Colorado Real Estate Journal - December 3, 2014
An electrical contractor will light up a 116,363-square-foot manufacturing building that’s been on the market for years. The Northern Group Inc. bought the former Hunter Douglas facility at 1 Hunter Douglas Circle in Thornton for its corporate headquarters and manufacturing plant. It will bring 60 jobs to the building early next year and ramp up to 100 employees within the coming five years. Hunter Douglas sold the property for $7.15 million, according to public records. “We are very excited about our new facility and looking forward to working with and becoming a part of the city of Thornton, Joe Dopler, The Northern Group executive vice president, said in an announcement. The company will renovate the interior to suit its needs for office space and manufacturing custom electrical and mechanical enclosures. City officials are thrilled that the long underutilized building will be put to productive use, bringing new primary jobs to Thornton. The acquisition also was fortuitous for The Northern Group because it was probably the only Class A manufacturing building available for sale in the Denver market, plus it’s in the area the company wanted to be. “It just so happened that this was the first building we toured, and they were like, ‘Perfect. We’ll take it,’” said Dawn McCombs, vice president at JLL. Had that not happened, “There would have been next to nothing to choose from,” she said. Even distribution buildings over 100,000 sf are scarce, McCombs said. “Manufacturing and distribution occupiers are competing for very few spaces in this tight market, and some may need to rely on build-to-suits as an alternative or wait for new supply to be delivered to the market. Buildto-suits are costly, which makes this facility an even better win for Northern Electric,” she said. The Northern Group, which operates across the country, comprises Northern Electric Inc., now located in 17,672 sf on 124th Avenue in Westminster, Northern Energy and Power LLC and National Energy Service Investments LLC. With the Thornton acquisition,” They’re going to be bringing everything under one roof,” said McCombs. The new space will be operational by second quarter 2015. The company’s average salary is 38 percent higher than the average salary in Adams County, and at full capacity, The Northern Group will be Thornton’s seventh-largest employer. “The city of Thornton is very excited The Northern Group Inc. chose to locate here during this exciting time of growth for the company,” stated Thornton Mayor Heidi Williams. “They will be providing excellent jobs in the community. This continues the city’s economic development efforts to attract primary employers and we look forward to working with them as they grow in Thornton.” Chad Kollar of Cresa represented Hunter Douglas in the sale. Hunter Douglas Specialty Products manufactured window blinds, shades and other products in the building, which was constructed in 2003. “It’s a beautiful building,” said Adam Krueger assistant director of Thornton Economic Development. “We’re really excited they’re going to be in our central Thornton Business Park with a lot of other great employers,” he said.