By Lenthe, Sue
YellowBrix
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July 17, 2006 |
With acres of mostly open land, often in a central
location already appropriately zoned, dedicated rail spurs
and big, old factory-type buildings, the former beet sugar
plant sites that dot Northern Colorado look like prime sites
for commercial or industrial redevelopment.
In several cases, however, redevelopment faces steep
barriers. Among them the question marks formed by potential
pollution of the sites, costs of demolishing buildings that
have fallen into disrepair, checkerboard ownership
situations left from bankruptcy proceedings and the
infrastructure that would be required.
Sugar beets were grown in Colorado as early as 1869 with the
first processing factory in the state built in Grand
Junction in 1899. Sugar factories quickly cropped up
elsewhere around the state. By 1906 there were plants in
Loveland, Greeley, Eaton, Fort Collins, Longmont and Windsor
as well as Sterling, Fort Morgan, Brush and Rocky Ford.
Great Western Sugar Co. was incorporated in 1905. By the mid
1930s, Colorado was home to 16 beet-sugar factories and GW
owned and operated 13 of them.
Over the years, communities around Colorado touted the
plants and their service as economic engines. In 1905, a
Fort Collins publication titled "A City of Achievements and
Opportunities" noted that sugar factory employees there
"receive not only the highest standard wages but are treated
with the utmost consideration as regards personal comforts."
By the 1970s and '80s, competition from cane sugar and corn
syrup sweeteners less expensive to produce - forced GW to
respond with layoffs, plant closures and ultimately
bankruptcy. This marked the beginning of what, for many of
the sugar factories, has been a long period of decline as
the buildings and grounds that once buzzed with activity
were left to fade and crumble.
Redevelopment sweet success
The history of sugar plants in Northern Colorado had a happy
ending in Fort Collins, however, when the city government
opted to purchase and redevelop the former Great Western
holdings 11 years ago. Streets Superintendent Larry
Schneider recalls the city paid approximately $1 million for
the 30-some acre site and a scattering of rundown,
dilapidated structures in the northern part of town.
With an additional $5.5 million to $6 million the city
restored and enlarged an existing building, creating an
award-winning structure that houses the streets department
offices. "Everyone who comes here just loves our facility,"
Schneider said. "Vaught-Frye (Architects) did a very nice
job of blending the new with the old!
The former sugar-beet plant grounds represented an ideal
location for the streets operations compared with the
department's previous location among residential
neighborhoods. "We can get out to College Avenue and the
major arterial streets pretty quick and we don't have to go
through neighborhoods!
Speaking of neighbors, the sugar plant location put the
streets department across the street from a Larimer County
facility maintenance operation and next door to a Colorado
Department of Transportation maintenance yard. "All the
maintenance people are together so we can share things and
talk to each other," Schneider said.
Meanwhile, fixing up the sugar plant has sparked other
development. "Some really good things have happened in the
neighborhood," he said.
Costs vs. value
Real estate developers in Loveland hoped to spark the
beginning of similar happy ending when they proposed a
redevelopment package for the former Great Western sugar
plant there. Loveland city government ultimately turned down
a request from real estate firm Loveland Commercial for
financial backing from the city.
"It came down to a $3 million gap and they needed a way to
close it, and city council did not believe it worked out to
be a good deal for the city, so they denied it," said Don
Williams, Loveland city manager.
The buildings on the Loveland sugar factory property are in
various stages of repair, said Eric Holsapple of Loveland
Commercial. "The old administration building is still
standing and could be saved and renovated, possibly. That
was one we were trying to save when we were involved."
The property contains a variety of environmental concerns
that could likely be remedied, but at a cost, Holsapple
said. The additional costs of demolishing and cleaning up
unusable structures and other elements of the property weigh
heavily against the ultimate value.
"When you're done, the land there isn't worth that much,"
said Holsapple.
Sandwiched between big-box retail uses to the north, off
Eisenhower Boulevard, and residential uses to the south, the
former GW plant has rail access and historic features. "We
thought it could make a nice little business park, but it's
not big enough or well- located enough to be a big
commercial development."
Nathan Klein, broker associate with Loveland Commercial and
Larry Melton, broker associate with Realtec Commercial Real
Estate Services, have co-listed a 9.81-acre segment of the
Loveland GW plant site with an asking price of $1.25
million. The site, with frontage on Madison Avenue, includes
a steel-frame, steel-sided building and rail access.
"The front five to six acres of property is conducive to
commercial/retail and light industrial uses. The rear three
to four acres you would have a user who could utilize the
big building and the rail spur that goes right to the
building," Melton said.
Major cleanup required
In Eaton, meanwhile, town officials worry about the safety
of the abandoned sugar factory. "It's an eyesore and a
danger," said Don Cadwallader, assistant town administrator.
The approximately 37-acre property contains a warehouse,
office building and two residences. The factory has been
abandoned for more than two decades. Cadwallader said the
factory structure is collapsing and shows asbestos material
peeling off the pipes.
"It's going to be a tough thing to rehabilitate," he noted.
The former Great Western plant in Greeley is on the market
for a price of $14.2 million. The more than 200-acre
property includes 936 units of Colorado Big Thompson water,
gravel-mining potential and several improvements, according
to Realtec listing information.
Located on the east side of town at 13th Street and First
Avenue, the plant is in an area of town zoned for
high-intensity industrial, said city of Greeley Planning
Manager Greg Thompson. It has rail spurs to it and access to
the U.S. Highway 85 bypass.
This spring, Longmont city officials sought federal
assistance to clean up Longmont's former Great Western sugar
factory. Situated on the city's eastern edge the site has
been earmarked for a potential "transit village," but has
been found to be contaminated with asbestos and chemicals.
Officials wrote to Colorado's congressional delegation to
request that the federal government supply the estimated
$3.5 million in cleanup costs.
Source: Northern Colorado Business Report
Publication date: 2006-06-09 |
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