June 27, 2013
A Colorado Community Media Publication
ourarvadanews.com
Jefferson County, Colorado • Volume 9, Issue 5
And the winners are ... Look inside to find out who made Colorado Community Media’s list.
Jeffco bans pot industry Commercial operations barred until 2015 By Glenn Wallace
gwallace@ourcoloradonews.com
Rick Enstrom, left, and his wife Linda, the area managers of their family business Enstrom Candies, have moved and expanded their Arvada store to 6770 W. 52nd Ave. Suite C. The new store features an expanded ice cream line, coffee and a selection of chocolates and Enstrom’s famous toffee. Photos by Sara Van Cleve
Enstrom expands store, offerings in Arvada Family candy business celebrates new location By Sara Van Cleve
svancleve@ourcoloradonews.com Enstrom Candies’ Arvada location has moved a few storefronts down and expanded its treat offerings, but the family business known for its almond toffee remains the same. “My grandfather Chet Enstrom started the business,” said Front Range Area Manager of Enstrom’s Rick Enstrom. “He came to Grand Junction in 1928 to open an ice cream shop.”
While running his ice cream shop, though, Chet continued to pursue his hobby of creating delectable confections, including almond toffee, and in 1960 he founded Enstrom Candies. For the past 28 years, Rick Enstrom and his wife, Linda, have operated Enstrom stores on the Front Range, including the Arvada location. The Arvada location has moved a few storefronts over to 6770 W. 52nd Ave., Suite C, to allow for the store’s redesign and expansion and to allow other businesses to fill the building’s space. “The family owns the building and we’ve leased it to a security engineering Candies continues on Page 23
Enstrom has remained a family business since it was founded 53 years ago.
Though Colorado counties will be able to regulate and tax marijuanarelated businesses beginning this fall, Jefferson County will not be among them. The Jefferson County commissioners voted 3-0 to ban those types of businesses newly allowed under voterapproved Amendment 64. Under the new law, beginning Oct. 1, cities and counties can start accepting permit applications for marijuana businesses, including cultivation facilities, testing facilities, product manufacturing facilities and retail stores. Commissioners Faye Griffin, Casey Tighe and Donald Rosier all voted to approve the county ban, which calls for all such businesses to not be allowed within unincorporated Jeffco until Feb. 1, 2015. “Waiting until 2015 would allow us to see how this is going in other municipalities,” Assistant County Attorney Eric Butler said. Butler said the state still had many portions of the Amendment 64 recreational marijuana law to work out, and a November election to determine how the product will be taxed. He added Pot continues on Page 23
Pact between developer, urban renewal district would lay groundwork Public improvement fee at Walmart would reimburse infrastructure costs By Sara Van Cleve
svancleve@ourcoloradonews.com The Arvada Urban Renewal Authority announced a proposal to reimburse redevelopment infrastructure costs to the developer at Arvada Plaza site. The $5.8 million is AURA’s portion of necessary infrastructure improvements, which must occur at Arvada Plaza at West 58th Avenue and Independence Street regardless of the tenant, said AURA Executive Director Maureen Phair. Under the proposed agreement, IRG, Industrial Realty Group of Downey, Calif., will pay all $9.1 million for the redevelopment upfront; AURA will then reimburse the developer for $5.8 million, and IRG will pay $3.3 million. “In order to redevelop the site, these improvements would have to happen, end of story,” Phair said. The money will come from a Public Im-
provement Fee instituted on the retailer — in this case Walmart — in lieu of the city’s portion of the sales tax. Sales tax in Arvada is 8.06 percent with 3.46 percent the city’s portion, Phair said. Pending the approval of an agreement by City Council, 3 percent of the sales tax will become a PIF and the 0.46 percent sales tax that goes to the police department will remain the same. Money from the PIF will be reimbursed to IRG, not Wal-Mart, until it reaches $5.8 million or 12 years have passed. Phair said she expects the $5.8 million to be paid in full in six to seven years. “This is new money,” Phair said. “It’s not something coming from the city’s general fund or AURA’s general fund. The tenant of the project, Walmart, is going to generate the sales tax and that is new sales tax that is not being generated today. Unless we made these public improvements, we would not have a tenant in there.” Improvements include remediation for asbestos and ground water contamination, site regrading and stabilization, demolition of the current facility, storm drainage work, water connection completion, relocating a sanitary sewer line, street widen-
ing on Ralston Road and Independence Street, street narrowing on 57th Avenue, new streetscape and consultation for the improvements. Several other projects in Arvada have had tax-sharing agreements, including $9 million for Costco in 2000, $15 million for Arvada Ridge in 2005 and $3 million for Target at Arvada Ridge in 2007. Other projects across the metro area to use a PIF for redevelopment include Belmar in Lakewood, which is $175 million; and Cabela’s in Thornton, which is $27 million. According to AURA, public participation, such as a PIF for larger projects, is usually 20-25 percent of the total project cost; the redevelopment of the Arvada Plaza is about $25 million, meaning the public contribution from AURA is about 23 percent. Some of the other projects in the area add the PIF onto the existing sales tax, including Belmar, which added an additional 2.5 percent to the existing tax. Consumers in Arvada will end up paying the same amount in sales tax for shopping at the proposed Walmart as they do at any other retailer in the city, Phair said. The redevelopment of the Arvada Plaza
is the first step to redeveloping the Arvada Triangle area, Phair said. AURA is hoping to redevelop the north side of Ralston Road west of the new Ralston Central Park as well with mixeduse development including residential and commercial development and perhaps a recreational facility. AURA already owns some of the property and can purchase more in 2016. Safeway, which is located on the north side, announced on June 21 that it will close on July 15. Because the Arvada Plaza, and the whole Arvada Triangle area, is an urban renewal district, tax revenue generated above what it made in 2002, the year before it became a designated district, goes to AURA. Tax revenue has declined each year since the Arvada Plaza became an urban renewal district. Walmart continues on Page 24
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