Xilinx receives clearance to exceed height limit

LONGMONT — Xilinx Corp. has won its argument with the city of Longmont over the proposed height of an extensive campus-extension plan. Despite the Planning and Zoning Commission’s recommendation that the city reject a plan for Xilinx to build an additional eight buildings, five of which are taller than the current 35-foot restriction, the city council voted unanimously to allow the project to go forward.

The new buildings range in size from 7,000 square feet to 149,900 square feet and total more than 630,000 square feet combined.

Architects at Downing, Thorpe & James won over their opponents with high-tech digital photographs and drawings of the new buildings on Xilinx’s 33-acre campus. Council members said that the benefits, including an economic boost to the city, underground parking, open-space preservation, and an architectural plan that will seamlessly integrate the new structures into the existing campus, far outweighed the disadvantages.

While one of the buildings is designed to be nearly 65 feet high, designers from Downing, Thorpe & James argued that the underground parking artificially elevated the building heights and that sight lines along the campus would not be impeded.

Xilinx officials did not return phone calls inquiring if this means the San Jose, Calif.-based firm would move its headquarters to Longmont.

BLUE VISTA BEGINS: What started as a small three-acre development has grown up. A new mixed-income housing development officially will get under way this fall with a formal groundbreaking for Blue Vista Neighborhood. The 18-acre site in Longmont will feature 198 homes consisting of 12 separate designs, more than half of which will be designated as affordable housing.

Co-developer Thistle Community Housing initially bought a three-acre site to develop a small area similar to the nonprofit’s Buena Vista development in Boulder. However, a new opportunity caused the staff to re-evaluate the project.

“We initially bought the Myers property at the end of 2000,” explained Aaron Miripol, Thistle’s executive director. “In the midst of those discussions, we had an opportunity to purchase the property next to it, which is owned by two local developers. We took a risk. This was much bigger than what we were initially looking at doing. We were initially looking to replicate Buena Vista, but all of a sudden we had an 18-acre site so we will have 198 homes.”

Thistle Community Housing is jointly creating the development with Wonderland Hill Development Corp. and will use Wolff-Lyon Architects for design and Wyatt Construction as the builder. Thistle’s status as a 501 c (3) nonprofit organization brings with it different goals than most real estate developers. Since 1985, the group has built 308 homes with the majority being permanently affordable rentals. Thistle, which is committed to stopping the displacement of Boulder County residents, has received awards from the Colorado Office of Energy Conservation and the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department. In 1997, the Boulder Chamber of Commerce named the group “Nonprofit of the Year.” The site had a lot of opportunities built in, according to Miripol.

“I think the thing that really drew it to us is that the recreation center is right across the street,” Miripol said, referring to the new Longmont Recreation Center. “How often do you build a community where the amenities are that close by? Boulder County’s open space is just east and has 280 acres and just south is a proposed eight-acre public park. We felt like we had to get creative and move forward.”

While the affordability aspects lend themselves well to Thistle’s mission, its ultimate goal is simply to create a great neighborhood.

“One of the things that we’re really pushing is that this is a mixed-income community. We don’t even talk about the sense of affordability. It offers a range of housing prices. It is a community that a lot of people grew up with that had a big home and some small homes and an apartment complex on the same block,” Miripol said.

While the formal groundbreaking will not happen until sometime in September, dirt is already being pushed at the site, and Thistle hopes to have the first phase of homes done by July 2004 and the second and third phases done by 2006. Thistle is already taking presales applications for the new homes.

LOUISVILLE

BIG CORRIDOR LEASE: Louisville-based Cable Television Laboratories Inc., which has been housed for the past few years in two separate buildings, will soon merge its operations into one building. The nonprofit research and development association for the cable television industry has leased a 76,975-square-foot building that will allow the company to bring all of its 135 employees and 60 contract workers under one roof. It’s the largest lease deal this year in the Boulder Valley.

“Our two current facilities in Louisville are within a half mile of this new building. We are going to shut down both of those offices and combine them into the new building,” confirmed Mike Schwartz, senior vice president of communications. The building is the last of three buildings built in 1998 by Denver developer Trammell Crow in the Coal Creek Business Park. Broker Mark H. Lunde of CRESA Partners represented CableLabs, as it is informally known, while Richard Damm of Trammell Crow leased the building to the cable consortium.

The building has many advantages for CableLabs, according to Schwartz.

“It gets us back to where we can all see each other on a regular basis. It is also really wide open right now and pretty much see-through. What we have is laboratory space needs and office space needs. The fact that it is a wide-open building means that there is no demolition required, which was an advantage for us. We will be able to go in and design the laboratories as we need them right off the bat without worrying about any preexisting construction.”

While extensive tenant finish is under way, CableLabs still hopes to be working in the new building within six months. The company has signed an 11-year lease on the property.

“Our hope is to be in there by the end of January or Q1 of 2004 for sure,” Schwartz said. “We think this building will handle our growth. We have around 57,000 square feet right now, and the new building is almost 77,000 square feet. We definitely will not be on come crazy hiring curve right now so we think that extra space will give us room to comfortably and slowly expand as need be over the course of the next decade.”

STORAGETEK REZONING: Storage Technology Corp.’s campus may soon fit into local government’s thrust toward mixed-use developments if a recent rezoning proposal is approved.

The data storage giant has approached Louisville with a proposal to rezone much of its campus and add a separate site to the city’s holdings through annexation. While the property is currently zoned for industrial and agricultural uses, staff members from StorageTek have been working with city officials on plans to request rezoning to mixed-use status as well as the annexation. The company formally submitted its application to the city June 17 and has been meeting with residents at open house sessions at the Louisville Recreation Center.

“It’s important for us to let our neighbors know what we are doing,´ said Nell Schoeler, the company’s director of real estate and facilities management. “We believe our rezoning effort represents a positive and progressive effort to benefit the Louisville community by enhancing the region’s leadership as a technology corridor. We believe the community should have input and so we are pleased to sponsor these events as a way of inviting public comment.”

The plan was presented to the public July 16 and July 24 in Louisville and a follow-up to the public comment sessions will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 7, at the Louisville Recreation Center.

LAFAYETTE

WILLOW RIVER A GO: The owners of Cheese Importers, a specialty foods company that has been working out of its headquarters in Longmont for more than 25 years, soon will be moving to Lafayette under the terms of an agreement with the city. In early July, the Lafayette Urban Renewal Authority approved a proposal that has been under consideration for several months for the store to anchor a new marketplace at Coal Creek Village Shopping Center.

Willow River Markets, a limited partnership, brings with it the Willow River Natural Cheese and La Fromagerie European Marketplace brands. The partnership submitted its proposal to the city in early March but has only recently received the official response from Lafayette. The city agreed to give the company 50 percent of the equity in the purchase price of the property, which would be paid back with interest by the company with tax increment dollars. The loan would become due and payable upon the sale of the property to any other company.

The partnership’s leadership team includes Lyman White, chief executive and owner of Willow River Markets; Rich Jortberg, a prominent Boulder real estate consultant; Dennis Frolich, a Boulder attorney specializing in real estate development issues; and Kimble Hobbs, an award-winning architect who is leading the design process for the development.

The project will bring together the wholesale distribution operations of its tenants with retail outlets to sell product to the general public at discounted rates. Under the proposal, Cheese Importers’ retail operation will lead the transition of the property, located at 400 West South Boulder Road, into a regional showcase of specialty foods and related items.

BOULDER

VEXCEL EXPANDS: One of Boulder County’s leaders in remote sensing technology, Boulder-based Vexcel Corp., has closed on the purchase of a two-story office building at 1690 38th St. in Boulder. The new property contains 23,964 square feet and is nearly 10,000 square feet larger than the company’s current headquarters at 4909 Nautilus Court North.

“Essentially, we’ve just outgrown our current facilities,´ said Vexcel’s Jerry Scout. “We’ve experienced steady growth over the last couple of years, and that growth has required us to find more room. The facility that we are moving into will provide us with that much-needed room as well as allowing us room to grow.”

The new property, which also has more than 120 parking spaces, is undergoing extensive remodeling not only in terms of finish but also on the technology infrastructure front. The company has four different business groups that encompass ground systems, advanced radar technology, mapping and GIS technology, and other products involving data collection from aerial and satellite photography and three-dimensional imagery. Vexcel was founded in 1985, and its clients include governmental agencies as well as commercial customers and universities.

Norm DeHart and Will Gary of MacLaurin Stewart Corporate Realty Advocates represented Vexcel in the office purchase, and Lynda Gibbons and Chris Boston of Gibbons White represented the seller.

VIEWPOINT GOES MEDICAL: One of Boulder’s big office complexes is moving into the medical arena. The owners of Viewpoint on the Parkway, a 48,000-square-foot office complex on Arapahoe Avenue in Boulder, hopes to take advantage of its proximity to the new Boulder Community Hospital at Foothills to attract medical clients in the future.

“There was only a small amount of medical space allowed when the building was established,” explained Edd Perkins, a property manager with Wilkins Associates. “With the changes going on in the area and the hospital’s proximity, it seems very logical to try to expand in the medical arena. The access makes sense. Obviously, there is always concern with neighborhood sensitivity and traffic flows and all of that is being taken into consideration. We may have to make some adjustments to make it work, but we are very flexible in terms of being receptive to new ideas in order to adapt the building to the new needs.”

The firm, led by developer F.D. Wilkins, has applied to the city of Boulder to rezone the property to allow more medical uses. While the move is still in the hands of the city, Perkins has a full house at Viewpoint currently and can afford to wait.

“We’re on hold with the city right now, but we are fully occupied at the moment. However, I have turned down an awful lot of medical requests in the last six months when we did have vacancies. We’re looking forward to being able to work with those tenants.”

SPONGE CAKE AT DAIRY: A prominent local ballet company has been selected by the Dairy Center for the Performing Arts to become a resident organization. Led by artistic director Robert Sher-Machherndl, Lemon Sponge Cake Contemporary Ballet will be opening the LSCCB Dance Center in 1,332 square feet of the Dairy Center Sept. 2. The center’s management is excited about the move.

“It’s like adding a rare jewel to an already impressive collection,´ said Karen Gerrity, executive director of the Dairy Center.

BLITZ-BUILD UNDER WAY: Flatirons Habitat for Humanity kicked off its efforts in Boulder’s new Holiday Neighborhood July 23 with a “blitz-build,” an innovative effort to throw up houses in a hurry. The organization, along with Wonderland Hill Development Corp., has brought together volunteers from across the country to build four homes in Wild Sage, a co-housing development in the Holiday Neighborhood.

Volunteers will work for two weeks alongside the future owners to build the homes. A celebration will be held at the site at 12:30 p.m., Aug.2, to dedicate the newly built homes and recognize the 10th anniversary of the Flatirons Habitat for Humanity.

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