Old Town`s little shop of science wonders Colorado third in

Transcription

THE LISTS Utility Companies | LAW FIRMS | SUBMIT BUSINESS INFORMATION FOR future BIZWEST LISTS AT [email protected]
›› M A Y
Restore Colorado’s commitment to transportation 6
›› d i e r s c h o w
Focus on invisible parts of your business 16
›› B O L A K You can’t change what you’re unaware of
19
›› P I N S K Y
24
The business journal of the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado
Every minute of your life is an interview
volume 35 | issue 7 | March 18-31, 2016
UNWILLING
DRILLING
Landowners who object to extraction
face forced pooling, few options. PAGE 10
BREWING
FORT COLLINS
LONGMONT
EconoWatch
Ale honors
brewers’
pre-flood ties
Old Town’s
Start the presses:
little shop of
cidery set to open
science wonders in news building
Colorado third
in nation for tech
concentration
Spirit Hound, Upslope tout
Scottish-style beer. Page 3
Owner Matt Hannifin is
part of the magic. Page 6
Nine percent of all privatesector workers. Page 29
BizWest is an independent, locally owned business journal.
St. Vrain Cidery to occupy
former Times-Call site. Page 8
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BizWest | March 18-31, 2016
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Photos courtesy Wayne Anderson/Spirit Hound Distillers
Craig Engelhorn, left, of Spirit Hound Distillers and Charlie Condon of Upslope Brewing collaborated to produce a limited-release beer aged in oak barrels that previously were
used to make whiskey.
Barrel-aged ale honors
brewers’ pre-flood ties
Spirit Hound,
Upslope tout
Scottish-style beer
By Doug Storum
[email protected]
LYONS — A distillery in Lyons and a
brewery in Boulder have collaborated
to produce a beer aged in oak barrels that previously were used to age
whiskey.
Spirit Hound Distillers in Lyons
and Boulder-based Upslope Brewing Co. have produced what is being
called Barrel Aged Scottish-Style Ale
in a limited release.
“The beer is a Scottish-style ale of
around 9 percent alcohol by volume
that is made with a little peated malt,”
said Craig Engelhorn, Spirit Hound’s
co-founder and head distiller.
The beer’s backstory covers three
years when Spirit Hound was awaiting the arrival of its brew house for its
Lyons-based distillery.
“I’ve known Upslope founder Matt
Cutter for years,” said Wayne Anderson, the distillery’s head of sales. “So
I asked him if we could brew on the
Upslope system while we waited on
our own. He and his team were eager
to help, and they let us come in on
“We brewed the beer on
the same Upslope system
that we used to make our
first whiskey. So we’re
completing a nice little
circle with this beer and
it’s pretty special.”
Craig Engelhorn, co-founder and
head distiller, Spirit Hound Distillers
a series of Saturdays to brew. It was
extremely gracious of them.”
Engelhorn brewed five batches of
distiller’s wash at Upslope. He trucked
the wash to Spirit Hound, where it was
fermented, distilled and then placed
in five oak barrels to age and become
the company’s first product, Straight
Malt Whisky.
In September 2013, the distillery
was shut down for six months by the
flood that severely damaged Lyons
and other parts of Colorado, but the
barrels survived.
This past August, Spirit Hound
released and sold out of the first bottles of its Straight Malt Whisky, aged
for two years in those first “floodproof” oak barrels.
In November of last year, Upslope
filled those now-empty barrels with a
special Upslope beer. Upslope brewer
Charlie Condon collaborated with
Engelhorn and fellow distiller Steve
Williams on the beer recipe.
“We brewed the beer on the same
Upslope system that we used to make
our first whiskey,” Engelhorn said. “So
we’re completing a nice little circle
with this beer and it’s pretty special.
We would not have had any pre-flood
whiskey without Upslope’s very generous help.”
Condon said, “It was only right to
design the beer after the original whiskey wash. I worked with the Spirit
Hound team to craft a beer that is deep
and complicated and highlights some
of the unique flavors of the whiskey.”
The beer is on tap at both Upslope
Brewery tasting rooms in Boulder —
1501 Lee Hill Drive and 1898 S. Flatiron Court.
Doug Storum can be reached at
303-630-1959, 970-416-7369 or [email protected].
In August, Spirit Hound
released and sold out of the
first bottles of its Straight
Malt Whisky, aged for two
years in those first “floodproof” oak barrels.
4
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Anadarko to lay off 17 percent of workforce
What follows is a compilation
of recent news reported online by
BizWest.com. Find the full stories
using the search window at the top
of the homepage.
Anadarko Petroleum Corp., the
largest producer of oil and natural gas in Colorado, laid off about
1,000 employees company wide,
although the Houston-based company did not specify what portion
of the cuts occurred in Colorado.
The layoffs affected roughly 17 percent of the company’s overall workforce. As of March 10, the company
had not filed a Worker Adjustment
and Retraining Notification Act
notice with the state. Anadarko
has offices in Denver, Platteville
and Evans, and Robin Olsen, public
affairs manager for the company
in the state, said Anadarko still has
more than 1,000 Colorado employees after the cuts. It’s unclear how
many of those are based at the two
Weld County locations.
Posted March 10.
Groundbreaking set March 22
for $4.2M Timnath fire station
FORT COLLINS — The Poudre
Fire Authority will host a groundbreaking ceremony marking the
beginning of construction for its
new Fire Station No. 8 in Timnath.
News Digest
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the latest news as it happens. Sign up
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e-newsletters at:
n bizwest.com/
subscribe-to-our-newsletters
The ceremony for the project at
4800 Signal Drive will be at 11:30
a.m., Tuesday, March 22. The $4.2
million station is being built in
response to community growth
and increased demand for services
to those living in the southeast
portion of Poudre Fire Authority’s
response area, which includes the
town of Timnath, the city of Fort
Collins and unincorporated portions of Larimer County.
The project was designed by
Fort Collins-based Belford Watkins
Group LLC and is
being built by Brinkman Construction Inc.
Posted March 15.
Nest to grow Boulder
presence outside Google
BOULDER — The Boulder presence of Google — or rather parent
company Alphabet Inc. (Nasdaq:
GOOG, GOOGL) — won’t be confined just to Google’s new campus
when it opens near the corner of
30th and Pearl streets next year.
Alphabet company Nest, which
sha res space in Bou lder w it h
Google now, will remain in its current spot upon Google’s move, and
grow its own identity within the
city, Google and Nest officials confirmed. Nest signage already is in
place at 2525 28th St., one of four
buildings in town where Google
has space. Goog le’s presence,
including Nest, has grown over the
past 10 years to about 400 people.
Posted March 11.
Loveland DDA wants
issues back on ballot
LOVELAND — Still hoping to
jumpstart the “South Catalyst”
project to help revitalize its central business district, the Loveland Downtown Partnership and
Downtown Development Authority hope to try again in November
to approve the property-tax hike
and ability to borrow that voters
in the downtown district turned
down last November. Hoping that
clearer explanations this time will
carry the day, the quasi-governmental organizations’ boards are
recommending to the Loveland
City Council that the questions be
placed on the general election ballot again this November. One question would ask downtown residents
and property owners to approve a
levy of five mills in property tax,
and the other would be a “de-Brucing” measure that would authorize
the DDA to issue debt and keep and
spend tax revenue generated in the
district.
Posted March 7.
Judge asked to toss
Boulderado lawsuit
BOULDER — Attorneys for Travelers Indemnity Co. filed a motion
to dismiss a lingering lawsuit filed
by the owner of the Hotel Boulderado claiming the insurance company failed to provide adequate
insurance coverage for hail damage to the hotel during a storm in
May 2011. Concept Restaurants is
suing Travelers and several of its
insurance carriers. The lawsuit
was moved from Boulder District
Court to Colorado District Court
last month, according to court
documents filed Feb. 24. Concept
Restaurants contends the insurance company is failing to pay for
the full extent of losses from the
damage to the hotel at 2115 13th St.
in Boulder.
Posted March 3.
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Boulder-Louisville tolling
on 36 to begin March 30
Toll collection will begin March
30 on the final segment of the U.S.
36 express-lanes project between
Boulder and Louisville. That milestone will mark completion of the
project between Table Mesa Drive
in Boulder and Federal Boulevard
in Westminster. The project partners advised drivers who have not
already done so to get an ExpressToll account and pass. For carpoolers, the switchable pass is the only
device that will allow them to travel
in the lanes for free, and for single
drivers, the pass saves them money
by not having to pay a license plate
surcharge. Both passes work on all
Colorado Express Lanes, E-470 and
the Northwest Parkway. Passes are
available at expresslanes.codot.gov
or expresstoll.com.
Posted March 3.
Advocates, dealer partner
on deep EV discounts
Motorists and businesses in
Northern Colorado will be able to
buy plug-in electric vehicles at up
to 65 percent off the manufacturer’s
suggested retail price this month,
including federal and state tax credits, thanks to an expanded collaboration between a local advocacy
group and an automobile dealer.
Drive Electric Northern Colorado,
a partnership between the cities of
Fort Collins and Loveland, Colorado State University and the Elec-
trification Coalition, announced
its second group buy for the Nissan
Leaf in collaboration with Tynan’s
Nissan in Fort Collins. Through
March 31, consumers will be able to
buy a Leaf S for $11,400 or a Leaf SV
for $14,100 after potential savings
including state and federal tax credits and a pre-negotiated discounted
price from Tynan’s. The dealership, at 5811 S. College Ave., also
has included a fleet pricing option
through the group buy, allowing
businesses to purchase a new Leaf
S for $8,800.
Posted March 3.
Natural pet-food maker
fetches $5.25M in funding
BOULDER — NatPets LLC — the
Boulder-based maker of natural pet
food that does business as “I and
love and you” — recently raised
$5.25 million in new equity funding. The 4-year-old company disclosed the round in a filing with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, noting that the funds came
from a pair of investors. The company, majority owned by Boulder
investment firm Revelry Brands,
makes food, treats and supplements for dogs and cats that are
sold at grocery stores such as Whole
Foods, King Soopers and Lucky’s
Market, as well as pet stores such
as Petco. The company has revenue
of between $5 million and $25 million, according to the SEC filing.
Posted March 15.
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C o lli n s B i z
Old Town’s little shop of
magical science wonders
By Dallas Heltzell
[email protected]
FORT COLLINS — The space is
just 6 by 12 feet. Some walk-in closets
are bigger. But in those 72 square feet
of retail space on Fort Collins’ Old
Town Square, a tireless 58-year-old
entrepreneur has jam-packed enough
wizardry to make Albus Dumbledore
envious.
“There are more toys we were first
to sell in the United States than we
have square feet in the store,” said Science Toy Magic owner Matt Hannifin,
fresh from attending an international
toy fair last month in New York. “Every
toy we sell has to be durable, has to be
the best of its kind and has to demonstrate principles of science as if by
magic.”
What Hannifin doesn’t say is that
what he calls the shop’s “wow factor”
isn’t confined to the shelves of toys
soaring on either side of the narrow
space. The real magic is Hannifin
himself.
On any given day, a few customers
will crowd in to peruse the inventory, but even more will peer in from
outside just for the joy of watching
Hannifin perform, teaching hands-on
physics to awestruck kids of every age
as he sells his toys.
“I tend to sneak in a principle every
time they visit,” said Hannifin, who
employs costumes, rapid-fire banter
and any other form of showmanship at hand “to help them realize
how special they are. Everybody that
comes in has a special talent I haven’t
learned yet. I want to turn that talent
into a skill so they can live it, not just
do a party trick. It reminds me of my
own life.”
Dallas Heltzell/BizWest
Teaching scientific principles as he sells toys, Science Toy Magic owner Matt Hannifin
captivates the Hickman children from Denver — from left, Eile, 7, Enna, 5, and Eamonn, 7.
“I tend to sneak in a
principle every time
they visit”
Matt Hannifin, owner,
Science Toy Magic
That life included wondering what
to do after the Native American prep
school where he was teaching closed,
then running a store selling boomerangs in Austin, Texas, and a toy store in
Santa Fe, N.M., before opening in Fort
Collins in December 2008. But teaching has been the common thread. He’s
fluent in 10 languages and works to
preserve endangered tongues such as
Navajo, Gaelic and Hawaiian — and
teaching science in all of them.
You might see him sailing boomerangs or riding his self-balancing
electric unicycle up and down the
square, teaching at Fort Collins’ full-
immersion Global Village Academy,
and in his shop selling special safety
glasses for viewing a solar eclipse that
won’t happen until August 2017.
The shop was as dark as that eclipse
for nearly 10 months last year while
the square underwent its $3.9 million
renovation, after which Hannifin went
on a mission to let the world know that
businesses there were back up and
running. “The business owners signed
up for the risk,” he said, “but the waiters and waitresses didn’t.”
Hannifin has had dozens of offers
to return to full-time teaching, he
said, and “I can’t tell you that I’ll never
be tempted away.” But for now, he’s
feeding off the joy of discovery he
spreads.
“It’s been a very sweet life.”
Dallas Heltzell can be reached
at 970-232-3149, 303-630-1962 or
[email protected]. Follow
him on Twitter at @DallasHeltzell.
NEWS&NOTES
New leadership
at Otter Products
A new leadership team is in place
at the Fort Collins-based company
known for its OtterBox smartphone
cases. Steve Nisbet has been appointed
president of Otter Products and Jim
Parke has been named chief executive of the global firm, following the
recent resignation of Pete Lindgren.
Founder and owner Curt Richardson,
who stepped away from daily operations five years ago, will assume a more
active role with the company as “chief
visionary officer.” Lindgren joined Otter
Products four years ago and held the
role of chief operating officer before
succeeding Brian Thomas as president
and CEO in October 2014. After a career
of more than 30 years of work mostly
global companies, according to an Otter
Products company statement, Lindgren
is “taking time to pursue personal passions, including spending more time
with his family.” Nisbet started working
with Otter Products in 2010, moving
with his family to Hong Kong to open the
company’s Asia-Pacific office. Parke will
guide strategy for Otter Products while
also continuing to serve as CEO of Blue
Ocean Enterprises Inc., Otter Products’
parent company, a role he’s held for the
last three years. He previously served as
general counsel for both Otter Products
and Blue Ocean.
New Belgium Brewing
expanding distribution
New Belgium Brewing will expand
into New York in May, bringing the Fort
Collins-based craft beermaker’s products into a 44th state. The company has
signed agreements with 14 wholesalers
for distribution throughout the Empire
State. The move means New York City
area consumers will be able to buy New
Belgium beers on both sides of the
Hudson River, since the company began
distribution in New Jersey this month.
Connecticut will come online later this
year, said New Belgium spokesman
Bryan Simpson. New Belgium waited
until it had sufficient brewing capacity to
enter that market, he said, but now can
do it thanks to expansion of its brewery
in Asheville, N.C. That facility now can
produce a half-million barrels annually,
he said, compared with 1 million barrels
in Fort Collins.
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|
7
Restore Colorado’s commitment to transportation
T
he declining state of Colorado’s system of roads and
bridges is a ticking time
bomb that threatens our state’s
robust job growth and economy,
wonderful quality of life and vibrant
tourism industry. It’s time to make
transportation the top funding priority in the state,
and 2016 is the
time to rev up
a new funding
model to replace
the outmoded one
that’s been stuck
in neutral for
Fort Collins
years.
Recent polling Voice
David May
shows 90 percent
of Coloradans
believe our highways are in need of
repair and expansion. But it doesn’t
take a scientific poll; just ask anyone
who lives here. It’s as obvious as the
potholes under their tires and the
brake lights from the stop-and-go
traffic in front of them that Colorado
has a road problem.
What most Coloradans don’t
know, however, is that our state
devotes no permanent general-fund
budget dollars to transportation.
One of the primary responsibilities of state government is the state
highway system, but since 2009,
the Colorado General Assembly
has ignored it. This is a significant
change of policy. Until 2009, Colorado dedicated up to 11 percent of its
sales and use tax revenues to transportation funding before stopping
that commitment.
For a while, the excuse was the
poor economy. But since the Great
Recession ended in 2009, state
government revenue has grown by
$3 billion, none of which has gone
towards highways.
In contrast to Colorado’s
approach, Utah and Texas — two
of Colorado’s most aggressive economic competitors — have made
significant investments in their
transportation system, including
miles of new highway capacity.
Businesses around the state recognize the folly of not investing in
the highway infrastructure system.
One of the loudest voices has been
raised in Northern Colorado by the
Fix North I-25 Business Alliance
(FixNorthI25.com). Fix North I-25
leaders have come to realize that to
get Interstate 25 widened between
Colorado Highway 14 in Fort Collins and Colorado 66 northeast of
Longmont, we need to help the
entire state meet its transportation
funding problem. While problems
on North I-25 are acute, every corner
of the state has unmet needs. Thus,
the creation of Fix Colorado Roads
Utah and Texas —
two of Colorado’s most
aggressive economic
competitors —
have made significant
investments in their
transportation system,
including miles of new
highway capacity.
(FixColoradoRoads.com).
Our goal at Fix Colorado Roads
— a growing statewide coalition
of business and civic leaders — is
to create a permanent, predictable
and reliable funding stream for the
state’s roads and bridges.
During the current session of
the Colorado General Assembly, we
believe two things need to happen.
First, the Legislature should commit
to a guaranteed source of funding
from the state’s General Fund. We
believe $200 million is appropriate.
Second, a bonding mechanism
needs to be adopted to ensure that
the Colorado Department of Transportation can jumpstart delayed
maintenance priorities and build
large-scale road expansion programs across Colorado sooner rather
than later.
The bonding approach has been
used before. Low interest rates present the state with a historic opportunity to renew the successful TRANS
bonds from the 1990s, which would
generate approximately $3.5 billion
in proceeds to accelerate transportation projects that touch literally
every legislative district in the state.
We’re asking the Legislature to
refer renewal of TRANS bonds to the
fall ballot to let voters decide.
Our approach is a positive and
proactive way to address Colorado’s
growing transportation crisis. It
is increasingly clear that the “no
action” approach over the past seven
years is not working. We believe that
this is the year when the realization
of the current and future effects of
the transportation funding crisis
meets the political will in both parties to take action. Colorado can’t
continue to be stuck in neutral on
transportation funding. It’s time
to come together to put the issue of
transportation funding in the legislative fast lane where it belongs.
David May is president and chief
executive of the Fort Collins Area
Chamber of Commerce, convener of
the Fix North I-25 Business Alliance
and a founder of Fix Colorado
Roads.
Growing Colorado
businesses for
over 60 years.
Guaranty Bank and Trust helps local
businesses like Evergreen Landscape
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303.293.5500
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Evergreen Landscape and
Sprinkler Company
Member FDIC
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L o n g m o n t B i z
Start the presses
City’s first cidery to open in Times-Call’s former home
By Dallas Heltzell
The Landis just received their liquor
license
and are working through the
[email protected]
final permitting process, she said, adding that the couple plans to be open
LONGMONT — A couple plans to
from 2 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays through Satunveil Longmont’s first hard cidery in
urdays and from 11 a.m. or noon until 6
mid- to late-May in part of the buildp.m. Sundays.
ing that until recently housed the city’s
The majority of the space will be
daily newspaper.
public, she said, “but off to the north of
Dean and Cindy Landi are working
the taproom will be an area segregated
to open St. Vrain Cidery and Taproom
for our tanks. It’ll be visible, but behind
in 2,300 square feet of the former Timesa barrier.”
Call building’s first floor. The building
She said she’d like to preserve some
is at Fourth Avenue and Terry Street,
of the building’s newspaper past as part
but the cidery’s entrance and patio will
of the taproom’s décor. “We’ve asked
be off the alley on the east side, toward
them if we can keep one of the TimesCoffman Street, Cindy Landi said.
Call signs to honor the history. We still
The taproom will have 25 taps, she
have to talk to an electrician about it,”
said, featuring five of their own brews
she said. “We’d also like to take the old
and 20 from other local businesses
globe lights from
including Stem
the warehouse
Ciders, Colorado
“We’ve come up with
and see if we can
Cider Co., Wild
convert them to
Cider, Scrumpy’s,
some interesting flavors
LED. We’re really
Big Bs and more.
... like poblano pepper,
trying to honor
T he L a nd i s
grapefruit, ginger lime,
the space.”
met a long t he
T he Ti mesMississippi Gulf
basil lavender and a
Call moved its
Coast, where
traditional apple. We
s t a f f t o 18 6 0
Dean was a
Industrial Circle
marine biologist
have a barrel from Still
last yea r. The
with the NationCellars and would like to
n e w s p a p e r ’s
al Oceanic and
develop a barrel-aged
longtime headAtmospheric
quarters was sold
Administracider.”
to investor/develtion. They took
Cindy Landi, St. Vrain Cidery
oper Jamie St.
up home brewand Taproom
John for $2.4 miling while living
lion in Septemin Austin, Texas,
ber 2014. The sale
and the idea of
included the 48,310-square-foot main
opening a cidery was born after they
newspaper building, a 39,673-squaremoved to Longmont and met Dan
foot parking lot on the southwest corner
Daugherty, who runs a blog called Cider
of Fourth Avenue and Terry Street and
Sage.
an 11,875-square-foot parking lot to
“We’ve always talked about it, but it
the east of the building along the alley,
was just kind of a fantasy,” Cindy Landi
where the entrance to the taproom will
said. “So this just seemed like the right
be.
step to take.”
The Landis are in the process of
The couple started laying the
developing recipes for the ciders they’ll
groundwork for the business in January
offer.
2015, she said, then set about finding a
“We’ve come up with some interestspace. “We went to this amazing working flavors,” Cindy Landi said, “flavors
shop in Portland, Ore., and met some of
like poblano pepper, grapefruit, ginger
the leaders in the industry. We learned
lime, basil lavender and a traditional
a little more about what the industry
apple. We have a barrel from Still Cellars
was doing, and signed a lease at the end
and would like to develop a barrel-aged
of last year.”
cider.
Raising the money to start the busi“We’ve also heard something about
ness involved selling a condo they
a ‘St. Vrain apple’ — a variety of apple
owned in Austin and working with High
that supposedly disappeared in the
Plains Bank on a small-business loan.
1880s — so we’re trying to find out more
Then there was a GoFundMe page.
about that.”
“We were hoping to raise some extra
money for the patio and outdoor seating with that page, and we raised a little
Dallas Heltzell can be reached at
over $5,000 from friends and family,”
970-232-3149, 303-630-1962 or dheltshe said, “but we haven’t pushed that
[email protected]. Follow him
very hard.”
on Twitter at @DallasHeltzell.
Dallas Heltzell/BizWest
St. Vrain Cidery partners, from left, Dean Landi, Cindy Landi and Dan Daugherty hold a
tasting at the site of their new taproom, the former home of the Longmont Times-Call
newspaper.
www.bizwest.com
|
NEWS&NOTES
Oskar Blues acquires
brewery in Florida
Longmont-based Oskar Blues Brewery is acquiring Tampa, Fla.-based
Cigar City Brewing for an undisclosed
sum. The purchase comes one year
after Oskar Blues bought Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Perrin Brewing. The
Cigar City deal, however, figures to be
much larger. Cigar City brewed 60,000
barrels of beer in 2015, about four
times what Perrin was putting out at
the time of its acquisition. Oskar Blues,
by comparison, brewed 192,000 barrels last year. Both acquisitions were
made possible by a major investment
last year from Boston private-equity
firm Fireman Capital Partners. Oskar
Blues founder Dale Katechis sold what
has been widely reported as a controlling stake in Oskar Blues to Fireman, although the brewery never has
confirmed the exact size of Fireman’s
stake. The association with Fireman
has allowed Oskar Blues not only to
get into the acquisition game but also
accelerate its own growth — including expansions of its Longmont and
Brevard, N.C., breweries, as well as
construction of a new brewery slated
to open in Austin, Texas, next month.
The deal for Cigar City will allow the
Florida brewer to tap into Oskar Blues’
expansion expertise and provide
growth capital. Cigar City founder
Joey Redner will remain as chief
executive of Cigar City. Primarily, the
idea behind acquiring other breweries
has been to share expertise that Oskar
Blues officials have gained through
their own rapid growth to help others
find a smoother path to expansion.
Oskar Blues earlier this year expanded
distribution to its 49th state and soon
will be in all 50.
City tapping reserve funds
to pay Village at Peaks debt
The city of Longmont will have to
use money from its emergency fund
to make this year’s debt payments on
money it borrowed to help pay for the
construction of the Village at the Peaks
shopping center. To pay the $636,227
due on June 1, city staff is planning not
only to use $205,251 from Longmont’s
emergency fund but also to seek city
council approval to use $117,076 in
property tax revenue. The shortfall
comes from a shortage of sales tax
to be collected due in in large part to
the delayed openings of Whole Foods
and Sam’s Club. BizWest reported in
December that Whole Foods’ decision then to delay its opening at the
center by 11 months would cost the
city about $1.04 million in sales-tax
revenue.
Colo. Latino fest
set for June 26
The inaugural Colorado Latino Festival, spotlighting Latino and Caribbean
culture and sponsored by the Longmont-based Boulder County Latino
Chamber of Commerce, is scheduled
for noon to 7 p.m. June 26 on Main
Street in downtown Longmont. The
event will focus on entertainment,
USE US
hands-on activities, information
resources and Latin cuisine. In addition to the main stage headline band,
the event will feature a parade of flags
where participants from each Latin
American country will be invited to
march behind their perspective country’s flag from one end of the festival to the other. Organizers are inviting
the business community to participate
as vendors, sponsors or collaborators
for this event, which they expect to
draw more than 10,000 people. More
information is available from the chamber at 202-423-7060, thelatinochamber.com or thelatinofestival.com.
Cinema gets boost
in liquor-license appeal
Regal Cinemas’ quest to sell booze
at its new Longmont movie theater
has gotten a lifeline from a Boulder
District Court judge. District Judge
Maria Berkenkotter filed an order
indicating that the company’s appeal
of Longmont Municipal Judge Diana
VanDeHey’s denial of a liquor license
will move forward. VanDeHey had
denied the license around the time the
theater opened in November because
of concerns about the possibility for
underage drinking at the theater.
LEDP, Longmont create
small-biz grant program
LONGMONT — The Longmont Economic Development Partnership and
the city of Longmont have created a
new small-business grant program in
order to broaden the base of businesses that are eligible for city funding.
The new Advance Longmont Small
Business Grant will replace the current Start Up and Business Improvement Grants that were previously only
available to retail businesses. The
new grants can be awarded based on
either retail sales tax generation, or
new job creation in the community.
Grant funds are available to businesses for making permanent
upgrades and improvements to their
properties, or for startup costs such
as utility connections, licensing fees or
marketing costs. The grant will provide
up to 25 percent of eligible property
improvement costs up to $7,000, or up
to $2,000 for eligible startup costs.  A
business must be a brick-and-mortar
business located within a targeted
investment area in the city to qualify
for a property improvement grant and
can be located anywhere in the city to
qualify for a grant to help fund startup
costs.
The city of Longmont began offering
grants to retail businesses in 2006 as
part of an effort to support the retail
base of the economy and to diversify
the local economy. Longmont City
Council voted to allocate $50,000
from the general fund to the new grant
programs, which at the time were part
of the Longmont Economic Gardening
Initiative.  Existing or startup businesses in Longmont could participate in
the LEGI program, which also included
peer consulting, research and market
data and small-business workshops
for no or low cost.
for energy efficiency
information.
Whatever business you’re in, Xcel Energy’s team of energy efficiency specialists can help you save
energy and save money. Contact them at 1-855-839-8862 or visit xcelenergy.com/Business.
xcelenergy.com
© 2015 Xcel Energy Inc.
9
10
|
www.bizwest.com
Joel Blocker/for BizWest
Carl Erickson, a mineral-rights owner in Greeley, contends that oil companies have made “low-ball offers because they can always go to the COGCC and get an order to force pool.
That is dirty pool! Forced pooling is taking my minerals by eminent domain.”
Unwilling drilling
Landowners who object to extraction face forced pooling, few options
By Doug Storum
[email protected]
As low prices for crude and natural gas continue to hammer the
industry, oil and gas companies are
turning to a 65-year-old state law
that allows them to extract minerals,
often against the will of a landowner
who has mineral rights.
Oil companies have been beating
a path to the Colorado Oil and Gas
Conservation Commission applying for permission to “force pool,” a
process that allows operators to drill
a well to access a pool of resources,
often called a drilling unit, from
under a parcel of land that has multiple owners with mineral rights.
It usually involves horizontal
drilling, a technique that runs pipes
underground at a depth of 2,000 to
7,000 feet from one well to capture
resources in a pool area that can be
as large as 640 acres — the equivalent of one square mile, a more eco-
What is it?
Forced pooling: The act of being
forced by state law into participation in
an oil and/or gas producing unit. Pooling
is a technique used by oil and gas
development companies to organize an
oil or gas field.
nomical approach than drilling an
area with multiple vertical wells.
“Forced pooling has skyrocketed since horizontal drilling began
allowing for larger drilling units,”
said Matt Sura, an oil and gas attorney based in Boulder who has clients
in Northern Colorado. “Most people
are unaware of this law even though
it’s been around for a long time,” he
said, leading to angst and confusion
among mineral-rights owners.
Keeping track
The commission doesn’t track
the number of forced-pooling order
“We don’t get that many
requests from people
objecting to forced
pooling to address the
commission.”
Matt Lepore, Colorado Oil and Gas
Conservation Commission director
applications by month or county, but commission director Matt
Lepore agreed that there has been an
increase in applications in Northern
Colorado, especially in Greeley and
Windsor. “It’s hard to aggregate that
specific data with our system,” he
said.
Lepore said the uptick in applications likely is a result of the transition to larger units that will have
more owners involved and because
ow ners don’t always respond to
operators’ request to make lease or
working-interest ownership deals.
Sura
Lepore
Oil companies are allowed to use
forced pooling only as a last resort.
They first are required to offer mineral-rights owners the opportunity
to voluntarily lease their rights in
return for royalty checks, or become
a working-interest partner and pay
a portion of production costs before
realizing a portion of the well’s profit. There always is the possibility for
an unprofitable well.
An offer they can’t refuse
Mineral-rights owners can say no
to an offer to lease their rights to oil
and gas companies. They can say no
to the offer of becoming a working-
www.bizwest.com
|
11
Falling prices
Low oil and gas prices make forced pooling more economical for oil and gas operators, but also
make mineral-rights owners hesitant as they wait for prices to rise.
Natural gas prices, 2015-2016
3.4
USD per Million Metric British Thermal Units
3.2
3.0
2.8
2.6
2.4
2.2
2.0
$1.817
1.8
1.6
1.4
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
J
F
M
Joel Blocker/for BizWest
Crude oil prices, 2015-2016
This well site, owned by Synergy Resources Corp. and called Kelly Farms Well, sits
behind Northridge High School in west Greeley.
70
65
60
The forced pooling law
55
being granted a forced pool order by the Colorado Oil and Gas Commission.
USD per Barrell
Before you are force pooled, an oil company must follow good-faith efforts before
The oil company must notify you with multiple certified letters of an intent to
50
negotiate a lease.
The efforts must be made in good faith and be in line with current market condi-
45
tions.
40
If you still resist the lease attempts, the COGCC probably will call you in to con-
$37.24
vince you to agree to a lease agreement in good faith.
35
If you resist all good-faith attempts to lease, the COGCC may rule in favor of the
oil company and force pool your minerals. If that happens, you will become a mineral
30
interest owner in the well. You will receive a royalty of 100 percent of your mineral
25
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
J
F
M
acreage/unit size of the oil from the unit only after 200 percent of the cost of the drilling has been recovered by the operating company.
BizWest graphic | Source: Nasdaq
Mineral-rights owners can
say no to an offer to lease
their rights to oil and gas
companies. They can say
no to offers to become a
working-interest partner in a
well. But they can’t say no to
forced pooling if approved
by the Colorado Oil and Gas
Conservation Commission.
— Doug Storum
interest partner in a well. But they
can’t say no to forced pooling if the
order is approved by the Colorado Oil
and Gas Conservation Commission.
Once the commission declares
an area is a pool or unit, oil companies can ask to force owners to participate in a well operation after they
decline the first two options.
Some states require that oil and
gas companies secure a majority
of volunteer lessors for a designated pool, but Colorado has no such
requirement, Lepore said. “All it
takes is for the oil and gas company
to own a portion of the pool. Operators tell us that they don’t get many
responses to election letters.”
Such certified letters are required
from oil and gas companies to mineral-rights owners, requesting to
lease their rights or make offers to
them to become working-interest
owners in a well. Recipients usually find them hard to understand
“Forced pooling has
skyrocketed since
horizontal drilling
began allowing for
larger drilling units.
... It borders on
condemnation.”
Matt Sura, oil and gas attorney
because they are filled with legalese.
At least a dozen oil companies in
the past 12 months, led by Denverbased Extraction Oil and Gas LLC,
have applied with the commission
for forced-pooling orders in Northern Colorado.
Extraction Oil and Gas, which
recently applied for 10 forced-pooling orders, declined a request to be
interviewed for this story.
Please see Pooling, page 12
12
|
Pooling, from 11
Earlier this month, the Greeley
City Council approved Extraction’s
request for permits for 22 wells within city limits, going against recommendations by the planning commission and opposition from some
residents.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have
anyone available to speak on the
record w/ [sic] regard to pooling,”
an Extraction spokesman responded
by email.
Other companies apply ing to
force pool include PDC Energy Inc.,
Sy nerg y Resources Corp., Great
Western Operating Co., Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Chesapeake
Exploration LLC, Cub Creek Ener-
www.bizwest.com
g y, Wa rd Pet roleu m Cor p. a nd
Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Onshore.
Few applications denied
Lepore said the commission seldom denies an application for forced
pooling, but it would deny an application if a mineral-rights owner goes
before the commission and shows
that the oil company is not offering
a “fair market price.”
He said the commission approves
“about 99 percent of applications. ...
We don’t get that many requests from
people objecting to forced pooling to
address the commission.”
Carl Erickson, one of the few who
has testified before the commission
objecting to being force pooled, said
“Forced pooling is taking
my minerals by eminent
domain. … My minerals
are a part of my estate
and, as such, are mine to
sell or not, when I see fit.”
Carl Erickson, mineral rights owner
he feels oil and gas companies are
making “low-ball offers,” treading
on his rights, and that forced pooling
is unconstitutional.
The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission determines
the “pool” area, which can have multiple mineral-rights owners. Because
drilling in a pool drains the entire
pool, a ll minera l-rights ow ners
must be compensated. That works
for willing mineral-rights owners
who want to earn royalties, but it’s
forcing unwilling owners to give up
their mineral rights at the bequest of
privately operated oil and gas companies.
“It borders on condemnation,”
Sura said.
Erickson is the chairman of Weld
Air and Water, a nonprofit that is an
advocate for health and environmental safety, including issues surrounding oil and gas development in
Weld County.
‘Dirty pool’
“I have been harassed by Mineral
Resources and Extraction for several years, threatened with forced
pooling, and when they figured they
weren’t getting anywhere with me,
they started sending the assignment of mineral-rights papers to my
father,” Erickson said. “He’s been
dead for five years.”
Erickson contended that oil companies have made “low-ball offers
because they can always go to the
COGCC and get an order to force
pool. That is dirty pool! Forced pooling is taking my minerals by eminent
domain. … My minerals are a part
of my estate and, as such, are mine
to sell or not, when I see fit. Until
the industry develops a truly safe
way to extract, my minerals should
stay where they are. This is just good
stewardship.”
Erickson is concerned about safety factors beyond leaks that could
lead to contamination of water
sources.
“It’s not only the leaks, it’s the
allowable activities, like emptying tanks, opening thief hatches to
check levels, purging valves, cleaning out trucks, overfilling and so on.”
$PPSEJOBUFE
4PMVUJPOTGPS
4VDDFTT
Doug Storum can be reached at 303630-1959, 970-416-7369 or dstorum@
bizwestmedia.com.
!T#O"IZ0RIVATE#LIENT!DVISORSWELOOKATWEALTHNOTASADESTINATIONBUT
ASAJOURNEYALONGACONTINUUMTAKINGYOUFROMWHEREYOUARETOWHERE
YOUWANTTOBE9OUNEEDADVISORSWITHEXPERTISEANDACOMMITMENTTO
PERSONALSERVICEWHOUNDERSTANDYOURUNIQUENEEDS
#O"IZ0RIVATE#LIENT!DVISORSISANINTEGRATEDSUITEOFPERSONALÚNANCIAL
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PLANNERSPROVIDINGCOORDINATEDSOLUTIONSFORYOURSUCCESS
DPCJ[QSJWBUFDMJFOUDPN
The Business
Journal of the
Boulder Valley and
Northern Colorado.
Two great markets —
one great
business newspaper.
To advertise:
303-630-1954
970-232-3144
www.bizwest.com
|
13
Utility Providers
Ranked by number of customers
No. of customers
No. of employees
Website
% electric % water Email
% gas
% sewer Phone/fax
Person in charge, Title
Year founded
1
Xcel Energy*
1800 Larimer
Denver, CO 80202
2,792,436
3,783
51%
49%
0%
0%
www.excelenergy.com
303-245-2254/303-245-2292
David Eves, president, Colorado
1909
2
Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District
220 Water Ave.
Berthoud, CO 80513
800,000
90
0%
0%
100%
0%
www.northernwater.org
[email protected]
800-369-7246/970-532-0942
Eric Wilkinson, general manager
1937
3
Platte River Power Authority
2000 E. Horsetooth Road
154,000**
237
100%
0%
0%
0%
www.prpa.org
[email protected]
970-226-4000/970-229-5244
Jackie Sargent, general manager
1973
4
City of Greeley Water & Sewer Department***
1100 10th St., Suite 300
Greeley, CO 80631
125,000
105
0%
0%
100%
100%
www.greeleygov.com/water
[email protected]
970-350-9811/970-350-9805
Lory Stephens, office manager
1870
5
Fort Collins Utilities
700 Wood St.
77,098
400
91%
0%
44%
45%
www.fcgov.com/utilities
[email protected]
970-212-2900/970-221-6619
Kevin Gertig, executive director
1882
6
United Power Inc.
500 Cooperative Way
Brighton, CO 80603
76,629
171
100%
0%
0%
0%
www.unitedpower.com
[email protected]
303-659-0551/303-659-2172
Ronald Asche, CEO
1938
7
Atmos Energy Corp.
1200 11th Ave.
Greeley, CO 80631
51,000
43
0%
100%
0%
0%
www.atmosenergy.com
[email protected]
1-888-286-6700
Darwin Winfield, manager of public affairs
1942
8
Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association Inc.
7649 REA Parkway
39,500
85
100%
0%
0%
0%
www.pvrea.com
[email protected]
800-432-1012
Jeff Wadsworth, CEO
1939
9
Longmont Power & Communications
1100 S. Sherman St.
Longmont, CO 80501
38,238
103
100%
0%
0%
0%
www.longmontcolorado.gov/lpc
[email protected]
303-651-8386/303-651-8796
Tom Roiniotis, general manager
1912
35,215
132
100%
0%
71%
71%
www.cityofloveland.org/lwp
[email protected]
970-962-3000/970-962-3400
Steve Adams, director
1887
16,600
26
0%
0%
100%
0%
www.fclwd.com
[email protected]
970-226-3104/970-226-0186
Mike DiTullio, district manager
1963
11,000
35
75%
0%
25%
0%
www.estes.org
[email protected]
970-586-5331
Frank Lancaster, town administrator; Bill Pinkham, mayor
1917
Rank Company name
Loveland Water & Power
N. Wilson Ave.
10 200
Loveland, CO 80537
Fort Collins - Loveland Water District
Snead Drive
11 5150
Town of Estes Park - Water and Electric
MacGregor Ave.
12 170
Estes Park, CO 80517
Regions surveyed include Boulder, Broomfield, Larimer and Weld counties.customers.
* Customer and employee numbers are for all of Colorado.
Researched by Chad Collins
The Business Journal of the
Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado
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Law Firms
Ranked by number of attorneys
Managing partner
National
headquarters
Year founded
No. of attorneys
No. of partners
No. of employees
No. of associates
No. of paralegals
No. of offices in region
1
Holland & Hart LLP
1800 Broadway, Suite 300
Boulder, CO 80302
47
20
93
14
6
1
Transactions/Securities/Capital Markets/Wealth Transfer/
Counseling/Enforcement/IP/Trademarks/Patents/Licensing/
Technology/Real Estate/Finance/Resorts/Hospitality/
Employment/Business Litigation/Appeals
www.hollandhart.com
303-473-2700
Chris Gunlikson
Denver
1947
2
Cooley LLP1
380 Interlocken Crescent, Suite 900
Broomfield, CO 80021
42
13
78
27
8
1
Venture capital, technology and life-sciences law.
www.cooley.com
720-566-4000
Mike Platt
Palo Alto, Calif.
1993 - Colorado Office
3
Berg Hill Greenleaf & Ruscitti LLP
1712 Pearl St.
Boulder, CO 80302
31
16
57
12
3
1
Alternative dispute resolution, appeals, business, construction,
www.bhgrlaw.com
criminal, environment, government, litigation, real estate, trusts
303-402-1600
and estates, trademarks.
George Berg
Boulder
2001
4
Caplan and Earnest LLC
Boulder, CO 80302
24
11
42
24
7
1
Education, health care, litigation, estate planning, immigration, www.celaw.com
small business, corporate, and real estate.
303-443-8010
James Branum
Boulder
1969
5
Hutchinson Black and Cook LLC
921 Walnut St., Suite 200
Boulder, CO 80302
23
14
35
3
2
1
Corporate and intellectual property work, complex commercial
www.hbcboulder.com
and personal injury litigation, real estate development and
303-442-6514
leasing, estate planning and employment law.
Carla Sledge
Boulder
1891
6
Lyons Gaddis Kahn Hall Jeffers
Dworak & Grant PC
515 Kimbark St., Second Floor
Longmont, CO 80501
18
10
33
4
6
2
Accidents, personal injury, business, taxation, estate planning/
probate, water, education, special districts, government,
www.lgkhlaw.com
employment, real estate, land use, development, oil & gas,
303-776-9900
family, litigation.
Anton V. Dworak and
Catherine A. Tallerico
Longmont
1975
7
Dietze & Davis PC
Boulder, CO 80302
18
11
28
2
7
1
Business and commercial, estate planning a, real estate, water
www.DietzeDavis.com
rights, civil litigation, zoning and land use, environmental,
303-447-1375
energy, municipal, employment law and family law.
David Thrower
Boulder
1972
8
Frascona, Joiner, Goodman &
Greenstein PC
4750 Table Mesa Drive
Boulder, CO 80305-5575
17
7
34
6
11
1
Real estate, association law, family law, divorce, business,
securities, corporations, employment, estate planning, probate, www.frascona.com
wills, litigation, foreclosure, bankruptcy & mental health
303-494-3000
provider law.
G. Roger Bock
Boulder
1974
9
Lathrop & Gage LLP
4845 Pearl East Circle, Suite 201
Boulder, CO 80301
15
6
39
4
3
1
Intellectual property, IP litigation, transactions, patents,
trademark, copyright, biotech, technology, corporate.
Curtis Vock
Kansas City, Mo.
1873
10
Coan, Payton & Payne LLC
103 W. Mountain Ave., Suite 200
15
3
28
12
6
2
Banking, bankruptcy & reorganizations, business/corporate,
creditors' rights, commercial litigation, employment, estate
www.cp2law.com
planning, IP, international, land use/zoning, M&A, oil & gas, real 970-225-6700
estate, tax.
G. Brent Coan
Fort Collins
2013
11
Faegre Baker Daniels LLP
1470 Walnut St., Suite 300
Boulder, CO 80302
15
9
24
4
2
1
Handles a full range of business issues, transactions and
litigation.
John Marcil
Denver/Boulder
1863
12
Otis, Bedingfield & Peters, LLC
1812 56th Ave.
Greeley, CO 80634
14
5
23
9
4
2
Real estate, business, estate planning, environmental, oil and
www.nocoattorneys.com
gas, tax, commercial litigation, probate and trust litigation and
970-330-6700
appeals.
13
Sheridan Ross
390 Interlocken Crescent, Suite 890
Broomfield, CO 80021
12
4
18
8
4
1
Intellectual property, patent, trademark, copyright, litigation.
14
Bryan Cave LLP
1801 13th St., Suite 300
Boulder, CO 80302
11
9
21
2
3
1
Venture capital and emerging growth, technology transactions,
intellectual property, litigation, real estate, clean tech,
www.bryancave.com
corporate, mergers and acquisitions, securities, environmental 303-444-5955
law.
15
Cochran, Freund & Young LLC
2026 Caribou Drive, Suite 201
11
3
16
2
4
2
Patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret law and
technology licensing.
16
Wick & Trautwein LLC
323 S. College Ave., Suite 3
10
2
18
8
7
3
Civil litigation, general business, business formation, domestic, www.wicklaw.com
family law, estate planning.
970-482-4011
Robin Wick
Fort Collins
1978
17
Vranesh and Raisch LLP
1720 14th St., Suite 200
Boulder, CO 80302
10
6
14
4
1
1
Water rights, environmental, real estate, special districts,
litigation.
www.vrlaw.com
303-443-6151
Eugene Riordan
Boulder
1978
18
Jorgensen, Brownell & Pepin PC
900 S. Main St., Suite 100
Longmont, CO 80501
9
5
17
4
3
2
Construction law, mechanic's liens, real estate, family law,
divorce, child support and custody, estate planning, probate,
elder law, guardianships and conversatorships, criminal law,
personal injury.
www.jbplegal.com
303-678-0560
Anne Jorgensen
Longmont
1993
19
Fischer, Brown, Bartlett & Gunn PC
1319 E. Prospect Road
9
7
14
0
0
1
Estate planning and probate, trust administration, water rights www.fbbglaw.com
and environmental law.
970-407-9000
Margaret A. Brown
Fort Collins
1996
20
Gast Johnson & Muffly PC
323 S. College Ave., Suite 1
8
5
14
2
1
1
Real estate, business planning and formation, banking law,
employment law, will and trusts, civil litigation, community
association law.
Dan Muffly
Fort Collins
1997
21
Metier Law Firm LLC
4828 S. College Ave.
7
4
24
3
7
2
Automobile, motorcycle and trucking accidents and injuries, oil
and gas field accidents, insurance claims, unsafe products,
www.metierlaw.com
bicycle accidents, brain injuries, spinal cord injuries and
970-377-3800
wrongful death
T. Thomas Metier
Fort Collins
2002
22
Kottke & Brantz LLC
2975 Valmont Road, Suite 240
Boulder, CO 80301
7
6
11
1
3
1
Estate planning, probate, real estate, business law, corporate, www.kottkeandbrantz.com
domestic relations, tax law.
303-449-6161
Jon Kottke
Boulder
1996
23
Winters, Hellerich & Hughes LLC
5401 W. 10th St., Suite 201
Greeley, CO 80634
6
4
12
2
3
1
Civil trial, trials, appeals, litigation, estate planning, family law, N/A
oil and gas leases.
970-352-4805
Thomas Hellerich
Greeley
2004
24
Witwer, Oldenburg, Barry & Groom LLP 6
5
822 Seventh St., Suite 760
11
Greeley, CO 80631
1
2
1
Real estate, banking, commercial transactions, civil litigation,
probate, wills, oil and gas.
www.witwerlaw.com
970-352-3161
Stow L. Witwer, Jr.
Greeley
1965
25
Shoemaker Ghiselli + Schwartz LLC
1811 Pearl St.
Boulder, CO 80302
1
1
1
Business litigation, regulatory and internal investigations,
appellate practice.
www.sgslitigation.com
303-530-3452
Andrew Shoemaker
Boulder
2009
Rank Company name
5
4
6
Area surveyed includes Boulder,Broomfield, Larimer and Weld counties. All numbers are regional.
1 Did not respond, 2015 information.
Firm Specialties
Website
Phone
www.lathropgage.com
720-931-3000
www.faegrebd.com
303-447-7700
www.sheridanross.com
303-863-9700
www.patentlegal.com
970-492-1100
www.gjmlawfirm.com
970-482-4846
Fred Otis, Jennifer
Peters, Jeff Bedingfield,
Tim Brynteson, John
Kolanz
Greeley, CO
2010
Gary Connell and Todd
Blakely
Denver
1954
Christopher Hazlitt
St. Louis
1873
William W. Cochran
Fort Collins
2000
Researched by Chad Collins
www.bizwest.com
|
15
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www.bizwest.com
Focus on the invisible parts of your business
O
ur economy and our daily
lives run on utilities.
They’re so critical, in fact,
that government plays a major role in
ensuring their reliability and pervasive availability. But they also suffer
from invisibility.
When something is reliable and
universal, we
don’t spend much
time thinking
about it. Until
something interrupts it, of course,
such as a flood or
major storm or a
human-caused
small business
advisEr
event.
carl dierschow
This happens
a lot in business,
too.
If you have your financial transactions under control so that things
work smoothly 99 percent of the
time, congratulations! This is a fundamental part of running any successful business.
But don’t get lulled into complacency by the fact that it’s working so
well. Don’t let your folks think that
it’s unimportant because you don’t
talk about it much. Your house will
fall apart without regular attention
and maintenance, and your financial house can degrade when you
are distracted.
We tend to get pulled into solving issues. That’s understandable.
If something is working well, why
change it? Spend your attention on
the things that do need to change
because they’re broken.
When I work with clients, I try to
have a balance. We need to focus
attention on what’s important,
which may or may not be what’s
urgent. It may or may not be “broken.”
Perhaps you’re concerned
because there’s been an uptick in
customer complaints recently. You
might be tempted to call up each
customer in an attempt to smooth
things over.
But that’s just putting out today’s
fire. It does little to help lay a solid
foundation for the future. Instead,
as a leader, your role is to ensure
your team understands the impact
of this problem, give them the tools
they need to address it, monitor
progress and keep attention on
the issue, and help out when it will
really make a difference.
This can be tough for business
owners who are quite capable and
intelligent, who seem to worry more
about the long term-health of the
business than anyone else.
But your role isn’t fighting fires.
You worked hard to hire people to
do that. Your job is to train them,
We need to focus
attention on what’s
important, which may
or may not be what’s
urgent. It may or may not
be “broken.”
and to prevent fires. In our world,
that usually means creating and
managing an organization that
attends to the details, not doing it
yourself.
But sometimes you could do
it much faster yourself! Working
through others who are less capable
is so … messy! That’s a dangerous
trap.
I’ve been working with a number
of owners looking to retire from
their own companies. This is when
it becomes painfully apparent just
how reliant a business can become
on a single person — especially
a person who has the power and
inclination to take over the reins
whenever they want.
Here’s a useful exercise to work
on. Imagine that in four months
you’re going to take that wonderful holiday you’ve always dreamed
of. Let’s make it an African safari,
so it’s difficult for you to stay connected with your company on a
daily basis.
And, really, would you want to?
It would destroy the whole experience! This is a vacation, after all.
Now, what would fall apart if you
were gone for that long? Would
employees become disengaged?
Would you lose customers? Would
an important process (such as
ensuring that invoices get paid)
come to a halt?
Start creating an organization
that pays attention to these things.
They might be invisible to everyone
else, but that doesn’t mean they’re
unimportant.
Develop job roles with enough
redundancy that things won’t break
if someone is out of commission for
a period of time. Someone could
leave. There might be an extended
medical leave.
Or you might actually get to go
on that wonderful vacation you’ve
never been able to have.
And maybe, just maybe, you
might be able to retire from your
business and have it be successful
without you — with a buyout valuation that you’re happy with.
Carl Dierschow is a Small Fish
Business Coach based in Fort Collins.
His website is www.smallfish.us.
www.bizwest.com
|
17
Business goes organic through B Corp process
I
’ve always considered myself
a tree hugger. I haven’t owned
a car for years. We compost,
recycle and have LED lights at the
office.
A couple of years ago, I went to a
workshop held by the B Lab team.
Their mission is to serve the global
movement of people using business as a force for
good. They have
a certification a
business can get
so it can say to the
world, “We are a
B Corp.” Sounds
Work/Life
fun. Let’s give it a Shaun Oshman
whirl.
Until this time, I was quite proud
of the practices we have here at
iSupportU. Proportional to our
size, we’ve got some great employee
benefits, a fantastic gender balance
with a constant awareness of our
impact on the planet. This assessment knocked us down a couple
of notches. Hosted on SalesForce,
this B Lab assessment goes through
focus areas such as governance,
workers, community and environment. Within each one of these sections, there are questions that show
the measurable impact of the business on the world.
The first time we went through
the assessment, we were 20 points
short. My staff and I were disappointed that we did not stack up to
a third-party certification system.
We were not to be defeated. The test
gives you a list of areas to improve.
This list can be sorted by changes
that are most impactful (largest
points) or by the easiest things to
change. Upon reviewing the list, we
enacted the following changes:
We secured the ability to offer six
weeks of maternity leave through
our short-term disability coverage,
which we offer to all employees.
Score (points).
In the past we have always
ordered our office supplies from
Amazon. We chose recycled materials, but we were not working with a
local vendor for this need. Easy fix.
More points.
It turns out that Xcel offers a
wind-generated energy program. It
costs a bit more, but it means that
all electricity for our building comes
from wind power. Winning.
After these and many other
reflections and changes, we got
above the 80-point threshold for a
B Corp. The total process took eight
to 10 months for us from the time
we took the first assessment. Total
actual hours would be in the 20 to
24 range.
Why does the B Corp thing mat-
ter to us? We are always looking to
align ourselves with companies
that would be a good cultural fit.
We like to feel proud of our clients
and vendors. This program is a way
to increase the chances of cultural
compatibility with another company.
Since becoming a B Corp, we
have connected with some truly
inspiring companies at events and
via social media. These are the
kinds of organizations we want to
align ourselves with. B Corp is an
example of marketing by thought
leadership. Business is a vehicle.
That vehicle could be a Hummer or
it could be a Tesla. The type of vehicle you build your business to be
reflects to the world. We like being
a Tesla. Teslas are quietly amazing.
They are sustainable without compromising performance. They are
disrupting a stagnant industry. We
want the world to see us as a Tesla.
Getting B Corp certified helps to
clarify that picture for the world.
Shaun Oshman is founder and
chief executive of iSupportU in
Boulder. He can be reached at 303630-9974 or [email protected].
Brewers: Acquisition game
not all bad for craft industry
5GNO.NB@K
)RU<RXU&HOHEUDWLRQV

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David Fritzler, BBVA Compass; Will Herdrick, co-owner, Absolute Threshold Brewery; Josh Grenz, co-owner/head brewer,
Verboten Brewing; Angie Grenz, co-owner, Verboten Brewing;
Neil Fisher, co-owner/head brewer, WeldWerks Brewing; Chris
Banks, CFO/co-owner, Odell Brewing; Chris Otto, EKS&H; Luis
Ramirez, BBVA Compass; Mike Grell, EKS&H; Jim Sampson,
Hub International; Russ Henninger, Hub International; Tim
Cochran, co-owner, Horse & Dragon Brewing.
Sponsored by EKS&H LLLP, Hub International Insurance Services
and BBVA Compass.
Go to http://bizwest.com/ceo-roundtable for details
For more information about the CEO Roundtable contact
Sandy Powell at 303-630-1954 or [email protected]
18
|
www.bizwest.com
Tech spars: Founder Fights added to Startup Week
By Joshua Lindenstein
[email protected]
BOULDER — When the word “valuation” enters the pre-bout boxing trash
talk, you know it’s a pair of seasoned
entrepreneurs stepping in the ring.
“Winner gets to pick valuation,” PivotDesk chief executive David Mandell
tweeted to Brad Feld, the Techstars
cofounder and Boulder venture capitalist whose firm, Foundry Group, is an
investor in PivotDesk.
Fightin’ words. Boulder-style.
Both men are signed up to participate in Founder Fights, a new event
on the Boulder Startup Week calendar
this year aiming to match up founders,
venture capitalists and other local business owners to raise money for charity.
The event will be held in the New Vista
High School gym on May 20, the final
night of BSW.
It’s an event dreamed up by Mandell,
who has been training with The Corner
Boxing Club cofounder Carrie Barry for
well over a year. The relationship started
as a way for Mandell to rehab a bad back
but quickly morphed into his newfound
love of boxing.
Entrepreneurs are notorious, after
all, for being consumed mentally, and
often physically, by the pursuit of their
companies. What better way to escape
than by taking — or rather trying not to
take — a few punches.
Barry
Mandell
“With boxing, all of that stuff disappears,” Mandell said of the stresses of
running a startup. “You’re so focused for
that hour, it’s almost meditative because
you don’t think about anything else. …
Not only that, you get to hit stuff.”
“It’s completely changed my life over
the year and a half I’ve been doing it.”
The idea of Founder Fights is one
that’s quickly resonated in Boulder’s
startup community. Barry said 18 people have signed up to participate so far.
Noted startup coach Jerry Colonna is
among them, as are Made Movement
partner Graham Furlong and Premier
Mortgage Group’s Ariel Solomon, a former University of Colorado and NFL
football player. Techstars’ Nicole Glaros
is one of the latest to throw her name in
the ring, tweeting, “ok. I’m in. how do I
join?”
Of course, Mandell, Feld and the others will have to make it through Barry’s
training regimen before they’re allowed
to settle their fiscal feuds with gloves.
Far from your average strongman
competition, Founder Fights will be
a USA Boxing-sanctioned event run
by Barry, a former U.S. national team
captain.
Barry said fighters will be matched
according to age, weight and ability,
with plenty of emphasis on athlete safety. They’ll also be meeting at the gym
at 5:30 a.m. a couple of days per week
in the coming weeks to learn the basics
of boxing and get ready. Nobody will
box under the lights on May 20 without making it through the training and
proving to Barry they’re ready, she said.
Bouts, for the most part, will consist of
three 1-minute rounds. About two weeks
before Founder Fights, projected competitors will spar to make sure people
are evenly matched.
Because who’s going to run the city’s
startups if a bunch of ill-prepared founders get knocked out?
“Just because they sign up doesn’t
mean I’m going to let them box,” Barry
said.
Ideally, she said she’s hoping for
about six or so founder bouts intermingled with four regular amateur bouts
featuring fighters who train at her gym
squaring off against fighters from other
gyms.
Sponsor tables are going for between
$1,000 and $3,000, with individual tickets also available at www.founderfights.
com. New Vista will receive some of the
door proceeds for hosting. But a title
charity will also be selected to receive
proceeds from the event. And participants themselves will be raising money,
box-a-thon-style, for the charities of
their choices as well.
“It’s a really cool opportunity for
them to get their health back and get
back into shape if they’ve gotten out of
shape … do something competitive, and
do something to give back to our community,” Barry said.
Barry cofounded The Corner Boxing
Club, 5500 Central Ave., with her wife,
Kirsten Marshall, not quite two years
ago. The two coaches — Marshall is also
an active competitor — also have Khumiso Ikgopoleng, a three-time Olympian from Botswana, on their staff.
While The Corner Boxing Club might
be the first to stage a Founder Fights
event, the club might not be the last.
Mandell said he’s gotten inquiries
from other cities around the country
that host their own startup weeks about
staging similar events.
“We don’t want to commit to anything before we get through this one,”
Mandell said. “But it could have a lot
more legs.
“It’s certainly turned into a lot bigger event than we thought it would be
at first.”
Joshua Lindenstein can be reached
at 303-630-1943, 970-416-7343 or
[email protected]. Follow
him on Twitter at @joshlindenstein
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www.bizwest.com
You can’t change
what you’re unaware of
W
hat makes us do the
things we do?
Skill assessments can
help us identify unproductive
behaviors that we may not even be
aware of. Once aware, we can them
explore the underlying reasons for
those behaviors.
The easiest way to figure out
why we behave in certain ways is
to pay attention to our thoughts
and feelings that trigger our behaviors. Most of the
time employees
take actions
and respond to
stimuli without knowing
why they are
responding that
way and wheth- sales smarts
bob bolak
er or not that
sub-conscious
response is the best one for the
situation. Often when we engage in
training and professional development, we’re exposed to a variety of
new routines, tactics and strategies
for change and growth, but none
of that will produce the desired
results unless we have true selfawareness.
As an individual works to be
more candid and open to their
strengths and weaknesses, that
gives them a deeper perception of
themselves and what makes them
tick. It also highlights your individual communication style apart
from your environment and team.
Psychologists call this concept
humility; an honest appraisal of
what we’re great at and the areas
where we’re weak or tend to struggle. In business, we might take it
one step further and call it professional humility; the admission that
we are not a finished product and
are open to looking at our blind
spots to put strategies and tactics
to work to improve upon them.
Self-awareness. It seems simple
Self-awareness is a continuum;
it is not a binary quality. It can be
identified through benchmarking
assessment. While recently identifying a client assessment where
his self-awareness score was low,
he challenged the validity of the
assessment. Our trainer debriefing the assessment responded
with a simple question: “Don’t you
think it’s interesting that of all the
qualities on your assessment that
were measured, self-awareness
is the one you’re contesting?” In
other words, a truly self-aware and
professionally humble individual
would be much more likely to
be open to the data in their own
assessment. After all, it was they
who completed the assessment
and answered the questions.
So an individual on the higher
end of the self-awareness scale will
be much more open to recognizing
and accepting how others perceive
them, their attitude and responses.
Sometimes others’ views of us
surprise us. In the business world
this can be eye opening. If there is
a discrepancy between how others
perceive you and how you want to
be perceived, you can only work to
close that gap through awareness.
Becoming more self-aware is
easier said than done.
There are many steps you can
take to raise your level of selfawareness. Start with paying attention to your thoughts and feelings
and becoming more conscious of
what triggers them – particularly
the ones that create problems of
you in your work role with coworkers, direct reports, clients and
prospects. The more you know, the
easier it is to improve or change
them.
Feelings are an important guide.
Negative feelings such as anger
and aggression are signs that you
feel threatened or scared. Sometimes people act like bullies in
order to cover up hidden feelings of
weakness and vulnerability. When
you have an emotional meltdown
is a great time to journal on what
happened and objectively look to
alternative responses the next time
the stimulus or situation that preceded the meltdown happens.
Defensive people typically
deflect criticism or suggestions for
improvement, even when it comes
in the form of professional training and coaching. The next time
you are receiving less than positive
feedback, work to listen objectively
in your “adult ego state,” to clearly
understand and process what is
being said, rather than shutting
down to protect your “child ego
state” from feelings of inferiority
and rejection.
Being candid, self-aware and
open are the first steps to improving the skills and characteristics
that often cause us to engage in
unproductive behaviors. When
you’re able to embrace your positives and growth areas, you’ll not
only develop a new freedom, but
you’ll grow in ways you never
thought possible both personally and professionally. A positive
“identity,” or self-esteem, is essential for living a life filled with joy,
zest, confidence and accomplishment.
So go ahead, look in the mirror
and love the person looking back.
Bob Bolak is president of Sandler
Training. Contact him at bbolak@
sandler.com.
|
Choose Businesses
Invested in the
Children of
Our Community
Realities For Children provides for the unmet needs
of children who have been abused,
neglected or are at-risk.
Whenever you shop, dine or hire a
Realities For Children Business Member,
you become part of the solution to child abuse
in our community.
We Welcome These New Business Members!
We will provide you
with comprehensive
marketing benefits
AND you will be
giving back to the
most vulnerable
members of
our community.
Your membership
fee is a tax
deductible business
marketing expense
that allows the
charity to maintain
100% distribution
of donations.
For more information on becoming a Business Member
or for a listing of all Business Members, please call 970.484.9090
or visit www.RealitiesForChildren.com.
19
20
|
www.bizwest.com
R E A L DE A L S
Final plans in for Greeley hotel
By Doug Storum
Courtesy Johnson Nathan Strone
An architectural rendering shows what is being called the Greeley Hotel, a proposed
six-story, 147-room hotel and conference center in downtown Greeley.
a longtime property owner; and the
Richardson family.
Ehrlich said earlier this year that
the investment group has been negotiating to bring a Hilton brand hotel to
land adjacent to Lincoln Park.
Hensel Phelps has been working on
design options and costs for the hotel
and conference center while negotiating for the construction contract to
build the project, which initially was
estimated to cost about $20 million.
Hensel Phelps represents the devel-
oper/ownership group that will own
and operate the hotel.
Hensel Phelps has been the city’s
point of contact relative to the developers’ response to the city’s earlier
request for proposal, site design and
financial negotiations.
Hiring Hensel Phelps to serve as
general contractor for the hotel/conference center is at the discretion of
the ownership group, Greeley’s assistant city manager Becky Safarik said
in an email.
Building at Arista on track for July completion
By Doug Storum
[email protected]
BROOMFIELD — Crews have
reached the topping-out stage in
the construction of a five-story,
90,000-square-foot mi xed-used
building at Arista in Broomfield.
8181 Arista Place is being developed by Wiens Capital Management through the entity Arista Place
II LLC. Plans for the building were
announced in 2015 when construction began.
The $12.6 m i l lion bui lding,
designed by Denver-based gkkworks,
is going up adjacent to its sister office
property, 8001 Arista Place, both of
which are located near the 1stBank
center. The first floor is for retail and
restaurants, and floors two through
five will be for offices.
The roof and exterior skin are complete, window installation is underway
and interior finishes are beginning.
Construction manager/general
contractor Pinkard Construction Co.
based in Lakewood expects to com-
Denver firm pays $34 million
for apartments in Longmont
LONGMONT — A Denver-based property-management firm has purchased the
Stonebridge at Twin Peaks apartments
east of the Twin Peaks Golf Course in
Longmont for $34 million, or $197,674 per
unit.
Holland Residential of Denver bought
the 172-unit complex on 10 acres at 2424
9th Ave., from Littleton-based Stonebridge LLC, according to public records.
Stonebridge had purchased the apartments in 2006 for $18.5 million from Houston, Texas-based ATID Interests LLC. The
complex was built in 1998.
The complex consists of seven, twoand three-story buildings. The apartments
include one-, two- and three-bedroom
units. The complex includes a fitness
center, business center, pool, hot tub and
laundry facilities. Occupancy was 99.4
percent when the deal closed Feb. 24.
David Potarf, Dan Woodward, Matt
Barnett and Jake Young of CBRE’s Denver
Multifamily Investment Properties represented the seller.
[email protected]
GREELEY — Developers have submitted final designs for a hotel and
conference center that is being proposed for the corner of Seventh Street
and Ninth Avenue in downtown Greeley on city-owned property.
The Greeley City Council is scheduled to consider the development
agreements for the project at its April
5 regular meeting.
Plans show a 147-room hotel in a sixstory structure on the east half of the
property, which also includes a pool
and a full-service restaurant. That
tower structure is attached to the convention center that anchors the west
side of the property and faces the city’s
1700-seat Union Colony Civic Center,
a performance hall. The conference
center will have 14,000 square feet
of meeting space, which includes a
12,000-square-foot ballroom.
The structure at 919 Seventh St. will
be a blend of different brick materials and stucco, and features a glass
curtain around the main floor with
a prominent view and relationship
to the city’s adjacent historic Lincoln
Park.
T he development/ow nersh ip
group behind the project is made up
of prominent Greeley businessmen
including brothers Dick and Charlie Monfort, owners of the Colorado
Rockies; Scott Ehrlich, a longtime
auto dealer in Greeley; Bob Tointon,
PropertyLine
Eldon James Corp. makes plans
for facility in Harmony tech park
FORT COLLINS — A manufacturer of
components for medical equipment that
left Loveland and Fort Collins for Denver in
2013 is planning a facility in Fort Collins.
Eldon James Corp. has submitted
conceptual plans for a 90,000-square-foot
office/warehouse building at the northeast
corner of the intersection of Technology
Parkway and Precision Drive in the Harmony Technology Park.
Eldon James manufactures a wide
range of standard and custom hose
fittings, including adapters, couplers,
elbows, reducers and bulkheads at its
headquarters and 74,000-square-foot
manufacturing plant in Denver’s Stapleton
business development area. The company
invested $12 million in the facility, moving
from 47,000 square feet in Loveland and
9,000 square feet in Fort Collins in 2013.
In 2012, Eldon James pulled the plug on
plans to build a large facility in Timnath,
east of Fort Collins, where it would have
consolidated operations in Loveland and
Fort Collins. A year later, it moved operations to Denver.
According to Larimer County public
records, the 34-acre parcel on which
the project would be built, is owned by
Harmony Technology Park LLC, an entity
registered to Vlasic Properties LLC c/o
MAV Development Co. based in Ann
Arbor, Mich. HTP LLC purchased the parcel from Hewlett-Packard Co. in 2007 for
$14 million.
Leprino gets paperwork rolling
for plant expansion in Greeley
Courtesy Pinkard Construction Co.
8181 Arista Place, a five-story mixed-used building at Arista in Broomfield, is on track
to be completed in July.
plete the project in July, according to
Pinkard’s vice president Jim Mellor.
Pinkard constructed the 8001
Arista Place office mixed-use facility
in 2008, which has been 100 percent
occupied for several years.
When the overall 200-acre Arista
development is built out, it will fea-
ture 600,000 to 800,000 square feet
of retail space, approximately 1,500
units of multifamily residential and
approximately 200,000 to 400,000
square feet of office space. A considerable portion of the project will have
“urban” architecture, with minimal
setbacks, and on-street parking.
GREELEY — Denver-based Leprino
Foods Co. has submitted preliminary
plans for the third phase of its plant buildout at 1302 First Ave. in Greeley.
The third phase would cap the development project that was started in 2010 to
eventually build an 880,000-square-foot
plant run by nearly 600 employees. Company officials said there is no timetable to
start construction.
The maker of cheese and whey products has nine manufacturing plants in
the United States and a joint-venture
with Glanbia Cheese Ltd. in the United
Kingdom. It sells products to customers
in more than 40 countries. The company
claims it is the largest producer of mozzarella cheese in the world.
www.bizwest.com
|
21
Tight inventory keeps driving housing-price gains
W
e’re still early in the
year, but the signs are
pointing to another redhot rise in Northern Colorado housing prices for 2016 — possibly even
over and above last year’s doubledigit rate of home-price appreciation.
In February, the average
sale price was
$329,776 across
the region, up 8.5
percent over the
month last year.
But for two of the
Residential
region’s submarkets, Fort Collins/ Real Estate
Larry Kendall
Wellington/Timnath and Loveland/Berthoud, the rate of increase
is approximately twice the regional
average.
Last month, average prices in
Loveland/Berthoud were up 17.2
percent, and up 16.4 percent in Fort
Collins/Wellington/Timnath. Greeley/Evans, which experienced 13.8
percent growth in average prices for
all of 2015, saw prices go up 11.2 percent over last February.
Note that these price hikes are
following a year in which four Front
Range metro areas were among
the top 11 nationally in home price
appreciation. Greeley was No. 5,
Boulder No. 7, Denver-Aurora No. 8
and Fort Collins-Loveland No. 11. At
this rate, the Front Range might rule
those rankings again this year.
What’s fanning the flames? Last
month, we pointed out how the lack
of housing supply was not keeping up with demand. That shortage remains a factor that will force
homebuyers to compete for available houses, which in turn increases
the likelihood of bidding contests
over the limited inventory.
It bears repeating: With demand
outstripping supply, prices will continue to stay under pressure. And
homebuyers who have been waiting
to get in the market are paying a
price for their patience.
Here are some additional observations we’d like to share, based on
this home price data as well as market statistics that we’re seeing:
• Comparing February results,
average prices in both Fort Collins
and Loveland increased more than
$100,000 from February 2014.
• The average sales price in Estes
Park jumped $100,000 from a year
ago, to $396,626. It should be noted
that one of the 18 sales last month in
Estes Park fetched $1.025 million.
• Windsor/Severance actually
experienced a slight price decline,
from February 2015, but the average
is still up nearly $80,000 over Febru-
ary 2014.
• Employment growth is a leading
indicator of real estate demand 12-18
months later. From June 2014 to June
2015, Northern Colorado (Larimer
and Weld counties) added 10,100
jobs to its labor force — a gain of 4.1
percent. With that information, it’s
reasonable to expect that demand
will stay strong over the coming 12
months.
Now let’s see how February housing sales reflect on Northern Colorado’s submarkets:
Fort Collins/Wellington/Timnath: Similar to January, sales in
February declined from the same
last year, once again attributable
to shrinking supply. Sales for the
month totaled 201, down 6.9 percent. But at the same time, average
prices increased 16.4 percent.
Greeley/Evans: Unlike other
submarkets where sales totals are
up only slightly or even below last
year, the number of sales here actually jumped 16.6 percent to 161, with
an average price of $234,472, up 11.2
percent.
Loveland/Berthoud: Total sales
nudged up by 6.3 percent, but average prices surged by 17.2 percent
over last February. The average price
last month was $358,508.
Windsor/Severance: Previously
the most expensive submarket in the
region, average prices slipped by 1.5
percent to $383,237. Total sales for
the month, which were down in January by 19.5 percent, ticked up 15.7
percent in February to 59 closings.
Estes Park: Understanding the
sample size is smaller, but Estes Park
registered an average sales price of
$393,626 in February, surpassing
Windsor. The average price was up
nearly $100,000 over February 2015.
Ault/Eaton/Johnstown/Kersey/
La Salle/Mead/Milliken: As a group,
Weld County’s outlying communities experienced a 19.7 percent drop
in total sales last month. Additionally, the average price slipped to
$292,973, down 5.4 percent.
Longmont/Weld County-Boulder
County: We’re tracking sales in
two parts of Longmont — where it
crosses into Weld County, as well as
its larger Boulder County territory.
While it’s hard to draw conclusions
from the small amount of activity
on the Weld County side (eight sales
with an average sales price of $286,
824) the chart shows that sales totals
were down in February in Longmont
while prices held steady.
Larry Kendall co-founded associate-owned The Group Inc. Real Estate
in 1976 and is creator of Ninja Selling.
Contact him at 970-229-0700 or via
www.thegroupinc.com.
You are invited to the 9th Annual
6WUSVW`f6WeeWdfe
Sat., April 30th
2:30-4:30 p.m.
UNC Ballroom
:$ /18 7
2045 10th Ave., Greeley
Sample decadent desserts
and enjoy other sweet
activities all to help
women and girls in our
community.
13:)=3 96'31 4% 2 =9 4 ;% 6 (
7XITMRXSERSJ½GIWYMXI[MXLI\IGYXMZIPIZIPTVIQMIV½RMWLIWMR
ELMKLZMWMFMPMX]HS[RXS[R&SYPHIVPSGEXMSR[MXLYRHIVKVSYRH
TEVOMRK7YVVSYRHIHF]XLIZIV]FIWXSJ&SYPHIV;EPRYXMW
MHIEPJSVXLVMZMRKTVSJIWWMSREP½VQWERHLMKLKVS[XLGSQTERMIW
0IXXLIWXIPPEVZMI[WSJXLI*PEXMVSRWMRWTMVI]SYVNSYVRI]YT[EVH
&ODVV$'RZQWRZQ%RXOGHU6XEOHDVH$YDLODEOH-XQH
Tickets: $35 Per Person or buy a Diva Table
(10 reserved-seating tickets) for $400
Contact 970-304-9970 or [email protected] for tickets
DIAMOND SPONSORS:
SHARON
S
SH
HAR
ARON
ON H
HERDMAN
ERDM
ERDM
ER
DMAN
MAN
AN
Gold Sponsors:
Silver Sponsors:
Anadarko EKS&H Sears Real Estate
Sue Helfrich & Associates, Inc. Allstate
Thompson Advanced Dentistry
`/)=7'311)6'-%0'31
8,786))879-8)`&390()6'3
Media Sponsors: BizWest KUNC 91.5
The Best of Greeley Magazine
Friend Sponsor: Dr. Julie Kavanaugh, DDS
Proceeds from this event will be used to make grants to improve the lives of women and girls in Weld County.
The amount of your gift that is tax-deductible for federal income tax purposes is the excess of your donation
over the fair market value of $20 per ticket.
22
|
www.bizwest.com
S T A R T U P S
STARTINGLINE
Innosphere incubator
releases 2015 metrics
Startup incubator Innosphere graduated a record number of companies in
2015, sending 18 of the 42 clients it served
out into the world. Fort Collins-based
Innosphere charges startups a fee for
what is generally a two-year relationship in which companies get help with
things like access to test facilities, finding
product market fit and sales channels,
and accessing capital. Innosphere, which
is in the process of onboarding 12 new
startups this year, saw its 42 client startups generate $12.2 million in revenue and
raise $31.8 million in capital. Of those 42,
nine were in the digital health industry,
10 in bioscience and medical devices,
10 in energy and advanced materials
and 13 in software/hardware. Of the 18
graduates, meanwhile, four gained venture
backing and three were acquired. Client
companies also had 17 patents issued
and filed for dozens more. The companies employed a combined 221 full-time
employees and 75 part-timers.
Joel Blocker / For BizWest
From left, Dave Riess, chief technology officer and co-founder, goes over a reviewing plan with Bryan Birsic, CEO and co-founder, and
Sam Beaudin, head of product, during a board meeting at the Wunder Capital office in Boulder.
Solar-financing startup raises $3.6M
Wunder Capital
moves, closes
Series A round
[email protected]
BOULDER — Wunder Capital, a
Boulder startup aimed at connecting
accredited investors with mediumsized businesses looking to install rooftop solar equipment, closed recently on
a $3.6 million Series A funding round
that will help the company continue to
expand its reach.
Boulder-based Techstars Ventures,
Washington-based Fenway Summer
and New York-based Fintech Collective
led the round.
The cash infusion comes as Wunder
is fresh off of a move from Galvanize’s
Boulder campus to a new office at 17th
and Walnut streets. Chief executive and
cofounder Bryan Birsic said the sevenperson company will grow by three or
four employees over the next couple of
months and likely double to 15 by the
end of the year, adding to its engineering, design and marketing teams.
“We think even in a very conservative case this gives us two years (to reach
profitability or raise another round of
funding),” Birsic said in a phone interview. “It’s a nice amount of time.”
Wunder, founded in 2013 and a 2014
graduate of the Techstars Boulder accelerator, currently offers a pair of funds
in which investors can place as little as
$5,000 and have immediate diversifica-
tion across a number of large-scale solar
projects.
The company’s first fund is aimed at
lending directly to businesses installing
solar. The businesses essentially receive
a 6 percent loan paid back to investors
in the fund over 10 years. The second
fund, which launched in November,
provides shorter-term bridge funding to
installers and offers investors 11 percent
annual interest over two years.
Wunder originates, underwrites and
services the loans, making its money by
charging an upfront loan origination fee
and an ongoing loan-servicing fee to the
borrower.
Wunder has brought in more than
$1 million across the two funds that
has been used to back an undisclosed
number of projects to date. Birsic said
the average investment has so far been
more than $15,000.
The investment in solar is a strong
one for investors, Birsic said, not only
because of the increasingly strong market for the industry but also because the
asset and structure of Wunder’s loans
help reduce risk. In the case of the first
fund, for example, part of Wunder’s
original contract with borrowers is to
grant the company a $1 per year site
lease. So if the borrower defaults on the
loan, Wunder still can access the panels
to service and operate them, and can
sell the power they generate either back
onto the grid or to a new tenant of the
building they’re installed on.
The model gives individual investors
who might not have the capital to invest
in major utility-scale solar projects an in
to the solar industry.
But Jason Seats, a partner at Techstars focused on the organization’s
investment arm, said the Wunder model
also is providing loan capital for solar to
businesses for smaller-sized projects
for which large institutional investors
won’t generally bother lending money.
“They’re aiming at a segment of the
market of commercial solar that is typically understood to be hard to underwrite from a risk standpoint,” Seats said.
The model is particularly timely,
Seats said, because as the cost of solar
decreases relative to retail power costs,
the financing payments start to feel
more and more just like a monthly utility payment and less like a business is
paying a premium for solar power.
“Eventually those curves are going
to cross,” Seats said. “That’s started
happening over the last year, and it’s
just going to get more dramatic. There’s
a lot of hunger in the market for this
type of capital. It’s just figuring out the
structure.”
Birsic, who cofounded Wunder with
Dave Riess and Sam Beaudin, declined
to disclose revenue for Wunder. He said
he believes Wunder is fully capable of
reaching profitability within the next
couple of years and could stand on its
own at that point.
“But my suspicion is we’re growing
quite well,” Birsic said, “and would like
to bring in more capital to grow even
faster.”
at 303-630-1943, 970-416-7343 or [email protected]. Follow
him on Twitter at @joshlindenstein
Blue Ocean Enterprises
Challenge changes name
The Blue Ocean Enterprises Challenge
business pitch competition is leaving its
Fort Collins roots and going Hollywood.
Officials for Blue Ocean, the investment
company founded by OtterBox founder
Curt Richardson and his wife, Nancy,
announced that the $250,000 challenge
is being renamed the Capital Championship and aligning with a series of RECESS
Music + Ideas Festival events this spring.
The finals will be held in Los Angeles,
with semifinal events in six different cities
around the country, including Denver.
CU startup Mallinda
to enter Berkeley incubator
Mallinda LLC, a University of Colorado
spinoff, was one of six startups chosen to
participate in the Cyclotron Road incubator run by the Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif. The selection
means an early exit from the Fort Collinsbased Innosphere incubator’s two-year
program, but that was partially by design.
In fact, it was Innosphere officials who
turned Mallinda’s founders on to the idea
of applying to Cyclotron Road in the first
place.
Mallinda is an advanced materials
company that has developed a novel
plastic and advanced composite technology that the founders envision being used
in the manufacturing of everything from
moldable athletic gear and batteries to
automobiles and wind turbines. Cyclotron
Road, launched last year, is a program
geared toward helping cleantech companies advance their technologies and raise
funding.
Startups make pitches
at Angel Capital Summit
Boulder-based Neat Capital, SQFT and
SwimLane, Longmont-based Purewater
Therapeutics, Colorado State Universitybased IgnoreU and University of Colorado
Boulder-based Surya Conversions were
among 22 that pitched March 14-15 at
the Rockies Venture Club’s annual Angel
Capital Summit at the University of Denver’s Sturm Hall.
www.bizwest.com
|
Laws need not be clear
as mud; clean them up
I
from different doctors, there is the
have seen entrepreneurs overpotential for a negative interaction.
come challenges that defy
Having participated in draftdescription, that would bring
ing new laws and regulations, I
an average person to their knees or
know the difficulty of being clear
that otherwise would represent an
while creating something that is
insurmountable obstacle. There
practically useful. My contribution
is a level of pride in the sheer tenato this process was greater as an
ciousness of an entrepreneur to
entrepreneur that understood how
never give up. One of my favorite
the market worked than any of my
definitions of an entrepreneur is “a
legal training. I supported all of
person who is too stupid to quit.”
the individuals contributing to the
But all entrepreneurs have their
wording of new legislation: giving
limits. Some of
input on how the legislation might
these limits are
work when applied in a variety of
encoded in laws
business situations. I provided
and regulations
context. You could say I served as a
that govern how
crash dummy. At the end of the day,
businesses may
the new laws and regulations were
conduct themnot perfect, but they were far betselves. Some of
ter than many laws and regulations
these limits are
Entrepreneurs
that are drafted within the input of
the laws and reg- Karl Dakin
the business community.
ulations. There is
Entrepreneurs can help thema need for rules that enable everyselves by contacting their legislators
one to work with everyone else. But
and offering themselves as experts.
there is no need for laws and reguThe Colorado Legislature is curlations that are “clear as mud.”
rently in session. All of the proposed
This expression came up occalaws can be viewed at its website,
sionally when I was growing up in
www.leg.state.co.us. All of the coneastern Kansas. It might be attribtact information
uted to a politifor each legislacal speech, a set
Contact your local
tor also is on this
of instructions
site.
or anything else
chamber of commerce,
Contact your
that lacked clarprofessional or business local chamber of
ity: including
commerce, procertain laws and
association. Most of
fessional or busiregulations.
ness association.
I recently
these organizations
Most of these
engaged in a
have a person,
organizations
search for an
have a person,
answer regardcommittee or even a
committee or
ing a legal issue
lobbyist that tracks new
even a lobbyist
involving secuthat tracks new
rities law. As a
legislation. Talk with
legislation. Talk
licensed attorwith them about
ney, I did not
them about which laws
which laws are
start this search
are proposed where
proposed where
unprepared and
you may contribwithout a good
you may contribute
ute your experistart. However,
your experience to
ence to make
I was working
them clearer and
with two sets of
make them clearer and
beneficial. Many
laws that conof these laws
tradicted each
beneficial. .
will require new
other and made
regulations that
no provision
require a public
for resolution.
posting and an
I asked other
opportunity for public comment.
attorneys with more experience
Take this opportunity.
than myself and got a series of I
As much as our elected and
don’t knows, nos, maybes and posappointed officials are our represiblys, but no yeses and no consensentatives, they do not and cannot
sus. I found myself in a situation
know all the things that entreprewhere I became frozen by the law.
neurs may have learned through all
I wanted to obey the law, but it was
of their experiences. Without the
impossible.
input of entrepreneurs, some of the
Entrepreneurs have to face this
new laws and regulations may be
same challenge every day when
clear as mud. Do your part to keep
dealing with more and more laws
this from happening.
and regulations. Many of these
laws are conflicting, confusing and
Contact Karl Dakin of Dakin Capisimply beyond comprehension.
tal Services LLC at 720-296-0372 or
Like a medical patient who is [email protected].
ing a number of prescribed drugs
You Are Invited To Attend the
2016 Induction Luncheon
In Honor Of The Boulder County
Business Hall of Fame
Wednesday, April 27, 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM
at the Plaza Convention Center, 1850 Industrial Circle, Longmont
Tickets: www.halloffamebiz.com
Congratulations!
Class of 2016
2016 Boulder County Business
Hall of Fame Inductees
The Arnold family
William Glenn Arnold, Jr.,
and deceased Arnold family members:
William Glenn Arnold
Edward Ryan Arnold
Sanders Gibson Arnold
Richard Polk
President
Boulder’s Pedestrian Shops
Christine Ralston, and
deceased husband, Steve
Owner
Ralston Bros. Antiques, Inc.
Tom Kalinski
Broker/Owner
Re/Max Boulder
Leonard Strear
Former President
Longmont Foods
Dr. Joel Montbriand
CEO
Gastroenterology of the Rockies
Don and Lee Weakland
Owners
The Flower Bin
Presenting Sponsors
Platinum Sponsors
Silver Sponsors
Bronze Sponsors
Ed and Keith
Kanemoto
Copper Sponsors
Colorado
Group
23
24
|
www.bizwest.com
Every minute of your life
represents an interview
W
NOCOM
SAVE THE DATE!
2nd Annual Northern Colorado
Manufacturing Trade Show
A show for Colorado Manufacturers
by Colorado Manufacturers
OVER 100 EXHIBITORS
• Spotlight presentations • Women in
• Speaker hall featuring
Manufacturing Forum
industry leaders
• Reception
• B2B lounge
Thursday, April 28, 2016 | 9 am to 5 pm
First National Bank Building | The Ranch
Larimer County Fairgrounds
5280 Arena Circle, Loveland, CO
Women in Manufacturing Forum & Luncheon
11am WiM Forum at NOCOM - The Ranch
12pm Luncheon at Budweiser Events Center
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For exhibitor and attendee registration
WWW.NOCOMFG.COM
call complaining about how hard it
hether you realize it
has been to make a decent living in
or not, you are always
this town.
“on.” People are reading
I backed away. I decided to
you, sensing you, feeling you. Based
spend my money with a different
on how you make them feel, they
provider. She not only lost out on
will either lean in or back away. It’s
my registration but on referrals I
human nature.
may have made. I doubt she realWe constantly are being
izes that her negativity is what
reminded of the importance of netturned me off.
working. Making connections and
What about authenticity? Are
building relationships is the single
we supposed to pretend that we
most important thing we can do
are “doing great” when we are
to keep our
depressed or down to our last
careers healthy
dime? Being “on” is not about fakand vibrant. It’s
ing it. Meaningful connections can
who we know!
only form when we are genuine
And, it’s how we
and real.
show up that
I am not advocating that people
matters.
stuff their feelings, but there is a
Even very
time and place to share our deeper
casual contacts careers
carrie PINSKY
fears and concerns. If you are trycan be quite
ing to build a private practice or
powerful in
launch a business, hire a coach or
terms of linking us to new ideas
create a support network of trusted
and opportunities. As we expand
colleagues to help you through
our circles and meet new people,
times of discouragement. If you are
we learn about different informaa job seeker, process setbacks and
tion, resources and companies.
frustrations in the safety of a counWe all need a keen awareness of
seling setting or with close family
being “on” before we step out the
members – not
door. Even a trip
a recruiter
to the mailbox
Successful people know with
or at a networkand a chance
how and when to be
ing event. If you
encounter with
are not ready
a neighbor offers vulnerable. They reveal
to be “on,” then
the possibility
mistakes and share
stay home.
of meaningful
Successful
connection that
challenges in a way that
people know
could lead to
builds bridges rather
how and when
an interesting
than burns them. It is
to be vulnerable.
opportunity.
They reveal misSuccess can
generally considered
takes and share
seem like sheer
unattractive to speak
challenges in a
coincidence and
way that builds
happenstance.
negatively or blame
bridges rather
In reality, people
outside forces such as a
than burns
who understand
horrible boss, our age or them. It is generthat they are
ally considered
always “on”
the state of the union for
unattractive to
are more likely
our situations.
speak negatively
to turn seemor blame outside
ingly random
forces such as
encounters into
a horrible boss,
meaningful conour age or the state of the union for
nections. The goal is to continually
our situations.
grow our circles and then work to
For all these reasons and more, I
take key relationships deeper.
truly believe that every single minTo hone your sense of selfute of our lives is an interview. Like
awareness, consider how you presit or not, we are always “on.” Set
ent yourself in different settings
an intention to show up in the best
and situations. Are you showing up
way possible. You just might be the
in the best ways possible? Do peoperfectly placed stepping-stone
ple tend to lean in or back away?
in someone else’s career journey.
Are you someone that others would
And, the very next person you meet
feel comfortable recommending to
could be the best thing that ever
a hiring manager or referring as a
happened to you!
business resource?
I recently inquired about a
Carrie Pinsky is a freelance
training program offered by a local
writer, job-search coach and
entrepreneur. By the time I got off
training specialist. Reach her at
the phone, I no longer wanted to
Pink Sky Counseling and Career
enroll. Rather than engaging me
Services, 970-225-0772 or www.
about her unique offerings, the
pink-sky.net.
business owner spent most of the
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|
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and recognized for quality by the US News & World
Report.
Caitlyn Sheehan
Admissions Director
Lemay Avenue Health & Rehab Facility
4824 S. Lemay Avenue
970-482-1584
INSURANCE
Do I need an Army Corps permit
for my project?
Small Business Insurance – why investing
in commercial insurance is essential.
This question touches many
activities, from large residential
and commercial developments,
to stream or ditch bank repairs,
to family home construction.
Generally, one requires a permit
from the Corps before working
in wetlands and other protected
John Kolanz
waters.
Otis, Bedingfield
& Peters, LLC
The first thing to determine is
whether your project involves a
“water” protected by the Clean
Water Act. This can be tricky since many protected
areas are not always wet, while certain wet areas are
excluded from coverage. Recent efforts by the Corps
to clarify what constitutes protected “waters” has
actually created additional confusion. Moreover, the
Act exempts certain activities in protected waters
from permitting requirements.
Guessing wrong on what is regulated (including
pursuing a permit when one is not needed) can be
costly. A knowledgeable environmental attorney can
help answer your permitting question and, if one is
required, help identify the best path forward for your
project, saving time and money in the long run.
Whether you are a startup or
an established business, you face
potential risks everyday. These risks
differ greatly from one industry
to another and can often change
due to revised regulations. It is
important to ensure your business
Jamie N. May
is properly protected when and if
Small Business Sales
disaster strikes.
Executive
Insurance can be complicated.
To make the insurance buying
process easier, partner with a local
insurance broker or agent who specializes in commercial
insurance. This should be a longer-term relationship with
an insurance professional who you trust as your partner
and advisor.
When partnering with an insurance broker or agent,
the following insurance coverages are recommended to
be included in your discussion:
• General Liability Insurance
• Property Insurance
• Workers’ Compensation Insurance
• Errors and Omissions Insurance
• Automobile Insurance
• Directors and Officers Insurance
• Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI)
• Disability and Health Insurance
John Kolanz
2725 Rocky Mountain Avenue, Suite 320, Loveland
970-663-7300
[email protected]
Jamie N. May
Small Business Sales Executive
970-266-7133
[email protected]
Northern Colorado’s leading business, real estate and environmental law firm.
Choose experience. Choose proven results.
Our Practice Areas:
Real Estate and Business Law
Environmental Law
Greeley Office
Oil and Gas Law
Estate Planning
Probate, Trust and
Commercial Litigation
Back row: Lee J. Moorehead, Lisa Szasz, Shannan de Jesus, Michael D. Stewart, Christian J. Schulte,
Brandy E. Natalzia, Nathaniel Wallshein, Timothy R. Odil. Front Row: Timothy P. Brynteson, Jeffrey
T. Bedingfield, Fred L. Otis, John A. Kolanz, Jennifer L. Peters. Not pictured: Corey W. Moore
Appeals
Loveland Office
Tax Law
Greeley Office | The Doyle Building | 1812 56th Avenue | Greeley CO 80634 | 970-330-6700
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March 30, 2016 • 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Check in: 7:30 a.m. Networking, Breakfast
First National Bank Building
n
The Ranch
n
5280 Arena Circle
n
Loveland, Colorado
Reserve your seat (includes
breakfast & lunch) today
FOODandAG.BIZWEST.COM
Individual tickets - $49
n
At the door - $59
Come join us as we bring together
Colorado’s ag and natural-food
organizations and companies for the
latest insights affecting the future of
agriculture:
food
&ag
summit
presents
n
n
n
Providing education and cutting-edge
information on new technologies
and trends industrywide.
Networking with producers and
providers.
Encouraging discussion and
collaboration on opportunities and
challenges for ag and natural-food
sectors.
Agenda with dual tracks addressing needs of all facets of the agricultural industry:
Food Safety Modernization Act — The details
of this act and how is it affecting food and
agribusiness companies.
The Search for Talent — The challenges and strategies natural and organic companies have for finding the right
people at the right price.
Devin Koontz, Lead Health Communications
Specialist, Food and Drug Administration, Office
of Regulatory Affairs, Office of Communications,
Denver, CO
Financing — Raising money:
who are the key players and
how do local companies find
the money they need to grow
their business?
Aileen Rickert Ehn,
Department Chair, Agriculture,
Aims Community College, Fort
Lupton campus
David Haynes,
Managing Director,
Greenmont Capital
Global Trade — Large agribusinesses are important
players in global trade. What can regional businesses
expect from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other
global trade trends?
GMO Debate — Hear expert
presentations from all sides on this
important topic.
Immigration Issues — The debate,
challenges and prospects of
immigration reform faced by agriculture.
Regenerative Ag — Soil
conservation is once again one
of the most-important trends,
bridging the natural and
organic sector and agriculture.
Technology Trends — Users of
the region’s emerging agriculturaltechnology products will discuss how
new technology products are being
applied.
For information about sponsoring
and vendor booths please contact
Sandy Powell at 970-232-3144 or
[email protected]
Peter Martin,
Finance and Growth
Consultant,
KCoe Isom
Mark Gustafson,
International
Consultant, Meat
Dr. Patrick Byrne,
Soil and Crop Sciences
professor, Colorado
State University
Haley Harms,
President, ProTill
Carlotta Mast, Executive
Director, New Hope Natural
Media; President-elect,
Naturally Boulder
Anne Misak, Healthy
Foods program
manager, Colorado
Enterprise Fund
Dr. Amanda (Leister) Countryman,
Assistant Professor, Agriculture and Resource
Economics, Colorado State University
Steven Hoffman,
Owner, Compass
Natural Marketing
Emily Johannes,
Sustainability and
ResourceMax
Manager, KCoe Isom
Courtney Walter,
Development Program
Manager, JBS
Kathay Rennels,
Associate Vice President
for Engagement,
Colorado State University
Tom Lipetzky, Director of
Marketing Programs and Strategic
Initiatives, Colorado Department
of Agriculture
Michael Hirakata,
Co-Owner, Hirakata
Farms, Rocky Ford
Steven Hoffman,
Owner, Compass
Natural Marketing
Peggy Shell,
CEO/Founder,
Creative
Alignments
Robert
Heilbronner,
Managing Director,
Integris
Dave Eckhardt,
Board president,
Colorado Corn
Growers Association
Dr. Noa Roman-Muniz, Associate
Professor of Dairy Management
Systems, Dairy Extension Specialist,
Colorado State University
Dr. Rich Conant,
Professor, Department of
Ecosystem Science and
Sustainability, Colorado
State University
Dr. Wayne Dorband,
CEO/Founder, Center for
Ecolonomic Excellence and
Development (CEED)
Rebekah Lyle, Director of
Marketing, Silk plant-based
foods and beverages, White Wave
Susan Moore,
Co-owner, La
Luna Dairy,
Wellington
L. Hunter Lovins,
President/Founder,
Natural Capitalism
Solutions
Weston McCary, GISP,
Instructor: AA&E Technology,
Agricultural technology—
Aims Community College
Joe Petrocco,
Owner, Petrocco
Farms, Brighton
Dr. Matt
Wallenstein,
Chairman, Growcentia;
CSU Natural Resource
Ecology Lab
Dr. Tom
McKinnon,
Founder, CTO,
Agribotix
FoodandAg.BizWest.com
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27
B r i e f case
CONTRACTS
Biopharmaceutical company AntriaBio Inc. is
collaborating with a new specialty health-care
firm based in Seoul, South Korea, allowing it to
manufacture and sell one of its diabetes drugs,
according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Under the
agreement, AntriaBio (OTCQB: ANTB) will give
pH Pharma Co. Ltd. an exclusive, transferable
license to make and sell its drug AB101 in eight
countries in Southeast Asia — but the license
will become effective only after pH Pharma has
purchased a minimum of $8 million in AntriaBio
securities, according to the SEC document. The
companies also agreed to work together to use
AntriaBio’s proprietary microsphere platform for
various therapeutic opportunities. Under the
terms of the stock purchase, pH agreed to buy
$1 million in AntriaBio preferred stock, then $1
million more by March 31, and to negotiate to
buy at least $6 million of its common stock.
Danish wind-turbine manufacturer Vestas
Wind Systems A/S received an order for a
53-megawatt wind power project in Uruguay.
Vestas, one of Northern Colorado’s largest employers, with factories in Windsor and Brighton,
will supply 16 units of its V126 3.3-megawatt
turbine for the Vientos de Pastorale wind farm
in Villa Pastora, in Uruguay’s southwestern
province of Flores. The order was placed by
TaxWay S.A., the Uruguayan subsidiary of the
Spain-based Cobra group, which specializes in
developing industrial infrastructure worldwide.
Mallinda LLC, a spinoff company from the
University of Colorado Boulder, signed an exclusive licensing agreement with the school to
market a novel polymer and composite technology. The company initially is looking at the
technology for use in moldable, custom-fitted
athletic equipment, but longer term the technology could be used in industries ranging from
wind energy to automotive.
EARNINGS
Shoemaker Crocs Inc. (Nasdaq: CROX) closed
out 2015 recording a loss of $83.1 million for
the year, with $70.2 million of that coming in
the fourth quarter that ended Dec. 31. The loss
for Niwot-based Crocs was equivalent to $1.30
per share for the year and $1.01 per share for
the quarter. Crocs had annual revenue of $1.1
billion, compared with $1.2 billion in 2014, and
revenue of $208.7 million for the quarter, compared with $206.7 million during the same period a year ago.
Dynamic Materials Corp. (Nasdaq: BOOM)
reported a loss of $23.9 million for 2015, with
$16 million of that coming in the fourth quarter
that ended Dec. 31. Boulder-based Dynamic
Materials manufactures explosion-welded clad
metal plates, which are used to make equipment used in a variety of industries, including
oil and gas. The company has manufacturing
operations in Germany, Russia and East Asia.
The company had annual revenue of $167 million, down 18 percent from $203 million in 2014.
For the quarter, it posted revenue of $41.9 million, down from $52 million in the fourth quarter
of 2014. Earnings per share were at a loss of
$1.72 for the year and $1.15 for the quarter.
Vail Resorts Inc. (NYSE: MTN) reported quarterly net income of $117 million and announced
a $100 million capital plan for the 2016 calendar year that includes upgrades at its Breckenridge, Vail and Beaver Creek resorts. Vail Resorts’ net income for the fiscal second quarter
ending Jan. 31 amounted to $3.14 per diluted
share, and was up slightly from $115.8 million, or $3.10 per share, for the same period a
year earlier. Revenue for the quarter rose from
$530.2 million a year earlier to $599.4 million.
That figure was boosted in large part by a 20.2
percent increase in total lift revenue to $287.7
million. Retail and rental revenue, meanwhile,
rose 8.4 percent to $103 million. In addition
to issuing guidance for the 2016 fiscal year
that includes a net income range of $132 million to $152 million, the company also said it
is increasing its quarterly dividend by 30 percent to 81 cents per share. That payment will
be payable April 13 to stockholders of record
on March 29.
Broadcom Ltd. (Nasdaq: AVGO), the company
created when semiconductor company Avago
Technologies closed its $37 billion acquisition
of rival Broadcom Corp. last month, filed a firstquarter earnings report for the period ending
Jan. 31 that included results only for Avago’s
last quarter prior to the merger closing on Feb.
1. But guidance issued for the second fiscal
quarter ending May 1 projects the combined
company to see $3.5 billion in revenue. Avago,
which employed 1,450 people in Fort Collins
at the time the merger closed, posted a firstquarter net income of $377 million, or $1.30
per share, up from $351 million, or $1.26 per
share a year earlier. Quarterly revenue for the
single company was $1.8 billion, up from $1.6
billion the year before. The company had $2.2
billion in cash as of Jan. 31. In addition to the
revenue projections, Broadcom Ltd. officials
they expect capital expenditures for the second fiscal quarter to be about $210 million. In
addition to Avago’s Fort Collins operations, that
company had a small operation in Longmont,
and Broadcom Corp. also had small offices in
Longmont and Fort Collins at the time of the
merger. Combined, those three facilities had
roughly 150 people.
Heska Corp. (Nasdaq: HSKA) doubled net income in 2015 and enjoyed record revenue for
the year, according to the company’s year-end
earnings report. The Loveland-based provider
of veterinary diagnostic and specialty products
reported 2015 net income of $5.2 million, or 74
cents per diluted share, up from $2.6 million,
or 41 cents per share, for 2014. Revenue for
the year climbed 16 percent to $104.6 million.
For the fourth quarter, Heska saw net income
of $2 million, or 28 cents per share, up from
$829,000, or 12 cents per share, in 2014. The
company finished 2015 with $6.9 million in
cash and $22.4 million in working capital. The
company grew stockholders equity during the
year from $53.1 million to $63.5 million.
FLOOD RELIEF
The Weld County Housing Authority received a $708,582 community-development
block grant to continue flood recovery efforts
for residents who were impacted by the 2013
flood. Grant funds will be used to replace
three homes destroyed by the flood, continue
rent assistance for 16 families for the next 12
months and provide down payment assistance
for five families.
KUDOS
The smartphone-controlled Star Wars BB-8
Droid toy made by Boulder company Sphero
was named the top-selling U.S. toy in the Youth
Electronics category by global information
company The NPD Group. Based on dollar
volume, Sphero’s BB-8 ranked eighth overall
among top-selling toys for 2015.
Frederick-based roofing contractor B&M
Roofing of Colorado Inc. won two awards for
outstanding workmanship in the first quarter of
2016. For its work on the Thompson residence
in Edwards, B&M took second place during
the 15th annual Colorado Roofing Association
awards dinner held Feb. 24 at the Omni Interlocken Hotel in Broomfield. The company also
won a Gold Circle Honorable Mention award
from the National Roofing Contractor’s Association for its work on the Belcaro Mansion in
Denver, also known as the Phipps Mansion.
WeldWerks Brewing Co. in Greeley was voted
the nation’s best new brewery by a readers’ poll
conducted by USA Today. Nineteen nominees
from around the country — all breweries that
have opened since 2013 — were selected from
more than 1,800 by a panel of experts assembled by the Tegna-owned national newspaper.
WeldWerks, which has a taproom at 508 Eighth
Ave. in Greeley, was the only nominee representing Colorado.
The Holiday Inn Express & Suites in Loveland, managed by Spirit Hospitality LLC, won
Intercontinental Hotel Group’s elite 5 of 5 award
for achieving green in all five Guest Experience
Winning Metrics: Heartbeat, Problem Handling,
Loyalty Recognition, Loyalty Enrollments and
Guest Reviews for 2015.
Boulder-based sustainable pool sanitation
company Clear Comfort earned B Corporation certification, recognizing its company’s
commitment to high standards of social and
environmental responsibility.
Longmont-based Parascript, a software innovator in advanced data location, extraction and
classification, was selected as one of the “100
Companies That Matter in Knowledge Management” by KMWorld Magazine.
The Loveland-based Good Day Pharmacy
chain was identified as “Best In Class” by OutcomesMTM for providing medication therapy
management services.
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group, a subsidiary of San Francisco-based Dignity Health,
acquired Boulder-based Arbor Occupational
Medicine. Financial terms of the deal were not
disclosed. Arbor Occupational Medicine operates occupational care centers with ancillary
physical therapy services. The acquired centers are at 1860 Industrial Circle, Suite D, in
Longmont; 1690 30th St. in Boulder; 290 Nickel
St., Suite 200, in Broomfield; and 8200 E. Belleview, No. 428 C, Greenwood Village.
Boulder Orthopedics and Mapleton Hill Orthopedics will rebrand April 1 as Boulder Centre for Orthopedics, and bring Cathy Higgins
onboard to run the company as chief executive.
Higgins, the executive director of Boulder Valley Independent Practice Association, said the
deal is a true merger of the two groups, with all
13 physicians — seven from Boulder Orthopedics and six from Mapleton Hill — owning the
new venture. Boulder Centre for Orthopedics
will take up 22,000 square feet — the entire
second floor — in the new office building at
4740 Pearl Parkway that is being developed by
W.W. Reynolds Cos. The company will open in
its new location April 4.
The meat-snacks division of Greeley-based
Grass Run Farms was acquired by the makers of Jack Link’s Protein Snacks. Financial
terms of the deal between JBS USA, Grass
Run Farms’ parent company, and Minong,
Wis.-based Link Snacks Inc. were not disclosed. But a Link Snacks media release said
the transaction included trademark and distribution rights for Grass Run’s grass-fed beef
snacks and fresh meat products.
An investment group headed by Halton J. Peters acquired Fort Collins-based Front Range
Internet Inc. from the father and son team of
Bill and Brad Ward for an undisclosed amount.
Dallas-based Triumph Bancorp Inc. (Nasdaq:
TBK) signed an agreement to acquire ColoEast
Bankshares Inc., parent company of Lamarbased Colorado East Bank & Trust in a deal
worth $70 million in cash. Colorado East Bank
& Trust has 18 branches including operations in
Dacono, LaSalle, Mead and Severance.
NAME CHANGES
Wyoming-based Warren Federal Credit Union
and Broomfield-based Community Financial
Credit Union will become Blue Federal Credit
Union in May after their merger becomes final
April 1. The new credit union will exceed $800
million in total assets and serve nearly 70,000
members at 11 full-service branch locations in
Broomfield, Boulder, Fort Collins, Wellington
and Wyoming. OPENINGS
Verboten Brewing, which is building a new
brewery and taproom at 127 E. Fifth St., in
downtown Loveland, is planning a Saturday,
March 19, grand (re)opening. The brewery
moved out of its original space at 1550 Taurus Court at the end of September with an eye
on growth and increased visibility downtown.
To keep restaurants, bars and liquor stores
stocked, Verboten has been contract brewing
its beers at Snowbank Brewing in Fort Collins.
The new PearlWest development nearing completion in downtown Boulder is adding some
bling to its list of tenants. Colorado jewelry
designer John Atencio will open a new store
there this summer after a decade-long hiatus
from the city. The new 1,350-square-foot store,
dubbed the John Atencio Gallery, will sit on the
ground level near the center of the project on
the Pearl Street side.
Boulder-based marketing software company
TapInfluence Inc. will open an engineering office in Mountain View, Calif., in April.
What started off with Twenty Ninth Street officials admiring The Barrel’s shipping-container
bar setup in Estes Park — and picking the owners’ brains about different aspects of starting
such an operation — has morphed into an expansion opportunity for Loveland couple Ingrid
and Lou Bush. The Barrel is planning to open
a second location this summer as part of a plan
by Twenty Ninth Street in Boulder to activate
an underutilized outdoor plaza. Assuming the
permitting, construction and licensing processes go as planned, The Barrel is aiming to open
its Boulder operation — in a pair of repurposed
shipping containers — in late June or early July.
A pair of fast-casual restaurants will open
in long-vacant spaces at the Twenty Ninth
Street shopping district in Boulder in the coming weeks, and a replacement for the recently
shuttered S.A. Elite sporting goods store might
not be far behind. Chicago-based Potbelly
Sandwich Shop (Nasdaq: PBPB) will take over
a former Smiling Moose Deli space at 1685
29th St., while Five on Black is taking over a
former Spooners frozen yogurt space at the
north end of the shopping district. Both spaces
have been empty since 2014.
Waltzing Kangaroo, an Australian-themed restaurant, opened March 14 at 1109 W. Elizabeth
St. in the Campus West area of Fort Collins.
O’Fallon, Mo.-based Nortek Global HVAC
LLC, a manufacturer of heating and cooling equipment, will open a distribution center
in the Loveland-Fort Collins Industrial Airpark in Loveland. Nortek Global has leased
18,900-square-feet of industrial space at 5802
Byrd Drive located west of Interstate 25 and
east of Fort Collins-Loveland Municipal Airport.
A Thornton couple has purchased the former
home of the Isla Bonita and Vista del Sol
Mexican restaurants in downtown Greeley with
plans to open an Indian restaurant and bar
there this spring. Peter Sitaula and Kathy Parajuli closed on the spot at 908½ Eighth Ave.,
buying it from Castulo Venegas for $510,000.
Sitaula said he’s still determining a name for the
restaurant. He’s hoping to open by mid to late
April. He’ll also close soon on the purchase of
a Shell gas station at the southwest corner of
54th Avenue and 10th Street.
Otto Pint, which opened March 11 at 1100
Oakridge Drive in Fort Collins, near the southeast corner of Harmony Road and Lemay Avenue, is the third restaurant for Brian Tessari,
owner of Domenic’s Bistro and Wine Bar at 931
E. Harmony Road and Vincent Heavenly Pizza
Pies and Pasta at 902 W. Drake Road.
The final segment of the 18-mile commuter
bicycle route between Boulder and Denver is
open. Completion of the second phase of the
commuter bikeway between 88th Street in
the Louisville-Superior area and Table Mesa in
Boulder completes the connection between
Denver and Boulder for bicyclists.
SERVICES
Koehn Self Storage, 6200 W. 10th St. in
Greeley, signed on as a U-Haul neighborhood
dealer, offering U-Haul trucks, towing equipment, support rental items, boxes and in-store
pick-up for boxes.
28
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www.bizwest.com
T i m e Out
Courtesy Mantooth Marketing
Dawn Paepke, Northern Colorado community benefit and relations lead for Kaiser
Permanente Colorado, and Evan Hyatt, president of Pathways Hospice, hold a plaque
recognizing Kaiser as a bronze partner in the Pathways Corporate Partner Program.
The program makes it easy for companies to contribute toward providing emotional,
spiritual and medical care and bereavement support to individuals and their loved
ones facing end-of-life care or a life-limiting illness.
Courtesy Superior Chamber of Commerce
From left, Lea Yancey, Matt Hannon, Zach Swank, Pam Milmoe and Ambra Sutherlin of
Partners for a Clean Environment (PACE) host a March 9 networking event for members of the Lafayette, Louisville and Superior chambers of commerce.
Courtesy Greeley Chamber of Commerce
Carl Dierschow of Small Fish Business Coaching celebrates a ribbon cutting for his home-based business in Greeley on Feb. 22 along with the Greeley Chamber of Commerce’s
board of directors. Dierschow’s column appears periodically in BizWest.
From left, Holly Burns of Greeley Place meets Mason Tripp of the Residence Inn Loveland and Eric Crawford of Greeley Country Club at a March 3 Greeley Young Professionals event hosted by the Greeley Guest House.
From left, Nanelle Edgren of Greeley Orthodontic Associates and Randy Andrade of
MetLife network with Jennifer and Derek O’Hara, owners of Dickey’s Barbecue Pit,
on Feb. 25 at a Greeley Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours event hosted by
John Elway Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram.
N o n p r o f i t Net w o rk
BRIEFS
Legacy Land Trust and Colorado Open Lands announced the successful merger of their two nonprofit
land-conservation organizations. Over the last 23
years, Fort Collins-based Legacy has helped more
than 100 landowners permanently conserve nearly
43,000 acres in Larimer, Weld, Jackson and Washington counties. Lakewood-based Colorado Open
Lands has worked with landowners to conserve
nearly 30,000 additional acres in the region since it
started in 1981. The two nonprofits began evaluating
a merger last fall.
As a result of the merger, Colorado Open Lands has
taken responsibility for Legacy’s conservation easements and Legacy has concluded its separate operations.
GRANTS
An anonymous racehorse breeder donated $20 million to Colorado State University to build a regenerative medicine research facility, fulfilling a $65 mil-
lion matching challenge from lead donors and fellow
horse aficionados John and Leslie Malone. In December 2014, the Malones pledged $42.5 million —
the largest cash gift in CSU history — for the planned
facility. The gift was prompted by their interest in
stem-cell therapy and its effectiveness in treating
equine joint problems; the Malones raise world-class
dressage horses and thoroughbred racehorses. The
donations allow construction of the CSU Institute
for Biologic Translational Therapies, which promises to tap the body’s healing powers for innovative
treatments that improve animal and human health.
Groundbreaking will occur later this year; an exact
date has not been set.
Fort Collins Habitat for Humanity was awarded
$110,000 from Thrivent Financial to support the
Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity program,
an ongoing multi-year, multi-million dollar partnership between Habitat for Humanity International and
Thrivent Financial that helps create safe, decent, affordable housing across the globe.
www.bizwest.com
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E C ONO W A T CH
State 3rd in tech-worker concentration
[email protected]
The state of Colorado ranked 13th
in the nation in the number of people employed in the tech industry
in 2015. But as a percentage of the
private-sector workforce, tech plays
a larger role in just two other states.
That’s according to the latest
annual Cyberstates report released
by t he Comput i ng Tech nolog y
Industry Association, or CompTIA.
The Cyberstates report, in general,
includes in its definition of the tech
industry sectors involved in making, creating, enabling, integrating
or supporting technology either as a
product as a service – but not industry sectors categorized merely as
users of technology.
The report noted that Colorado’s
2015 tech industry employment of
187,242 accounted for 9 percent of
all private-sector workers. The only
states with higher concentrations
of tech workers were Massachusetts
(9.8 percent) and Virginia (9.5 percent). Maryland was fourth at 8.6
percent, followed by California and
Washington at 8.2 percent. Nation-
State of technology
in Colorado
Tech Industry Employment
187,242
Tech Business Establishments
14,847
Tech Industry Payroll
$19.9B
Average Wage in Tech Industry
$106,350
% of Private Sector Workers in Tech
9.0%
State Rankings: Tech Employment
13
State Rankings: Average Tech Wage
9
Primary Sources: EMSI; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics;
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
wide, the figure is 5.7 percent.
Colorado’s number of tech jobs
increased by 3,088, or 1.7 percent,
in 2015. The state’s tech industry
payroll was $19.9 billion, with the
average wage in the tech industry in
Colorado hitting $106,350.
That average wage figure is nearly
double the private-sector average
wages for all industries in Colorado, a
number that stood at $53,400 in 2015.
The report states that the tech
industry accounts for 11.5 percent
of the state’s economy. That figure
put Colorado third behind Oregon
(23 percent) and Washington (12.6).
Applications software developers led the tech charge in Colorado
with 22,800 employed in the sector
in 2015, followed by computer user
support specialists at 13,600 and systems software developers at 11,500.
Compared with the nation, however, Colorado’s space and defense
systems manufacturing industry
ranked highest. Colorado had 6,300
people employed in the industry,
placing it fifth behind California
(23,100), Arizona (11,400), Florida
(6,700) and Massachusetts (6,600).
Nationally, There were 6.7 million people employed in the tech
industry in 2015, up 198,200. The
3 percent growth rate from 2014 is
the highest in more than a decade,
according to the Cyberstates report.
The 6.7 million figure doesn’t include
an additional 1 million tech workers
categorized as self-employed or sole
proprietors.
at 303-630-1943, 970-416-7343
or jlindenstein@bizwestmedia.
com. Follow him on Twitter at @
joshlindenstein.
Single-family home listings up in February
BizWest Staff
[email protected]
Contrary to recent trends, the number of active single-family detached
home listings actually increased in
four of the region’s five largest cities in
February. Median prices, however, still
increased year-over-year.
The figures come from the most
recent monthly report from IRES Multiple Listing Service.
Boulder, which had just 31 singlefamily active listings in January, had
127 in February, up from 102 in February of 2015. The city’s median price of
$860,000 on 28 sales was down significantly from January’s mark of $989,000
but still up 27 percent from a year
earlier.
In Fort Collins, the number of active
listings rose from 506 a year ago to
522 in February of this year, with the
median price climbing 10.5 percent
year-over-year to $350,000 on 177 sales.
The median price in Greeley in February, including sales in Evans, was
$237,500 on 125 sales. The number of
active listings there climbed from 319
a year earlier to 328.
Loveland’s median price rose only
slightly year-over-year, from $310,000
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to $312,000 on 123 sales, including
sales in Berthoud. But the number of
active listings there shot up 9.9 percent, to 389.
Longmont was the only one of the
five cities to see the number of active
listings decrease year-over-year, from
144 in February of 2015 to 114 this year.
The median price there climbed 10
percent to $332,500 on 60 sales.
As for the high country, meanwhile,
the Estes Park area saw a median
price of $357,000 on 15 sales, up from
$314,950 a year earlier. The number of
listings there lagged 35 percent from a
year ago down to 101.
The Ticker
Region’s jobless rate
hovers around 3%
The unemployment rates in three
local counties remained below 3 percent
in January, while even Weld County’s
rate wasn’t far off the mark despite the
increasing struggles of the oil and gas
industry. The latest figures come from the
monthly report released by the Colorado
Department of Labor and Employment.
Weld’s unemployment rate was 3.3 percent in January, matching a 14-year low
hit in October. That figure was down from
3.4 percent in December and 4.3 percent
in January 2015. The county had 142,201
people employed and 4,918 looking for
work. Boulder County’s unemployment
rate decreased to 2.5 percent in January,
its lowest since a 2 percent rate in December 2000. The figure was down from
2.6 percent in December 2015 and 3.8
percent in January of last year. Boulder
County saw 171,460 people employed,
with 4,462 looking for jobs. Labor-force
participation, however, was down by
nearly 1,000 people from a year earlier,
accounting for some of that county’s
unemployment drop. Despite labor-force
participation climbing by more than 4,000
people in Larimer County, that county
saw its unemployment rate slide from 4.2
percent in January last year to 2.8 percent
this year. There, 174,140 people were
employed, with 5,102 seeking work.
Apartment rents continue
year-over-year rise in Feb.
Rent for a two-bedroom unit in Boulder
was $1,850, according to the March 2016
Colorado Apartment List Rent Report
based on the median price paid in February. San Francisco-based Apartment List
creates the monthly report using data
from the several hundred thousand listings on its website. While rents in Boulder
increased 3.3 percent since last year,
Westminster showed the highest yearover-year growth of any Colorado city,
up 11.6 percent compared with February 2015. The median rent in Longmont
reached $1,150 for a two-bedroom unit,
an 8.8 percent increase from last year.
Renters in Broomfield paid about $1,610
for a two-bedroom unit in February, a 5.9
percent increase compared with February
last year. Fort Collins renters experienced
a 4.5 percent increase year-over-year.
A two-bedroom unit in Fort Collins was
going for $1,380 in February.
ProCamp
After an accelerator, then what?
29
30
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c o mmentary
Colorado should return
to presidential primary
Colorado deserves its place in the presidential process. More specifically, Coloradans deserve to have
their voices heard as their political parties select
delegates in favor of one presidential candidate or
another.
The best way to do that is to abandon the ill-considered caucus system and return to a presidential
primary.
The state ran presidential primaries in 1992, 1996
and 2000. But primaries are expensive, and the General Assembly opted to cut funding for the primary
in a wave of budget cuts. Instead, Democrats and
Republicans have opted for a caucus system that has
— to say the least — been cumbersome, and participation has been lacking.
The Denver Post reported recently that only 11
percent of registered Democrats participated in the
March caucus, with only 5 percent of Republicans
attending their party’s precinct gatherings. Republicans did not even vote on a presidential preference.
Few people can afford the hours that the caucus process takes, meaning that a small minority of voters
stated their preference on the Democratic side.
Party leaders from both sides seem to have gotten the message, with an effort under way to revive a
presidential primary in 2020. Caucuses would continue to be held “to select delegates and qualify state
and local candidates for the ballot,” the Post reports.
Meanwhile, the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce is promoting a November ballot measure
through a group called Let Colorado Vote to open the
primary process to unaffiliated voters.
The issue of unaffiliated voters stating their preference in a presidential primary is an important question. About 1 million voters in Colorado currently are
unaffiliated. We would prefer a system that allows
independent voters to easily change their party affiliation.
But most important is creation of a presidential
primary system that is adequately funded and provides an easy means for the state’s residents to state
their presidential preference, that doesn’t require
hours of caucusing and that boosts participation far
higher than 11 percent of a party’s registered voters.
Colorado’s lack of a presidential primary means
that the state is missing out on countless chances
to hear from candidates, and to express Colorado
concerns on a myriad of topics. Opponents will once
again argue about the cost — a president primary
would cost $4 million to $5 million.
But being left out of the early stages of the presidential process is a far higher price.
March summit focuses
on organic, traditional ag
C
olorado’s natural and organic sector has sprung out of the Boulder
Valley, with national brands such
as Celestial Seasonings, White Wave and
many others cementing the region as a
center of healthy foods,
with brands that have
stood the test of time
and consumer tastes.
At the same time,
Weld County in Northern Colorado ranks in
the top five or six among
counties nationally as
publisher’s
notEbook
a center for traditional
chrisTOPHER wood
agriculture. Think JBS,
Agrium and many other
producers and processors.
Overlap occurs with companies such
as Boulder-based Aurora Organic Dairy,
which operates a large dairy in Platteville in Weld County. Many other crosscounty-line examples exist as well, with an
increasing number of natural and organic
companies in Larimer and Weld counties
such as Meyer Natural Angus LLC in Loveland and Noosa Yoghurt in Bellvue.
Agricultural and natural-food companies share many concerns or dilemmas,
including implementation of the Food
Safety Modernization Act, attraction of
skilled executives and workers, raising
money, trade issues, use of new technologies and the bridging practice of regenerative agriculture. An area of continued
disagreement is in genetically modified
organisms, or GMOs.
Exploring areas of agreement and disagreement among agricultural and natural/organic companies is the purpose of
the inaugural Food & Ag Summit, taking
place March 30 at the Ranch events complex in Loveland. The event will include
dozens of speakers on a variety of panels
Copyright © 2016.
BizWest Media LLC.
Reproduction or use of
editorial or graphic content
without written permission
is prohibited.
Executive Editor
Christopher Wood
[email protected]
303-630-1942 | 970-232-3133
Christopher Wood can be reached at 303630-1942, 970-232-3133 or [email protected].
BW POLL
Are employees at your company able to afford to live
in the city in which they work?
Next Question:
Should Colorado return to a
presidential primary?
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No 73%
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Publishers
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[email protected]
970-232-3131 | 303-630-1955
and is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
This event is intended to:
• Provide education and cutting-edge
information on new technologies and
trends industrywide.
• Enable producers and product companies to network.
• Encourage discussion and collaboration on opportunities and challenges for ag
and natural-foods executives.
• Provide a forum for respectful debate
of areas of disagreement, such as GMOs.
Leading the discussion on the Food
Safety Modernization Act will be keynote
speaker Devin Koontz, lead communications specialist for the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration Office of Regulatory
Affairs and Communications. This will be
a must-hear presentation for anyone in the
food business, including an overview of
the act, implementation periods, what to
focus on now and how it is affecting food
and agribusiness companies.
Panel discussions will also be held on
The Search for Talent, Immigration Challenges, Financing, Global Trade, Regenerative Ag and Technology Trends.
Rounding out the day will be the GMO
Debate, a panel discussion featuring Dr.
Patrick Byrne, a soil and crop-sciences
professor at Colorado State University;
Dave Eckhart, board president with the
Colorado Corn Growers Association; Steve
Hoffman, owner of Compass Natural
Marketing; and Rebekah Lyle, director of
marketing, Silk plant-based foods and beverages, White Wave.
The Food & Ag Summit is sponsored
by KCoe Isom. Registration is available at
www.bizwest.com.
Volume 35, Issue 7
Christopher Wood
[email protected]
303-630-1942 | 970-232-3133
Vice President of
Strategic Partnerships
Sandy Powell
[email protected]
970-232-3144 | 303-630-1954
Boulder Office
1790 30th St., Suite 300, Boulder, CO 80301 | Fax: 303-440-8954
Controller
Lori Franklin
[email protected]
970-232-3151 | 303-630-1963
Fort Collins Office
1550 E. Harmony Road, 2nd floor , Fort Collins, CO 80525
P.O. Box 270810, Fort Collins, CO 80527 | Fax: 970-221-5432
Printed on
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31
Sky’s the limit for solar in Colorado
F
ifteen years ago, flat-screen
televisions were a rare
luxury item, a smartphone
was one with an address book, we
kept our music on plastic discs, and
video chats were a feature in “Star
Trek” episodes. Now there’s widespread use of handheld devices that
enable us to listen
to music, watch
videos, talk, text
or video-chat
with friends or
colleagues, while
also providing
immediate access
Guest Columnist
to a world of
Katie Otterbeck
information.
Times have
changed, and
solar power is a case in point. Fifteen years ago, solar was used by
a small number of true believers.
Now, because of advances in technology and growing economies of
scale, solar costs 25 percent of what
it cost in 2000.
Solar panels are popping up
all over: on homes, businesses,
places of worship and government
buildings. In his State of the Union
address, President Obama summed
it up when he said, “Every three
weeks, we bring as much solar
online as we did in all of 2008.”
Boosting solar-energy power
production is more urgent than
ever. From massive floods to devastating wildfires, dangerous
weather already is hitting close to
home. Without action to stop climate change, scientists say these
extremes — and their impact on
Coloradans — will only get worse.
Achieving a million solar roofs
in Colorado would help move our
country closer to the national goal
of getting 10 percent solar by 2030.
This would produce immediate and
long-lasting benefits for our environment, including removing 280
million metric tons of carbon from
the atmosphere by 2030 — the
equivalent of taking 59 million cars
off the road.
More solar isn’t just good for the
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Solar is the fastestgrowing industry in the
country, adding 143,000
jobs nationwide in 2013.
According to the latest
solar jobs census from
the Solar Foundation, the
solar industry employed
nearly 5,000 people in
Colorado last year.
environment. It’s also good for our
economy. Solar is the fastest-growing industry in the country, adding
143,000 jobs nationwide in 2013.
According to the latest solar jobs
census from the Solar Foundation,
the solar industry employed nearly
5,000 people in Colorado last year,
887 in Jefferson County alone.
Of course, 30 percent solar is just
a sliver of the possible. The state
is home to more than 14 million
square feet in commercial rooftops
that could host solar panels, and
it has enough technical potential
to meet the state’s energy needs 50
times over, an energy offset that
could save these companies $168
million annually on their electricity
bills.
We’ve made progress. But we
can’t take that progress for granted.
Powerful interests, including the
fossil-fuel industry and electric
utilities are working hard to slow
progress. To take solar to the next
level, we’ll need a strong commitment from our local, state and
national leaders. By adopting a goal
of getting a million solar roofs, and
working together, we can begin
to move Colorado and the nation
toward a pollution-free future; a
future powered by the sun.
Katie Otterbeck is the solar-energy
advocate for Environment Colorado,
an environmental advocacy group.
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