TMCnet News
Update: Catching up on Wal-Mart data center, downtown hotel and more [Gazette, The (CO)](Gazette, The (CO) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) The drumbeat of business news sounds constantly - new businesses, expansions, acquisitions and the like. Some plans blossom, while others wither away. As we head into 2012, The Gazette's business staff takes a look at some projects, deals and moves we reported on in the past year and where they stand today. Wal-Mart data center The world's No. 1 retailer has nine supercenters in Colorado Springs or just outside the city limits, and a 10th is on its way. Now, Wal-Mart is building something else - a corporate data center on the city's far north side. Wal-Mart started construction this fall on a 210,000-square-foot data center, southeast of InterQuest and Voyager parkways. In November, a general contractor working on behalf of Wal-Mart pulled a $107 million building permit for the facility, according to Pikes Peak Regional Building Department records. The data center is on track to be completed late in 2012, said Josh Phair, a Wal-Mart spokesman in Denver. Local government and economic development officials had courted Wal-Mart last summer, offering $4.5 million in sales and business personal property tax rebates to persuade the retailer to build its data center in the Springs. Wal-Mart will house technology equipment at the data center, where websites and internal computer networks and programs will be operated, according to the Colorado Springs Regional Economic Development Corp. Wal-Mart plans to hire 30 employees over three years to support the center. The Mining Exchange Hotel Construction is continuing at the Mining Exchange Hotel at 8 S. Nevada Ave., and what was once Winfield Scott Stratton's stock exchange should begin its new life as a boutique hotel in the first months of 2012, said general manager Tyler Sherman. "We are absolutely charging ahead," he said. "Things are really starting to happen at a fast pace." The Mining Exchange will begin by opening 57 rooms, with the remainder of its 117 rooms coming on board within 90 days, Sherman said. Remodeling such an old building has been a challenge, Sherman said, and construction has fallen months behind schedule. "The biggest challenge with construction really is a 110-year- old building," he said. "There's all sorts of things you can't foresee with a building this age." American Furniture Warehouse American Furniture Warehouse still plans to build a second Colorado Springs store and a warehouse to serve southern Colorado on a site it bought in May southeast of Powers Boulevard and Woodmen Road, but no schedule has been set for construction or opening. Jake Jabs, American Furniture Warehouse president and CEO, said through a spokeswoman that the company is "waiting for plans to materialize" for the facility, but declined further comment. The company paid $8.29 million for the 33.4-acre site at 6910 Templeton Gap Road, just south of the St. Francis Medical Center and about 10 miles northeast of American Furniture Warehouse's first location at 2805 N. Chestnut St., southwest of Interstate 25 and Fillmore Street. Jabs said in April that the company plans to build a complex that would include 120,000 square feet of showroom space and a 100,000-square-foot warehouse that would serve the two Springs stores and an American Furniture Warehouse store in Pueblo. Tucanos Brazilian Grill Those hungering for Tucanos Brazilian Grill to open at First & Main Town Center on the east side of Colorado Springs will have to wait a bit longer. Construction is under way and Tucanos is likely to open in March, said Fred Veitch, vice president of Nor'wood Development Group, which built First & Main. A fall 2011 opening was originally envisioned in an announcement made last February. Tucanos, a small chain with locations in Utah, New Mexico and Idaho, is similar to Texas de Brazil and Rodizio Grill. The restaurant has an all-you-can-eat option, which involves waiters bringing skewers of meat to you till you put up a stop sign, for about $20, or you can order a la carte. The Albuquerque Journal has called the restaurant "a meat-eaters' paradise." Berken Energy When New Mexico-based thermophotovoltaic company Berken Energy announced in April that it was relocating to Colorado Springs, it seemed the city was finally getting a win in the renewable energy field after seeing other prospects locate elsewhere or otherwise fall through. Berken is developing electric generators that work like solar panels, except they capture heat energy rather than light. In the end, however, Berken President Ken Newman said he wasn't able to find appropriate space in Colorado Springs and ended up leasing a research and development space in Fort Collins. Newman said he hasn't given up on the Springs, though. "We actually were not able to find a turn-key laboratory for our initial R&D facility there in Colorado Springs that had hazardous waste capabilities approved by OSHA/EPA," Newman said in an email. "Once we complete our first commercialization units, we will be looking for a large manufacturing operations (center), in which we still believe that Colorado Springs will assist us in finding some potential sites." Outreach Inc. Outreach Inc., a marketing, publishing and media firm that works with more than 60,000 churches worldwide, and which announced a year ago that it was moving to the Springs from southern California, is going ahead with its relocation. Outreach plans to complete the purchase of a northwest-side building in February that will serve as its headquarters, said founder, President and CEO Scott Evans. The for-profit company has contracted to buy a three-story, 63,000-square-foot building at 5550 Tech Center Drive, just west of Interstate 25 and Rockrimmon Boulevard, Evans said. The building once housed a FedEx data center. Renovation and remodeling will take about four months; Outreach then plans to begin its local operations in June, Evans said. Outreach will bring about 50 employees and their families with it as part of its move, and initially hire at least 50 more people in the Springs, Evans said. The company eventually plans to employ about 160 within five years. Entegris Entegris, a global high-tech company, announced plans in May to expand its manufacturing operation in Colorado Springs. In October, it began remodeling a former manufacturing building on the former Intel campus on Garden of the Gods Road, where the company plans to develop and manufacture products to support the semiconductor industry's move to larger, cheaper and more efficient 18-inch silicon wafers. The Massachusetts-based company already operates a nearby plant that employs about 200 to make packages used to transport computer chips. It plans to add as many as 100 jobs during the next five years as it ramps up production at the second plant. The expansion is the first in North America in more than a decade for Entegris' microenvironments division. Entegris is spending $15 million to remodel the 40,000-square-foot building at 1555 Garden of the Gods Road and buy equipment for the new plant, where production should begin in March. Bill Shaner, the division's vice president and general manager, said Entegris is hiring managers for the plant, which initially will be staffed with workers from the company's nearby plant at 4405 Arrowswest Drive; up to 25 workers could be hired in the second half of 2012 if demand requires high-volume production. Entegris is leasing the new plant from Industrial Realty Group, which bought the Intel campus in 2009, but may decide to acquire the building, depending on the success of the new product line, Shaner said. Copper Ridge at Northgate Some commercial real estate-industry skeptics question whether Colorado Springs developer Gary Erickson and Utah partner Kevin Hawkins will ever get their massive Copper Ridge at Northgate retail complex off the ground. Yet, Erickson says, Copper Ridge is "absolutely going to happen." Copper Ridge is a proposed 200-acre, 2.8 million-square-foot retail complex with an enclosed mall, lifestyle and traditional shopping center southeast of Interstate 25 and North Gate Boulevard. As envisioned, Copper Ridge's upscale stores would discourage local shoppers from spending their money at Denver-area retail centers, Erickson said. "Our two malls aren't meeting anybody's needs," he said of The Citadel and Chapel Hills malls. "Park Meadows (on the south side of Denver's metro area) is stealing all of our sales tax dollars. For us to think this large population is going to sustain itself with the shopping experiences we have is just foolish. We've got to create a shopping experience for El Paso County." In May 2010, the Colorado Springs City Council designated the area as an urban renewal site - a controversial decision that would allow future tax revenue generated by the project to be used to fund completion of an $80 million, 4.5-mile stretch of Powers Boulevard that would run through the site. In March, however, El Paso County officials rejected providing funding for the project. Since the county's decision, Erickson said he has continued working toward bringing retailers to Copper Ridge, and hopes to announce in the first quarter of 2012 that two big-box retailers will locate at the site. Vineyards Data Center business park The Vineyards Data Center, a planned south-side business park that would house several corporate data centers, could see construction of its first building early this year. Vince Colarelli of Colarelli Construction in the Springs, who's part of a limited liability company that's proposed the Vineyards project, said he's in talks with capital partners and hopes to have additional financing in place this month. He's also finalizing a reimbursement agreement with the Colorado Springs Urban Renewal Authority related to the project's development. The City Council designated the Vineyards property, 105 acres southeast of Interstate 25 and Circle Drive, as an urban renewal project in early 2011 and approved a special taxing district in September that would help fund public improvements at the site. Construction on an initial 75,000-square-foot building would begin early this year and be completed in the fall, Colarelli said. He's currently in negotiations with six to seven businesses who'd lease it for their data center operations. Plans also remain in place for larger, single-occupant data center buildings as part of the project, he said. The Broadmoor Denver-based Anschutz Corp., which completed its purchase of The Broadmoor hotel and its parent company, Oklahoma Publishing Co., in October, has made few changes in the resort's operation other than to appoint a new Broadmoor Hotel Inc. board headed by Anschutz Corp. owner Philip Anschutz. "He has a great respect for the hotel and its position in the industry," said Broadmoor President Steve Bartolin. The hotel will continue with remodeling plans for its South Lake building and the exterior of the Cheyenne Lodge as well as paving its employee parking lot west of Broadmoor Hall, which will allow the U.S. Space Foundation to put up a temporary structure to house exhibits during its annual Space Symposium, Bartolin said. Anschutz Corp. officials also are studying ways in which The Broadmoor can share resources with other Anschutz hospitality holdings, which include Xanterra Parks & Resorts Inc., an Anschutz subsidiary that manages 33 lodges with 5,000 rooms in national parks, state parks in Ohio, the Kingsmill Resort in Virginia and Windstar Cruises, Bartolin said. Anschutz Corp. also owns an interest in Sea Island Resort in Georgia. - Rich Laden, Wayne Heilman, Andrew Wineke and Bill Radford contributed to this story. (c) 2011 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved. |