Briefcase: August 19, 2016

BRIEFS

The original Old Chicago pizzeria, which opened 40 years ago at the west end of Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall, is likely to lose its home. Property owner Philip Day, son of Old Chicago founder Frank Day, said parts of the building at 1102 Pearl St. that date back to the 1930s have become “decrepit” and too expensive to renovate. An application filed with Boulder’s Planning Department indicates that he plans to tear down the one-story restaurant and replace it with a three-story office and retail building including a ground-floor restaurant or retail shop.

The saga of an under-construction Martin Marietta Materials asphalt plant in unincorporated Weld County isn’t going away just yet. A Weld County District Court judge is requiring that Weld County commissioners provide more explanation of their approval of the project last year. Commissioners have until mid-October to pass a new resolution more specifically outlining why they believed the project met certain criteria. The Martin Marietta project had, and still does, face stiff opposition from neighbors of the site, who say it’s incompatible with the area’s rural setting.

Plans for a 123,000-square-foot King Soopers grocery store in north Loveland, as well as a small nearby retail center, have been scrapped. Phoenix-based Evergreen Devco withdrew its proposal from the city for the 20-acre parcel of land at the southwest corner of U.S. Highway 287 and 71st Street. King Soopers officials said they didn’t feel the location was a good fit.

Denver-based PDC Energy won’t move its employees and operations in Evans to a site in west Greeley after all. The firm scrapped plans to renovate a 61,500-square-foot, two-story building at 12680 W. 20th St. that has sat empty for several years. A company official said the firm’s Evans office is still too small, but did not elaborate on what PDC’s plans now entail.

A proposal to bring 182 apartments, 18 townhomes and commercial retail and restaurant space to the National Guard Armory site in north Boulder got a green light when the Boulder planning board approved the project brought forth by developers Bruce Dierking and Jim Loftus, a second iteration of the project that did away with initial plans for live-work studio-type spaces for artists. The new housing will be geared toward middle-income earners.

CONTRACTS

Sierra Nevada Corp., which bases its Space Systems Division in Louisville, was selected by NASA as one of six companies tasked with designing prototypes of deep-space habitats that are capable of sustaining astronauts for 1,000 days or more without supply deliveries from Earth. The SNC habitat will be designed to launch attached to Dream Chaser, but will include an electric propulsion system for transferring to lunar orbit by itself.

Fort Collins-based tech-startup incubator Innosphere announced a partnership with a Maryland company that will give a boost to the former’s suite of services in the life-science and digital-health realms as more and more of Innosphere’s client firms come from those sectors. The partnership with Glen Burnie, Md.-based CSSi LifeSciences will provide business and strategic support for Innosphere companies.

RollinGreens, formally a mobile food truck and catering service, signed a deal to distribute its line of Millet Tots — frozen, organic “tater tots” — in Sprouts Markets in Colorado. The Boulder-based company, founded by the husband and wife team of Ryan and Lindsey Cunningham, already sells the product line in Whole Foods Rocky Mountain Region, Natural Grocers, Lucky’s Market, Alfalfa’s Market and independents throughout Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana.

EARNINGS

Aleph Objects Inc., one of the stars of Northern Colorado’s startup scene, recorded its fourth consecutive quarterly profit during the second quarter of this year, with year-over-year revenue climbing 83 percent. The Loveland-based 3-D printer manufacturer did not disclose the amount of net income for the quarter, but revenue came in at $5.8 million for the quarter and $10.5 million year to date in 2016. Founded in 2011, Aleph makes the Lulzbot line of 3-D printers. In May, Aleph ranked first in BizWest’s Mercury 100 list of Northern Colorado’s fastest-growing private companies, with 2015 revenue of more than $10.5 million. Aleph recorded 2015 sales of $15.1 million, up 806 percent from just two years earlier.

Array BioPharma Inc. (Nasdaq: ARRY) reported a net loss for the fiscal year ending June 30 of $92.8 million as the Boulder-based firm continues with Phase 3 trials for multiple cancer drugs and prepares for commercialization. Array’s net loss equated to 65 cents per share and compared with net income of $9.4 million, or 7 cents per share, for the previous fiscal year, which was bolstered by a $80 million payment from Novartis related to Array’s binimetinib and encorafenib programs. Revenue for the 2016 fiscal year climbed to $137.9 million, up from $51.9 million the previous year, also due largely to reimbursement revenue from Novartis.

Ball Corp. (NYSE: BLL) reported net earnings of $369 million, or $2.54 per share, for its second quarter that ended June 30. The Broomfield-based can manufacturer generated $2.03 billion in revenue for the quarter. The net earnings included after-tax income of $217 million, or $1.49 per diluted share, associated with the sale of certain assets required by regulators before they approved Ball’s acquisition of London-based metal beverage-can maker Rexam for $6.1 billion in cash and equity at the end of June. Following the deal, Ball became the largest manufacturer of beverage cans in the world. By comparison, during the second quarter of last year, Ball Corp. generated $2.2 billion in revenue and net earnings of $160 million, or $1.60 per share. Ball Corp.’s quarterly results included Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., a subsidiary based in Boulder, that generated net earnings of $19 million on sales of $193 million for the second quarter, compared with net earnings of $20 million on sales of $230 million in the second quarter of 2015.

Bill Barrett Corp. (NYSE: BBG) recorded a net loss of $48.4 million, or 93 cents per share, for the second quarter ending June 30 compared with a net loss of $44.6 million, or 92 cents per share, for the same period a year earlier. Revenue came in at $47.3 million, down from $62.6 million last year. Production from existing wells in the D-J Basin hit 14,176 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

KUDOS

Boulder Community Health’s knee- and hip-replacement programs have been certified by The Joint Commission, the largest standards-setting and accreditation organization in the nation. The Joint Commission surveyed BCH’s Joint Replacement Program at Foothills Hospital and granted renewed certification for both services. The accreditation is valid for up to 24 months.

Fred Pitzl, administrator of the Good Samaritan Society’s Fort Collins Village, was honored in June at the company’s annual conference in Sioux Falls, S.D. He was nominated by his leadership team at the 43-year-old senior living community on Trilby Road.

Managing member G. Brent Coan and John W. Madden III of Fort Collins-based Coan, Payton & Payne LLC were included in “The Best Lawyers in America 2017.” Coan was selected by his peers for inclusion for the fourth year in a row.

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Vail Resorts Inc. (NYSE: MTN) struck a deal to acquire the largest ski resort in North America, Whistler Blackcomb, for $1.1 billion in cash and stock. The pending purchase of the resort in British Columbia continues Broomfield-based Vail Resorts’ march toward domination of the North American ski industry. Vail already owned three of the five largest resorts on the continent in Park City in Utah (7,300 skiable acres), Vail in Colorado (5,289) and Heavenly in the Lake Tahoe area of California and Nevada (4,800). But Whistler, which hosted the alpine ski events for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, checks in with more than 8,000 acres of skiable terrain. Under terms of the deal, which requires regulatory approval in Canada, Vail will pay $513 million in cash. Shareholders of Whistler Blackcomb Holdings Inc. (TSX: WB), meanwhile, will receive $543 million in Vail Resorts stock, accounting for about 10 percent of Vail Resorts common stock once the transaction is closed. Vail also will assume about $132 million in debt as part of the deal. Whistler Blackcomb will nominate one member of its board to the Vail Resorts board of directors, and Whistler chief executive Dave Brownlie will stay onboard as chief operating officer of the Canadian resort. The boards for both companies have approved the deal.

French dairy giant Danone SA’s pending $10 billion acquisition of Boulder-born organic foods company WhiteWave Foods isn’t sailing through without some opposition. The Cornucopia Institute, a watchdog group for the organic industry, asked federal antitrust regulators to block the deal “because it would concentrate too much control of the U.S. certified organic milk industry in one company’s hands.” WhiteWave is headquartered in Denver and bases its North American operations in Broomfield. Danone announced its plans to acquire WhiteWave in July.

MOVES

A Boulder-based company launched in 2006 to sell an innovative new type of ski boot is leaving town for a more visible location. Apex Ski Boots plans to move its headquarters by this fall to an Interstate 70 location in Golden that it believes will catch the eyes of more skiers headed to the mountains every weekend. Apex’s current headquarters is in Gunbarrel.

NAME CHANGES

Books are Fun, a Louisville-based company that conducts about 9,500 flash sales every week across the country to help schools and businesses raise money for charitable causes, has rebranded as Collective Goods.

Application Experts, a 10-year-old software company commonly known as App-X, rebranded as Altvia in an attempt to better align its name with its services. The company’s software helps private-equity and venture-capital firms streamline the flow of communication and information between fund managers, portfolio companies and limited partners or prospective investors. The first part of the Altvia name, company officials said, is a nod not only to alternative investments, but also to height or ascension. Combined with the Latin via, meaning road or way, they said the new name reflects the company’s drive to help clients create “a path to the top.” Altvia is projected to hit revenue of between $4.2 million and $4.3 million this year, up from $2.7 million just two years ago. The company has 27 employees, all based at 590 Burbank St. in Broomfield, where the firm earlier this year nearly doubled its office space.

OPENINGS

Sarah and Jason Stillman of Lyons launched a vacation-rental website aimed at connecting with those who wish to disconnect. FreeHouse, at discoverfreehouse.com, is an Airbnb-style site focused on remote properties that are “off the grid,” self-sustaining and disconnected from the electricity grid and, often, internet and phone access as well. Accommodations range from ski huts to yurts to mountain cabins, each with varying degrees of accessibility and comfort.

The owner of FirstLight Home Care of Boulder plans to open a second franchise location in Fort Collins in November. Brian Wilson of Thornton opened FirstLight in Boulder in 2014 to serve Boulder and Broomfield counties and some surrounding communities. Founded in 2009, Cincinnati-based FirstLight operates more than 115 franchise locations in 30 states.

The Residences at Balfour, a retirement community in Louisville, opened Wisdom Health, a geriatric primary-care medical practice located within the community at 1336 E. Hecla Drive. The practice is owned and operated by Dr. Anne Giesen.

Pittsburgh-based Guardian Storage is wrapping up construction of self-storage facilities in Longmont and Boulder that were to open in mid-August. Guardian Storage, led by president Steven Cohen, is building a 93,000-square-foot facility at 721 S. Emery St. in Longmont and a 35,000-square-foot facility at 5000 Broadway in Boulder. The $7.8 million facility in Longmont is a combination of one three-story, one two-story and three one-story buildings totaling 552 units. The $5.4 million facility in Boulder will consist of 268 units in a three-story building. Both facilities will have a mix of climate-controlled and non-climate-controlled interior and drive-up units in a variety of sizes, ranging from 5 by 5 feet to 14 by 30 feet.

Lucky’s Market, a natural, organic and specialty market that was started in 2003 by two chefs in Boulder, opened its new flagship store — and third in Boulder County — on Aug. 10 at 695 S. Broadway in the former Sears space in South Boulder’s Table Mesa Shopping Center.

PRODUCT UPDATE

Fort Collins-based New Belgium Brewing introduced four new releases for autumn: Pumpkick, a fall-festival favorite; Le Terroir, a wood-aged sour; Bretta IPA, which crosses wild Brettanomyces yeast with fruity hop varieties; and Fruit Fly, a stainless-steel sour.

Intuicom Inc., a Boulder-based supplier of wireless solutions to the Intelligent Transportation Systems market, released BroadBandPro Enterprise Management Software version 4.0. This latest iteration of Intuicom’s flagship enterprise-management platform provides a unified code base consisting of a no-cost field version and a full-featured enterprise version.

on Facebook on LinkedIn