Work on Loveland Amazon property appears ready to begin

LOVELAND — While city of Loveland personnel are being uncommunicative about plans for the property at 6425 Byrd Drive in east Loveland near the Northern Colorado Regional Airport — the property purchased this month by Amazon.com for $9.4 million — activities suggest that construction is about to begin in earnest.

In fact, eight pieces of earth-moving construction equipment were on site Friday morning, some of them running.

Bob Paulsen, current planning manager for the city, said that the city is under a nondisclosure agreement with the company planning to develop the property, and he had been instructed not to share the status of the project.

SPONSORED CONTENT

How Platte River Power Authority is accelerating its energy transition

Platte River Power Authority, the community-owned wholesale electricity provider for Northern Colorado, has a history of bold initiatives.

Economic-development staff for the city have not returned telephone calls.

Paulsen acknowledged that a site work permit would be required for earthmoving operations, but when asked where that permit could be found, he said he didn’t know. The site is also surrounded by the 18-inch erosion-control fencing typical of construction sites. 

The project does not show up on the city’s development map. The city’s current project list is out of date, last updated July 28, 2021.

The City Council’s agenda for March 22 includes a “council executive session to discuss confidential business development.”

Typically, site plans, development plans and construction plans would need administrative approval or approval of either the planning commission or City Council before a building permit would be issued. Those documents, if they exist, are not available on the city website. BizWest has filed a Colorado Open Records Act request to access them.

Developers who have conducted business with Amazon, the likely builder of a multi-million square foot warehouse/logistics facility on the site, say that Amazon is notorious for requiring non-disclosure agreements that last for years.

People in the development community, including the city, have referred to the project as “Project Sugar,” and that name does show up in public filings available online.

Beginning last year, building permits for temporary structures, retaining walls, electric meters, a pump house, guard house and temporary construction trailers have been issued. An entry Jan. 26, 2022, identified as “director override,” cites the “Project Sugar – New Warehouse” and lists a size of 3,904,397 square feet.

Applicants for those permits have been contractors, and frequently the “Project Sugar” name appears on the documents.

The latest permits were issued March 7 and March 8 to Weifield Group Contracting Inc. Weifield, based in Centennial, has offices in Wyoming, Tennessee, Texas, Colorado Springs and Windsor. The Windsor location is the Industrial Division Office, according to the company website. It’s an electrical contractor that has previously done work for Amazon, including the massive 3.5 million-square-foot facility in Colorado Springs. 

Weifield noted on its website that it was a prime contractor on a distribution center project for Amazon. 

“We are installing infrastructure for a new research and development robotics program — the infrastructure is comprised of new 300A feeds, 60A feeds, connection to equipment, new breakers, and a new panel. Weifield won this project due to our relationship developed with GC (general contractor) partner, RC Andersen, on our new Amazon distribution facility in Colorado Springs. RC Andersen recommended us to Amazon for this project, as well,” the company website said.

The recent Weifield permits were for two construction trailers and temporary electrical connections for those trailers. The city also issued a permit in November for a retaining wall that would be up to 13 feet high and 1,600 feet long. 

The construction trailers sit at the end of Byrd Drive where the Amazon property is located. Vehicles were entering the site regularly Friday morning with the excavating equipment in the southeast corner of the property.