Lone Tree
Voice
Douglas County, Colorado • Volume 11, Issue 45
November 22, 2012 A Colorado Community Media Publication
ourlonetreenews.com
Schwab may build local campus RidgeGate site would house nearly 2,600 employees By Jane Reuter
jreuter@ourcoloradonews.com Though city officials aren’t yet ready to publicly announce it, news that financialservices company Charles Schwab Corp. likely will build a corporate campus in Lone Tree’s RidgeGate development went public earlier this month. The move could bring
hundreds of new jobs to the area. The 57-acre property is just south of Lincoln Avenue near its intersection with Park Meadows Drive, and would consolidate Schwab’s three Denver-area offices into one large property. “We’re pretty far along in our negotiations for a particular site,” Schwab spokeswoman Sarah Bulgatz said, but emphasized that the deal isn’t concrete yet. “Lone Tree is one of the areas we’ve explored.” Schwab’s offices in downtown Denver, Cherry Creek and the Centennial area together employ about 2,100 people. “The ability to consolidate our facilities
into one campus would be a real benefit to our existing employees,” Bulgatz said. “We simply want the flexibility to better control our real estate destiny.” The Colorado Economic Development Commission authorized a $3.7 million job growth incentive tax credit for Schwab during its Nov. 8 meeting. The credit is in anticipation of Schwab’s new corporate campus, which in addition to its existing Denver-area employees, would bring in 500 new jobs with an average salary of nearly $69,000. The city’s also paved the way for such a project. In September, the council re-platted 57 acres “expected to be developed in
association with a corporate campus user,” according to city documents. Deputy city manager Seth Hoffman acknowledged Schwab is pondering a site, but would say little more than that. “We’re aware they’re considering a Lone Tree location and are excited about that possibility,” he said. “But we always wait for the businesses to make their own announcements.” Schwab is headquartered in San Francisco, but has more than 300 branch offices in 45 states, London and Puerto Rico. The company employs more than 13,000 people and is ranked No. 485 on the 2012 Fortune 500.
Lone Tree swim center project sinks
STRINGING IT TOGETHER
Funding, management issues hobble proposal By Jane Reuter
jreuter@ourcoloradonews.com
Erik Peterson, left, plays violin Nov. 14 with Ivy Street Ensemble musician Phillip Stevens on viola. Along with flutist Catherine Peterson, the trio performed a “Narrative in Music” afternoon concert at the Lone Tree Arts Center. Photo by Courtney Kuhlen | ckuhlen@ourcoloradonews.com
Skillet skill brings flapjack fame Williams-Sonoma picks up boy’s peppermint pancake mix By Jane Reuter
jreuter@ourcoloradonews.com Nate Daniel’s already thinking about his next culinary invention. “Peppermint whipped cream, do they already make that?” he asked his mother, Stone Mountain Elementary teacher Melissa Daniel. “Peppermint cookies? Peppermint brownies?” The Stone Mountain sixth-grader already has had his first taste of sweet success. Williams-Sonoma turned his original recipe for peppermint pancakes into a packaged mix that lands on Denver-area store shelves just in time for the holidays. Great Nate’s Peppermint Pancake Mix is sold in a round, cheerfully decorated container that features a cartoon depiction of Nate holding aloft a plateful of pancakes. “I have my own cartoon character,” Nate said. “They sent me some money for college. I’m pretty happy.” Nate, now 11, was 9 the morning he first made the recipe. His father, Scott, recently had taught him to make pancakes and Nate wanted to give his family a holiday treat. “We had some extra candy canes,” he
said. “My idea was to crush them up and put them in the pancakes.” His mother almost put the kibosh on the idea. “I thought it wasn’t going to be very good,” she said. “But when I tried them, I was surprised.” The Daniels, longtime fans of WilliamsSonoma’s chocolate pancake mix, thought Nate might be on to something. His mother encouraged him to submit the recipe to the company. To their surprise, the company notified them they wanted to package it as a mix and give Nate credit. From concept to store shelves, the process took almost two years and was an education for the entire family. The company offered Nate a one-time payment toward his college fund, enlisting the help of attorneys to draft the agreement. “For them to honor a 10-year-old like that … it’s been a great little journey for him,” his mother said. His obvious knack for creative cooking aside, Nate isn’t sure he wants to make his career in the culinary arts. “I really don’t know what I want to do when I grow up,” he said. There’s soccer to play, video games to master and friends to hang out with, he said. Nate admits, however, he’d like to learn
Stone Mountain Elementary student Nate Daniel created a peppermint candy-laced pancake mix that lands on shelves at area Williams Sonoma stores just in time for the holidays. Photo by Jane Reuter to make a more complete breakfast. “I’m probably going to start learning how to make eggs,” he said. “And maybe bacon.” Nate’s Great Peppermint Pancake Mix is available for a limited time online for $14.95 at www.williams-sonoma.com, and in stores. One container makes about 18 pancakes.
A proposed swim center that Lone Tree officials thought would have international appeal likely will never get past the dream stage, Mayor Jim Gunning said. Failure to craft a financing agreement acceptable to the potential partners and difficulty finding an operator brought the proposal to a dead end. “It’s a huge disappointment,” Gunning said. “It was a super project for Lone Tree as well as the local area.” The city introduced the idea to its residents during two public meetings in October 2011. Plans included a 221-foot competition pool with a movable platform to allow depth changes, analysis and four therapy tanks and a rehabilitation center. The city hoped it would draw Olympicquality athletes for high-altitude training, along with patients seeking hard-to-find aquatic therapies. Sky Ridge Medical Center, the Colorado STARS swim program and a European water company called Fluidra were all on board as proposed partners. Olympic athlete Missy Franklin trained with the STARS, a nonprofit program without a pool whose members practice at high schools and other facilities. Douglas County students likely also would have trained at the center. No district school has a pool. The center, with its cost estimated at $15.7 million, first was proposed on RidgeGate Parkway property across from Sky Ridge Medical Center, then shifted across the street to Sky Ridge property and, finally, was considered as an expansion to the Lone Tree Recreation Center. Financing was a repeated roadblock. “The city was going to have to be the owner, and it was never the city’s intent to be the owner,” Gunning said. Proposals kept circling back to that unacceptable idea, and the desire for monetary gain from several entities created an unworkable equation. Further strangling the proposal, Lone Tree also couldn’t find a management company it liked. Though South Suburban Parks and Recreation owns the rec center, the swim center’s specialized nature would have required separate management. Lone Tree staff researched and interviewed firms Swim continues on Page 9
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