McWhinney group pays $21M for former HP building in Fort Collins

FORT COLLINS — An entity controlled by Loveland-based McWhinney Real Estate Services Inc. has purchased a former Hewlett Packard Enterprise building in Fort Collins for $21 million.

MO HP5 Harmony LLC, formed in November 2018, acquired the 192,270-square-foot building at 3420 E. Harmony Road from Hewlett Packard Enterprise on April 17, according to public records. The property includes three major tenants: Madwire, Comcast and Micro Focus.

MO HP5 Harmony LLC on April 30 filed a Form D with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, reporting that it had raised $9.9 million in equity from 48 investors. The minimum investment accepted from an outside investor was $10,000.

A spokesperson for McWhinney declined to comment on the transaction.

Madwire employs about 400 workers in the HPE building, occupying the third floor and a first-floor gym space. The company first consolidated in the building from three locations in Loveland in 2016 and recently completed renovations on a 102,000-square-foot building at 3405 Timberline Road.

That new facility will enable Madwire to expand to 1,200 to 1,300 workers in Fort Collins, but the company will maintain its current office at 3420 E. Harmony, where it occupies 70,000 square feet.

“Our lease is intact there and there should be no impact with McWhinney taking over that building,” said Farra Larimore, public-relations director for Madwire.

Madwire moved 150 to 200 workers from Harmony to Timberline but expects to ramp up employment at both locations as it approaches the 1,300-employee level.

“We’ll have both buildings for now,” Larimore said.” The plan is that we will be able to grow both spaces.”

Another of the HPE building’s major tenants is Comcast, which occupies 80,000 square feet in the building. Comcast opened a customer-service center at the property in July 2017, with plans to employ 600 workers.

Micro Focus, based in the United Kingdom, also leases space on the first floor of the 3420 Harmony building. HPE in 2016 announced that it would spin off its “non-core” software assets and merge them with Micro Focus.

Hewlett Packard Co. in 2015 split into two distinct companies: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (NYSE: HPE) develops software and services, as well as next-generation technology infrastructure. HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ) focuses on personal-computer systems and printers.