An office building and adjacent warehouse that have been home to a Christian publisher may be acquired by the City of Loveland to house its utilities department.
The City Council on Tuesday will consider an ordinance allowing the city to pursue the $12 million purchase of buildings that had been operated by Group Publishing Inc., a 51-year-old provider of curriculum materials for youth and adult Sunday-school and vacation-Bible-school classes that was acquired last October by Colorado Springs-based David C Cook, a nonprofit provider of books, Bibles and other resources for Christian educators.
If passed on first reading Tuesday night, the enabling ordinance will allow appraisals of the more than 89,000-square-foot administration building at 1515 Cascade Ave. and a 33,000-square-foot warehouse at 1615 Cascade Ave., as well as authorizing the city’s Facilities Management and Utilities Enterprise to appropriate the funds needed to purchase the buildings.
The city placed the property under contract on May 11.
According to city documents, the cost per square foot for both locations is less than $100 per square foot, compared with a cost for new construction that is estimated at between $700 and $800 per square foot.
“The 30-year vision for the facility is that the building will provide all the administrative and professional offices needed to support the Utilities Department,” the city’s packet says, adding that “additional space will need to be built at the service center in the future to support growth in front-line staff and equipment. In the intervening years the Utilities Department will sell square footage of the facility under a strict Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to other departments to allow them to move their administrative functions to the new location, freeing up space in their current facilities to support line staff and daily functions.
“This will also allow the City to plan for the future needs of the general fund departments, saving for another office building or other solution to deal with the steady growth of line staff and professional support staff over the next two decades.”
The city expects to achieve cost savings through the purchase because beginning construction next year on a new $40 million facility for the Utilities Department, an expansion of its existing service center on Wilson Avenue, would no longer be needed, “and the additional funds not used on the Cascade purchase can be used to further the Utilities vision and mission. Secondly, other departments can utilize the growth space to take the growth pressure off our current facilities and provide time to better plan for future facility needs as we continue to grow.”
The city’s narrative notes that other city buildings such as the Police Department, municipal buildings and the Public Works Administration Building also are overcrowded, and the Cascade facilities might be able to handle some of that overflow.
When Group Publishing Inc.’s sale to David C Cook was announced last fall, 82 of its employees were still working at the Loveland facility. A spokeswoman for Cook, in an email to BizWest, wrote that Group “continues to occupy the buildings and has a lease that transfers with the sale.” Further, documents prepared by Loveland city staff indicate that the current tenants “would like to continue using a portion of the building and warehouse for 2026 and 2027 until their operations can be moved to Indiana. This will generate approximately $613,000 in lease payments in 2026 and somewhat less in 2027 as their team transitions and no longer needs the space. These funds could be used to cover operations and maintenance costs or used to manage lease termination costs.”
Also on Tuesday, the City Council will consider on first reading the $1.2 million purchase of a 6,000-square-foot unit in The Yards, the development that previously was the Loveland Outlets.
The city placed the newly renovated space at 5801 McWhinney Boulevard, Unit C5801, under contract on Feb. 26 and says that it would be used “to create a future node of city services in the eastern section of the city. Some of the services proposed could include a library annex, permitting, bill pay, meeting space, and park and recreation connections. The location would serve with a focus on automation and minimal staffing, a location where citizens can reserve a park space, book a tee time, pay their utility bill, and drop off their library books, ask questions and access all city services from one location closer to home.”
