BizWest reveals its most-read stories of 2024

BizWest’s most-read stories of 2024 included new developments, layoffs, business closures, lawsuits and an airport terminal. Here’s a rundown of the Top 10:

10. Boulder rallies around the Dark Horse 

A pair of not-entirely unrelated phenomena have galvanized the University of Colorado community over the past couple years: the Coach Prime-led return relevance for the Buffs football program and potential closure of the World Famous Dark Horse Bar, a popular pre-game watering hole for CU students and alumni for the better part of five decades. 

The “Save the Dark Horse” effort began as redevelopment plans for Williams Village — a roughly 10-acre site on the 2900 block of Baseline Road that’s currently home to a Sprouts Market, the Dark Horse, Cosmos’s Pizza, a liquor store, a bank and other businesses — were made public in early 2024. 

The Williams family, which owns the property that includes a significant amount of underutilized surface parking area, and its development partner Morgan Creek Ventures, seek to essentially scrape the Baseline site to build 726,000 square feet of mostly residential space that could also include a new home for the Dark Horse. 

— Lucas High

9. Contract-pharma firm AGC Biologics make Boulder County job cuts 

“Fluctuation” in “the global biopharmaceutical business environment” resulted in 85 layoffs at the Boulder and Longmont facilities run by AGC Biologics Inc., a representative of the contract-drug maker told BizWest in September.

Just last year, the company expanded its Longmont facility, where the bulk of this fall’s layoffs occurred, by adding 30,000 square feet of space to add cell and gene therapy manufacturing capacity. AGC opened the Longmont facility in 2021, buying out a former Novartis cell and gene therapy production plant. The plant focused on working on complex cell therapy and viral vector products and substances, according to its website.

— Lucas High

8. Windsor approves $6M incentive agreement for second King Soopers

One of the biggest stories coming out of Windsor in 2024 was that King Soopers would be doubling down on this growing town in Northern Colorado.

The Windsor Town Board on Oct. 29 approved a $6 million incentive agreement to bring a second King Soopers store to town, which will perfectly complement the residential growth teeming on the city’s east side. The project represents a $43 million investment in the building’s construction and a total economic benefit of $22.56 million to the town.

Parent company Kroger reports that it will bring 375 new jobs with an average salary of $50,000 with the new store, which is expected to be operational in 2026.

King Soopers on the west end of town will also get a facelift, amid securing a 15-year lease where it is located. King Soopers sold the building in 2020 to GKT Windsor MarketPlace LLC. King Soopers had been searching for suitable properties for eight years, according to city officials. The incentive agreement accounts for the higher cost of land at the current site at the northeast corner of Colorado Highways 392 and 257.

— Sharon Dunn

7. Big crowds for airport unveiling

LOVELAND — Big stories usually become so because of big profits, big outcomes, big money or, in this case, big crowds. Northern Colorado Regional Airport in Loveland unveiled its new terminal in November, and roughly 1,500 people showed up to get a glimpse of the $22 million,19,400-square-foot, two-gate facility that could lure the return of scheduled passenger airline service to town.

Greeley-based Hensel Phelps Construction Co. built the terminal, which was funded with $16.9 million in federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act dollars, plus $2 million from the airport’s budget, $1.6 million from a Federal Aviation Administration grant and $1 million each from the cities of Fort Collins and Loveland, which jointly own the airport.

— Sharon Dunn

6. Lucky’s Fort Collins property changes hands

Lucky’s Market in Fort Collins has a new owner, after the downtown property was sold for $7.3 million in August.

McWhinney Real Estate Services Inc., which had completed a $3 million renovation of the store at 425 S. College Ave. in 2018, sold the property to entities controlled by California-based shopping center developer NewMark Merrill Cos. That company now owns or manages 13 retail centers in Colorado, including Village at the Peaks, Horizon Park and Fox Creek shopping centers in Longmont, Broomfield Plaza in Broomfield and Country Club Village in Westminster.

Lucky’s Market, founded in 2003 by Boulder-based chefs Bo and Trish Sharon, also operates its original location at 3960 Broadway in north Boulder along with a bakehouse and cafe in the same shopping center. At one time, however, Lucky’s had 39 stores across the country.

— Dallas Heltzell

5. Bass Pro rising in Loveland

Loveland finally reeled in a big one in December with ground broken for a 130,000-square-foot Bass Pro Shops megastore, which will anchor a mixed-use project called The Brands, northeast of Interstate 25 and Crossroads Boulevard.

The city had the project on the line since the 2016 approval of a 30-year business-assistance agreement between the city and Windsor-based developer Martin Lind and an incentive package approved in 2023. Lind had been determined to lure Bass Pro Shops since it walked away from a proposed site in the Centerra development one exit south around the time the Scheels sporting-goods store announced that it would locate nearby.

The store is projected to attract an estimated half-million visitors a year, generate around $40 million in annual sales and employ at least 150 people at an annual average salary of $54,000.

— Dallas Heltzell

4. Legends in Limbo

When the idea of Future Legends Sports complex originally was tossed into the realm of possibilities for Northern Colorado development, not a whole lot of people thought it could happen.

Now almost 10 years into the original idea that eventually became Future Legends Sports Complex, the best that could be said about the project is the ownership at least attempted some portions of it. The project, which was supposed to be a youth and professional sports Mecca of sorts, now looks at a long list of unpaid bills, liens and lawsuits surrounding the project. The complex is only partially built, and all indications so far is the massive project will remain mired in legal maneuverings for the foreseeable future.

Since the publication in July of BizWest’s cursory look into the troubled sports venue, “Legends in Limbo”, not a month has gone by without new developments filed in courtrooms from California to Florida. See Future Legends for full coverage.

Much has unfolded in the six months since that story was first published, and with a pending bankruptcy, and who knows what else as this story continues to unfold? In similar actions involving a previous project owner Jeff Katofsky was involved in Michigan, the case took two years to work through, with the judge ultimately seizing the property in question.

As we approach 2025, court hearings in the bankruptcy case may determine the trajectory of this project. Meanwhile, Katofsky has promised the courts that he has secured a $260 million loan to cover the past-due bills and finish the complex, but he has yet to provide proof of that in court documents.

Much of it will come down to a February court hearing to determine what is true and where the project goes from here. If past history is any indication, we’ll be keeping readers informed about Future Legends for years to come.

— Sharon Dunn

3. Nebraska sandwich joint Runza ends 4-year Longmont run

Lincoln, Nebraska-based fast-food chain Runza closed its Longmont location in December, ending a roughly four-year run in Boulder County.

The first Runza, which served Midwestern-style sandwiches with spiced ground beef, cabbage, onion and other fillings baked into a roll, was launched in 1949 in Lincoln by sister and brother Sally Everett and Alex Brening. The chain began selling franchises in 1979 and replaced car hops with drive-thru lanes in 1981. Today, most of its more than 90 locations are in Nebraska, but it also has franchised eateries in Clarinda and Creston, Iowa; Lawrence, Kansas; and Yankton, South Dakota. The only remaining Colorado location is in Loveland.

— Lucas High

2. Always low prices? Always? Walmart family lists $50M Boulder County ranch

In summer 2024, real estate brokers for the Walton family, the billionaire clan that owns Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT), began marketing Caribou Ranch, asking $48.5 million for the 1,700-acre property in the Rocky Mountain foothills near Nederland that for decades served as a recording retreat for megastar musicians such as the Beach Boys, Michael Jackson, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Chicago and Earth Wind & Fire.

A Walton-controlled holding company bought Caribou Ranch from record producer James William Guercio for $32.5 million a decade ago, according to county real estate records. The property was still listed for sale as of late December. 

— Lucas High

1. The Eagles have landed in Greeley, maybe.

His plan to build a new home for his Colorado Eagles minor-league hockey team at The Ranch events complex accepted and then rejected by Larimer County officials, Windsor-based developer Martin Lind looked eastward, buying strategic pieces of land and then approaching Greeley’s leaders with a far more ambitious plan for that city’s western gateway.

“Cascadia” would include a new arena including three ice sheets for youth hockey, along with a  hotel and water park, a plan that excited city leaders see as a catalyst for the growing city’s west U.S. Highway 34 corridor.

Now those officials have to study the feasibility of Lind’s complex proposed financing plan, which would require the city to fully guarantee $1.1 billion in debt for the project — similar to the structure used to create North Colorado Medical Center there. They’re also researching the potential economic impact, traffic issues, the competition with The Ranch’s Blue Arena and Greeley’s Island Grove Regional Park, and the potential risk — highlighted by Broomfield’s ill-fated experience with 1stBank Center.

— Dallas Heltzell

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