Tom’s of Maine opens CEO-training institute

BOULDER – Tom’s of Maine, a maker of natural personal care products such as toothpaste, has leased space here for a new non-profit dedicated to educating CEOs and the like.Kennebunk-based Tom’s of Maine, a $40 million company, has taken two offices, both at 885 Arapahoe Avenue. One will be a regional sales and marketing office. The other will house the Saltwater Institute, which provides leadership training.

“Very innovative leadership training,” explains Deben Tobias, executive director of the Saltwater Institute.

The principal program teaches CEOs and other organizational leaders the seven “intentions” of “values-centered” leadership, which were created by Tom’s of Maine’s Tom Chappell and which are outlined in his latest book, entitled “Managing Upside Down.”

The book’s program will be offered as a seminar that takes four days with a three-week period in between each day. The first training takes place in February at The Boulderado, and the next series will start in May. The courses are to be offered in Maine as well.

A group of about six people worked for six years with Chappell to “ground” the ideas and get the book written, Tobias explained.

“He’s written about what he’s been doing for the last 20 years in his own company,” he said.

The Saltwater Institute has about 1,500 square feet in the Highland building at Ninth Street and Arapahoe Avenue, Tobias estimated, but may take double the space in June once it gets rolling.

“We weren’t able to get it right away because it was occupied,´ said Tobias, who has worked as both a CEO and CFO.

Tobias said his work with Chappell has been a labor of love because he has a “great desire to create more fulfillment in the workplace.”

“One of the things we suffer on this planet is that work is not fulfilling,” he said. The program educates leaders on how to bring “personal values” into the workplace “so people do not have to leave part of themselves at home.”

Tobias said the program includes “deep inner work.”

“And it works,” he said.

LOUISVILLE

THE FAR EAST: Boulder-based restaurateur David Fan is developing Spice China, a new Chinese restaurant on McCaslin Boulevard and Century Drive in Louisville.

“I think in that area they do need a nice Chinese restaurant,” Fan said of the 6,000-square-foot structure. “And I wanted to have something other than what the traditional Chinese restaurants have been like in the past 10 years or so.”

Fan has owned “completely family-run” China Gourmet restaurant in North Boulder for 10 years.

Work on the 1.3-acre lot began in July. The restaurant, expected to open in April, will offer lunches for $6-$7 and dinners for $7-$11.

Denver-based Kevin Karis is the architect and Boulder-based Rimbey Construction is the contractor.

BOULDER

CHANGING HANDS: Miles King of the Colorado Group in Boulder has purchased the farmhouse at 4805 Baseline Road, at the corner of Foothills Parkway and Baseline, for $740,000. The home, built in 1919, sits on 1.26 acres of land zoned for medium-density residential development and probably will be developed into senior or moderate-income housing, King said in a Dec. 9 press release. The property, which last changed hands in 1985, was owned by Marian Burke.

NEWBIE: Kensington Leather & Luggage has celebrated the grand opening of its new 2,060-square-foot store just off the Pearl Street Mall at 1434 Spruce St on the 15th Street side of the newest downtown parking structure.

INCHING FORWARD: A second – and final – set of revised plans for the Ninth Street and Canyon Boulevard urban renewal site are expected on Dec. 20, according to city planner Elizabeth Hanson.

The Ninth and Canyon site and use review, including a private hotel, a public/private parking garage and civic uses, was first filed with the city in May. Revised plans then were filed in October. After the second set of revised plans are submitted, the project will be scheduled for a planning board hearing.

On Dec. 15, the Boulder Urban Renewal Authority commissioners were expected to review a summary of their November findings regarding the plan and review the revised project before planning board consideration. On Nov. 17, BURA had reviewed the project for compliance with the urban renewal plan for the area.

“While the BURA board found the plans to be in substantial compliance with the (urban renewal plan) provisions related to floor-area ratio, open space and parking, it asked for additional information to demonstrate compliance with traffic mitigation, pedestrian facilities, flood-control requirements and coordination with the civic uses,” Hanson reports.

A MALL’S LIFE: The Macerich Co., owner of Boulder Crossroads shopping mall, the south end of which is slated for redevelopment, says a survey commissioned by the company shows shoppers have found a way to use the Internet “without surrendering the comforts of mall shopping.”

Analysts have said for years that the Internet will make such a big dent in regular shopping that malls may one day become extinct.

“The results of this survey demonstrate the continued strengths of bricks and mortar retailing as savvy consumers turn to the Internet to research holiday purchases,” Macerich Senior Vice President and Director of Marketing Susan Valentine said in a prepared statement. “This year we’ve learned that a majority of our shoppers are accessing the Internet for pre-mall shopping visits and those buying online are buying merchandise from the sites of retailers in our shopping centers.”

The Macerich survey showed 89 percent of shoppers won’t buy their gifts on the Internet this year, that 38.7 percent will use the Internet for researching future mall purchases and that, of those buying online, a majority – 79.7 percent – will do all or part of their Internet shopping on sites of retailers found in shopping malls.

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