Audi Boulder owners building new car dealership in Broomfield

BOULDER — After 43 years in the city, Boulder’s Audi car dealership is moving to Broomfield — at least in part.

Grading has begun on the 4.58-acre site near the intersection of Northwest Parkway and Via Varra, where Audi Boulder’s owners are planning a new 57,442-square-foot facility.

Audi Boulder president and general manager Jaymie Hampson on Thursday characterized the new dealership as an “additional” site. She said that all new Audi sales will be handled in Broomfield. But she also made clear that Vancouver, Wash.-based Kuni Automotive, which owns Audi Boulder, is not leaving the Boulder site at 1799 Exposition Drive, though she said she couldn’t yet comment on Kuni’s future plans there.

Hampson said the best-case scenario as far as a timeline would be for the Broomfield dealership to open by early 2017. The new dealership is dubbed Audi Flatirons in plans submitted with the city of Broomfield, though Hampson said the name has not yet been finalized.

The new dealership received Broomfield city council approval in November. The site had been approved in 2008 for a Cambria Suites Hotel, which was never built.

“It’s going to be a beautiful building, and I’m really excited about it,” Hampson said. “We’ve outgrown our humble abode (in Boulder).”

Adolf Stammler opened Stammler Audi in Boulder in 1973. Kuni Automotive bought the dealership in 2013 when Stammler retired. It was renamed Audi Boulder at that time, and Hampson, who also has an ownership stake, was brought onboard to run the operation. She will oversee the new dealership in addition to the Boulder site.

Kuni has four other dealerships in Colorado, including Lexus dealerships in Colorado Springs and Greenwood Village, a Honda dealership in Centennial and a Land Rover dealership in Littleton.

An affiliate of Kuni owns the real estate on which Audi Boulder sits. Kuni also closed recently on the $4.4 million purchase of the land where the new dealership is to be built, buying it from MI Development Corp. of Texas.

The new dealership will be built just south of the Hyatt House hotel that sits at the southwest corner of Via Varra and West Midway Boulevard. The main public entrance for Audi Flatirons will be off of West Midway.

The new two-story building will include showroom and service areas surrounded by 188 parking spaces to provide for employee and public parking, as well as inventory. The city documents indicate that construction costs are estimated to be about $10.5 million.

Hampson said Audi Boulder employs 55 people. Some of those people will be moved to the Broomfield site, which is expected to employ 35 to 45 people, depending on how quickly the dealership grows, with some backfill hiring to occur in Boulder.