NCBR Article
Future of Cortina: high-end
plastics
By Tom Hacker
January 5, 2007 --
FORT COLLINS - When
developer Bill Coulson first envisioned Cortina, the six-story, 20-unit luxury-loft
building that puts an Italianate stamp on downtown Fort Collins, he could hardly
have imagined a plastics manufacturer as his ground-floor tenant.
But that was before he met Marcia Sampson, president and CEO of Loveland's Eldon
James Corp., a maker of plastic products used mostly in global biomedical and
pharmaceutical industries.
Beginning in March, the 12,000-square-foot
first story of the most-talked-about new building in Fort Collins will house a
spin-off business unit of Eldon James, EJ Biomed LLC. The new business will inhabit
an office suite and "clean room" where expensive, automated equipment
will quietly and cleanly produce specialty plastic fittings and other products
used by a growing biotechnology market.
"We'll have fewer emissions,
less noise and less traffic than any of the downtown restaurants near us,"
Sampson said. "It was time for Eldon James to expand, and we knew we needed
class 'A' space. This is class 'A' and then some."
Sampson had
been planning for a Loveland expansion, including a new building to house the
biomedical specialty business, a process that would have taken a year.
The Cortina option, as unlikely as it might seem to other homeowners and business
tenants in the building, not only had logic lined up behind it but saved Sampson
months of time and more than $5 million in construction costs.
The
building's location within an "enterprise zone" designated by the Colorado
Department of Economic Development and International Trade makes Sampson's company
eligible for tax credits and other incentives for job creation.
City's blessing
EJ Biomed's city approval process was streamlined
by downtown zoning provisions that allow for "workshops and custom small-industry"
use, Fort Collins Zoning Director Peter Barnes said.
Sampson said
Fort Collins director of current planning Cameron Gloss, after visiting Eldon
James' Loveland plant, was assured that the planned use for the Cortina space
was appropriate.
As the Business Report headed to press, Sampson
said she and Coulson were planning to meet with homeowners and tenants of the
17 leased units in Cortina to describe their business plan and to allay any concerns
they might have.
"I think once they hear and see what we intend
to do, they'll be comfortable with it," she said.
The couple
in the next few weeks will begin work on preparing the space for the $1.5 million
inventory of automated manufacturing equipment that will fill about 6,000 square
feet of the first floor.
For competitive reasons, Sampson and Coulson
steer clear of specifics in describing the products that their company's sophisticated
equipment will produce. While Eldon James Corp.'s product line includes plastic
parts used primarily in health care and the automotive industry, EJ Biomed will
focus on supplying medical and pharmaceutical markets through a global distribution
chain.
A globally recognized industrial certification - ISO 9001/2000
- qualifies the company to supply fittings, tubing and other parts for medical
use in cases where the highest quality standards are required.
Worldwide reach
While about 80 percent of Eldon James' products
are shipped within the United States, an expanding global market will provide
export opportunities for the new Fort Collins-based company.
"We'll
export to Germany, to Japan," Sampson said. "We have two distributors
in the United Kingdom, and others in Canada, New Zealand and Australia."
When Cortina opened in late 2005 at the southwest corner of the three-way
intersection of Oak, Howes and Canyon streets in downtown Fort Collins, it was
the crest of a wave of projects that set a new standard for downtown development.
They combine ground-floor commercial space - mostly for retailers, banks and professional
offices - with high-rise residential properties that, pricewise, scrape the sky
of the regional market.
Coulson, who met Sampson when she accompanied
her sister on a Cortina loft tour, is now Sampson's partner in business - and
life, as well. The two share a sixth-floor loft with sweeping views of downtown
Fort Collins.
For the couple, the addition of EJ Biomed makes for
the ultimate live-work connection.
"When you start a business
like this, you live with it 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Sampson said.
"It makes sense for us to be here."