Front Range Internet connects with new headquarters building

FORT COLLINS – Front Range Internet Inc., the region’s largest Internet service provider, plans to vacate its downtown Fort Collins offices to move to new facilities on the city’s east side.
Owners of Front Range Internet prompted the move when they acquired the one-time Value Plastics Inc. building at 3350 Eastbrook Drive, roughly across the street from Fort Collins High School.
The 19,000-square-foot building, most recently used by a federal government agency, has been vacant for about a year. The Sampson family, owners of Value Plastics, sold the building to Eastbrook Ventures LLC, headed by Front Range Internet president Bill Ward, for $1.9 million.
Value Plastics has been located in its present facility, 3325 Timberline Road, since 1995.
Front Range Internet, founded in 1995, occupies about 13,000 square feet in two buildings in Old Town. The company, with 45 employees, has gradually expanded over the past eight years to take over the second and third floors at 213 Linden St. and the second floor of 223 Linden.
Ward said the company plans to move by the end of the year when its downtown lease expires.
The newly acquired property has “many of the features we need and some of the features we really can’t do where we are,” Ward said. “For example, the new building offers us the ability to have a class ‘A’ computer-room facility for co-location of customer equipment.”
In addition, the building includes fire suppression, backup power and cooling necessary for Front Range’s needs. The building’s open layout also allows more-efficient office design, he said.
Restrictions in the downtown property also kept the company from realizing revenue from services it could not establish in the current offices.
“We’ve done as much as we can in the current facility, but it’s a reasonably small facility,” Ward said.
Ward also plans to invest about $400,000 in modifications to the new property.
Front Range Internet’s relocation leaves a significant hole in downtown employment. Dave Veldman, landlord for 213 Linden and 223 Linden, said he doesn’t expect to find a single user to replace the vacancy. The space will likely be absorbed over “six months to a year,” he said.
“We’ll immediately market the space to five different users, with the largest space being the entire second floor of the Loomis Building (213 Linden) at about 5,800 square feet,” he said.
Veldman, who helped Ward acquire the new property, called it a good move for Front Range Internet.
“They’re making a huge move in the right direction to not only own their own real estate, but particularly with the building they purchased – it has lots of infrastructure. It sits on a fiber line right by Platte River Power Authority. It has redundant power systems including a backup generator. That’s the kind of redundancy they can offer to their customers.”
Ward doesn’t expect that the move will be accompanied by immediate growth in staff. But with sales growing an estimated 8 percent to 10 percent this year, he said, “Over time we will be adding some additional sales and support staff.”

on Facebook on LinkedIn