Broe steps up development of Great Western site in Windsor

WINDSOR — Denver-based company Broe Real Estate Services Inc., the real estate investment arm of Broe Cos. Inc., wants to position the Great Western Industrial Park in Windsor for the growth that Northern Colorado is experiencing. To do that, it needs a master plan and an investment in the infrastructure that will make the site build ready.

Dean Brown, vice president of Broe’s industrial development group, told a group of commercial Realtors Tuesday night at Re/Max Eagle Rock in Loveland that the 3,000-acre Great Western Industrial Park will soon have its master plan in place and has begun to focus on the results of a market study.

First up: The Village Center, a 40-plus-acre commercial development in the northwest corner of the Great Western property at Colorado Highway 257 and Eastman Parkway in Windsor.

“Our market study showed that the area needs 200 acres of rail-served industrial land, 45 acres of commercial and retail, two hotels, space for multi-family housing and space for offices,” Brown said.

The Village Center, which deviates from the long-time industrial vision for the land that Broe owns in Windsor, will include grocery, convenience stores and restaurants, he said. Those uses are needed now, he said, noting that Windsor has almost no commercial developments in the southeast part of town.

Brown said the company is open to working with developers of the 100-acre Colorado National Sports Park, which is currently located just north of Eastman Parkway and the Broe property.

“We’ll be rolling this out to the ICSC [International Council of Shopping Centers] in Las Vegas in May,” Brown said.

On the industrial side of the Great Western development, where Kodak continues operations and Vestas Blades Americas Inc., Schlumberger Limited oilfield services company, Owens-Illinois Inc. glass products company and others have operations, the emphasis is to get parcels development ready.

“If you tell an [industrial] prospect that it will be nine months before a site is ready to build, they say ‘call me when you’re ready; we might be ready for our next project by then,’” Brown said. “We want to be able to bring a parcel to market in five to six weeks, not months,” he said.

To do that, the company will need to commit to building infrastructure, and that’s expensive. The company foresees many millions of dollars in expense to do it all, Brown said.

Despite that, it has had inquiries and expects to announce a deal or two in the next few weeks. The company is committed to working with the town of Windsor and its economic-development office. It plans to build a secondary access to the property along what will be an extension of Crossroads Boulevard. Even as a secondary access, the cost for Broe’s share will be $2 million, Brown said.

Broe also will meet with the Colorado Department of Transportation next week to request a traffic study on Colorado Highway 257. The 65-mile-per-hour speed limit in that area is much too fast for developments already in place, he said.

Brown, in answer to a question, said the property has adequate water and has contemplated building a water-treatment plant to treat the ditch water shares that it owns. That decision will be for a later day. Brown said the site build out will take 20 or 25 years and include the eventual redevelopment of Kodak facilities.