Woodward sells Loveland facility, will move out
293 jobs in Loveland will be transferred to Windsor and Fort Collins over next two years, company says
Aerospace and industrialcontrols manufacturer Woodward Inc. has swapped its Loveland complex in a real estate deal that will expand its research facility in Windsor as it plans to move almost 300 employees to nearby cities.
Commercial real estate brokerage CBRE, in a statement Friday afternoon, said the Woodward campus at 3800 N. Wilson Ave. in Loveland was sold, while Woodward acquired the former Iron Mountain Truck & Auto Inc. building just east of its current facility at 871 Champion Drive in Windsor along U.S. 34.
In its own release, the
Fort Collins-based Woodward said it is moving its Air Valves Engineering and Testing operations that are currently in the Loveland complex to the existing Windsor operation.
“Selling the Loveland Campus allows us to optimize our Colorado footprint,” Woodward’s director
of corporate real estate Steve Steismeyer said in the release.
Larimer County proper ty records show that Woodward sold the Loveland complex to Southgate One LLC, registered to developer Martin Lind, for $4.22 million in a deal that closed Friday. Property records in Weld County still show the former Iron Mountain building as being owned by that company.
Lind said discussions to move the Loveland operation began two years ago, when he said the company was looking for consolidation options.
“The entire project was about creating energy and synergy where they needed it, and the Windsor campus had this opportunity that worked better for them,” he said.
Woodward plans to move its 293 staffers based in Loveland to its other campuses in Windsor and Fort Collins over the next two years. Lind said he has leased the property back to the company and has yet to sign a future tenant.
Woodward opened its Loveland campus in 1993 and built a small addition in 2013 to test some new high-pressure air valves it was making. After the company built its new world headquar ters nor theast of downtown For t Collins in 2015, the company moved some manufacturing jobs there from Loveland.
“We have been grateful to Woodward for being a steady corporate par tner to Loveland over these past 30 years, ” said Kelly Jones, economic development director for the city. “We’ve known about this departure for some time and wish them great success in our sister city.”
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