 will make the move to Boulder.
Spoons, a homegrown restaurant chain that specializes in soups, salads and sandwiches, opened its sixth location in Fort Collins at 320 S. Link Lane on May 5, 13 years to the day after opening its first one. The new eatery at 320 S. Link Lane. Spoons’ founding owner, Tom Stoner, had opened the first location in the Northern Hotel at 172 N. College Ave. on that same date in 2003. Six months later he opened his second location at 118 W. Elizabeth St. in Campus West, and next came a store in the Lory Student Center on the Colorado State University campus. Spoons opened in 2010 near Harmony and Timberline roads in southeast Fort Collins and also serves in Allison Hall at CSU. In October, Stoner purchased the 10,000-square-foot building on Link Lane that had housed Alicia’s restaurant, which served both Asian and Mexican fare. The restaurant space had been Eloy’s and Castillon’s in previous incarnations.
Community Banks of Colorado is increasing its footprint in the Boulder market, with plans to open a full retail branch bank at the southwest corner of Broadway and Spruce Street in the historic Willard Building. Community Banks in January 2015 opened a loan-production office at 1434 Spruce St., and that operation will move to the Willard Building. The new branch will occupy 3,530 square feet on the first floor of the two-story building and is expected to open sometime in July.
One of two anchor sites that went vacant at the Village at Burlington shopping center in Longmont last year is about to see new life. Evergreen-based The Wild Game leased the 28,289-square-foot former Office Depot site at 2251 Ken Pratt Blvd. where it plans an entertainment center similar to its one in Evergreen, which includes bowling, a bar, arcade and live music space. The Wild Game is slated to open in the fall.
SERVICES
Car-sharing company Zipcar expanded into Fort Collins with a six-car fleet. A subsidiary of Avis Budget Group Inc., Zipcar allows members to reserve cars via mobile app for hourly or daily use.
McKee Medical Center in Loveland began offering 3-D full-field digital breast mammography and tomosynthesis, becoming the second Banner Health facility in Northern Colorado to use the technology.
