AVA withdrawal surprises but does not derail plans
BY PAT FERRIER
PatFerrier@coloradoan.com
AVA Solar’s recent change of heart – moving its proposed manufacturing plant from the planned Colorado State University research park to southern Weld County – appears to have flown under the radar but has not derailed efforts to establish Fort Collins and CSU as leaders in clean and renewable energy technology.
“The research park will be critical to CSU in spinning out new businesses, joint ventures and partnerships,” said Mark Wdowik, president of CSU Ventures.
“It’s in the right location, close to CSU, I-25 with good airport access, and … I still see it as a very important aspect of what we’re doing at CSU,” Wdowik said.
Thursday’s announcement – a bombshell for CSU, where AVA Solar’s technology was developed, the city of Fort Collins and economic developers – came with little forewarning.
“No one had any fore-knowledge of this; it was company driven entirely,” said Larry Burkhardt, CEO of the Upstate Colorado Economic Development Corp. in Greeley, which will now jump in to help AVA with its potential move.
AVA Solar plans to lease a 128,000-square-foot building just south of the I-25/Colorado Highway 119 interchange at Del Camino, Burkhardt said.
The move, bringing with it up to 600 new jobs, is a significant boon for southwestern Weld County, which is “teeming with a quality work force that now commutes out of the area,” Burkhardt said.
Larimer County economic developers remain hopeful the manufacturing plant is still close enough to benefit workers here.
What went wrong?
While Weld County gets ready to welcome AVA, Fort Collins is left wondering what happened to the deal it thought was solid.
AVA Solar was to be the anchor of the new CSU Research Foundation research campus at I-25 and Prospect Road, showcasing Northern Colorado’s commitment to renewable and clean energy.
The deal was almost done when AVA announced Thursday it had decided to move the bulk of its manufacturing operations to Weld County.
Company officials said a new building would take longer than expected and moving into an existing building would allow the company to get products to market faster than originally believed possible.
AVA Solar expects to start receiving production equipment in April.
“It’s disappointing, yes, but the reality is that, if the company has to get into a constructed building right now because it’s receiving a bunch of equipment, then they need to get into the building,” said Maury Dobbie, president and CEO of Northern Economic Development Corp. “It’s a speed-to-market thing happening here.”
AVA officials have not returned repeated phone calls seeking comment.
Company officials said in a statement it still intends to begin pilot production of its cadmium telluride thin film photovoltaic modules at its existing Fort Collins facility later this year and plans to keep its headquarters here, a move that is easing some of the disappointment.
“It’s not as ideal as we all wanted it to be,” Dobbie said, “but let’s remember it is still in Northern Colorado and our work force is going to benefit from them going where they’re going.”
Dobbie said she shared with AVA Solar’s CEO Pascal Noronha that “there are people who are fairly upset about this. He’s well aware of that, but it’s a business decision and we in business can understand.”
Despite the blow to CSU and the city, AVA’s decision should not affect plans for the research campus, city and university officials said Thursday.
“The research park is a concept that leverages not just the AVA relationship but all things ongoing in the energy space,” Wdowik said. The region has reached critical mass and core competency in the area of clean and renewable energy to the point it is drawing attention from the “outside world.”
While he hopes CSU spinoffs such as AVA Solar give back to their community, Wdowik said they can do that in several ways, such as job creation, location in the region or continued research and development collaborations with CSU.
Having a manufacturing plant separate from the R&D facility, which AVA maintains will remain in Fort Collins, is not unusual, Wdowik said. And CSU’s interest is mainly in the R&D collaborations.
The city swapped the 143 acres to CSU several months ago in an $8 million deal heralded as a jump-start for economic development and cooperation among the city and CSU.
Dobbie said it was a disappointing lesson, but the city, CSU and NCEDC “learned that nothing is a given and that nothing is 100 percent. That’s why all of these take so much time. There’s a lot of anxiousness that goes with that when we’re all trying to do a good thing for the region.”
Fort Collins City Manager Darin Atteberry said Thursday the news was “terribly disappointing for Fort Collins. I was under the impression that Fort Collins was the home of their company and that’s where they were going to stay.”
Carbon Valley benefits
A recent study by Northern Colorado Economic Development Corp. and Upstate in Greeley showed more than 45,000 people within a 30-mile radius of I-25/U.S. 34 were unemployed or underemployed.
That means a large employment base available for AVA and other companies interested in the I-25 corridor from Longmont to Wellington.
NCEDC had been working on training issues for AVA Solar, “now someone else will have to pick that up,” Dobbie said.
The addition of AVA will undoubtedly help a Carbon Valley work force that largely travels out of the region every day for work.
A survey conducted by the Carbon Valley Chamber of Commerce of 417 households in Frederick, Firestone and Dacono showed 75 percent of households commute more than 21 miles in one direction.
The vast majority of those drive south to Denver or west to Longmont and Boulder, Carbon Valley Chamber president Steve Burton said.
If AVA Solar ramps up to several hundred jobs, as it expects, it could easily become one of the largest employers in the Carbon Valley, Burton said. “We certainly hope it will help our housing market here.”
