ALMOST 400 COLO. JOBS WILL GO WHEN CHIPOTLE HQ MOVES

Burrito-based chain is moving its headquarters to California starting Oct. 5

Chipotle Mexican Grill’s big company reboot will cost the city where it was born nearly 400 corporate-level jobs over the coming months.

After announcing this spring it is moving its corporate headquarters to Southern California, the burrito-based restaurant chain — which opened its first store in Denver in 1993 — filed a notice with the Colorado labor department on June 29 outlining plans to shut down two offices in Denver by March 1, eliminating 399 local jobs in the process. An undisclosed number of workers at those offices — one at 1401 Wynkoop St. and another at 1515 Wynkoop St. — have the option to head west with the company but others will be receiving walking papers.

“Due to certain changes in business model and organization, Chipotle expects to permanently cease all operations” at its Denver offices, the company’s chief human resources officer Marissa Andrada wrote in a letter to the state. “While some employees will be offered relocation … some employees will be laid off.”

Chipotle plans to begin relocating Oct. 5, the letter said. The fast-casual dining chain was required to file a notice with the state under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, a federal labor law requiring companies to tell states when they plan to shut down a facility or lay off large numbers of workers. The letter included a list of the departing jobs by position. The largest losses will come in the human resources and information technology departments.

Chipotle is also shutting down its corporate office in New York City as part of its

reshuffling. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last month, Chipotle executives estimated it would cost $70 million to $80 million to consolidate on the West Coast. Between $40 million and $45 million of that is expected to be spent on employee relocation and related costs, and another $20 million to $25 million will go to “lease exit costs.”

Chipotle finalized a 15year deal in December to occupy five floors inside Denver’s recently complet- ed 1144 Fifteenth tower, but that arrangement was struck when company founder Steve Ells was still CEO. Ells was replaced by Brian Niccol in February. The former top executive of Taco Bell, Niccol is now taking Chipotle to Newport Beach, Calif., a short distance from Taco’s Bell corporate HQ in Irvine.

Reached by email Monday, a company spokeswoman said it is “too soon to provide additional details” about how much it will cost Chipotle to break its lease at 1144 Fifteenth.