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Shopping plaza to break ground in south Thornton
Contributed by: City of Thornton on 9/26/2007

New Shopping Center Will Break Ground in Original Thornton


United Properties has closed on its purchase of the redevelopment property at 88th Avenue and Washington Street from the Thornton Development Authority and will begin development of a new retail center October 2. The site formally referred to as the Northland Redevelopment project is now called Plaza las Americas.

Minnesota-based United Properties Investment LLC plans to construct a 90,000 square foot grocery anchored retail center on the 13.4 acre Plaza las Americas site. This new original Thornton anchor will be a multi-cultural neighborhood shopping center focused around a Rancho Liborio Market. The entrance to Plaza las Americas will be a cultural activity plaza featuring a fountain, gazebos, landscaping and a staging area. This plaza will serve as a public gathering venue. A pedestrian walkway will connect the plaza and shops providing an integration of activities throughout the center.

Anthony Trujillo, co-owner of the Colorado arm of Rancho Liborio Markets, said he is set to break ground on the new store next month. Rancho Liborio Markets is a California-based Latino grocery chain catering principally to the Latin American families that have settled into local American neighborhoods. The store carries more than 20,000 food items from Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean. Many regular items on the Rancho Liborio shelves are unique to this grocery shopping experience.

This past summer, the Thornton Development Authority worked with state licensed contractors to prepare the site for new development. Crews removed asphalt, fences, and other debris as well as leveled two remaining buildings at the site. This area is the site of the former Northland Shopping Center. For updates on the construction process of Plaza las Americas visit the construction page on the City of Thornton web page at www.cityofthornton.net/business/03_comm_const_projects.asp.



Alternative Fuel Now Available in Thornton


The Western Convenience station at 9190 Huron is now providing E85 gasoline. E85 is a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline.

Ethanol is a high-octane, renewable fuel that burns cleaner than gasoline and therefore reduces harmful tailpipe emissions and greenhouse gases. Ethanol is typically less expensive than straight gasoline or other oxygenates and octane enhancers, selling for approximately the same price as regular gasoline. It is also biodegradable and wont contaminate water. For this reason the Governors office is hoping to have 50 fueling locations in Colorado by the end of the year, stated Katrina Reed, representative from the Colorado Corn Growers Association. The Thornton station is the 41st fuel station to carry E85 in the state.

Mayor Pro-tem Marty Wisniewski and City Council Member Jan Bach expressed excitement that Thornton residents now have an alternative fuel site in the community. With many people commuting to work from Thornton, this E85 site might provide opportunity for people to start using vehicles that use alternative fuel, stated City Council Member Jan Bach. Mr. Wisniewski noted that his employer, the United States Postal Service, has been purchasing vehicles that run on E85 since 2001 because of Federal energy mandates. Just recently, the State legislature passed a bill that requires biofuels be used in state fleet vehicles.

For more information on ethanol or E85 visit the Colorado Corn Growers Association at www.coloradocorn.com or the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition at www.e85fuel.com. To learn about the Governors New Energy Economy visit the Governors Energy Office at www.colorado.gov/energy/


City of Thornton Sponsors Small Business Seminar Series


The Adams County Initiative Small Business Seminar series is being held at Margaret W. Carpenter Recreation Center Thornton this September. This is a seminar series for entrepreneurs and those who are interested in starting a business in Adams County.

One out of every two businesses in Adams County is considered a microenterprise - five employees or less. With few employees, the president of the microenterprise is usually doing much of the finance, human resources, marketing and general administration by his or herself. This extra work leaves much for the president to juggle at the same time as providing products or services to customers. These small business classes are intended to make the process easier by providing information to common and specific business questions - everything from key elements of a business plan to how to determine whether or not a product requires sales or use tax.

Classes are being held in Thornton on the last three Thursday evenings in September from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Micro Business Development is coordinating the training classes. This nonprofit organization is dedicated to eliminating barriers to economic independence for community entrepreneurs through access to markets, resources, and business capital.

The Small Business Seminar series, which is funded in part by the Adams County's Small Business Initiative (SBI), takes place several times throughout the year in various Cities in Adams County. For information on the Small Business Seminar classes, contact Benjamin Weeda at BWeeda@MicroBusiness.org or 303-308-8121.


Have A Bouncin' Good Time at Jump-Street in Thornton


When Timmy Crawford was a kid he always had a reoccurring dream of having a trampoline in the backyard. Now he has over 102 trampolines and he is sharing them with everyone. Timmy Crawford is the owner of Jump-Street - Thornton's newest family fun center.

"This is a place where all ages can have fun, stated Crawford. Many times parents drop off their kids while they do errands and then return to jump on the trampoline with their kids." Jump-Street offers an area with several trampolines attached together, as well as trampoline dodge ball courts, batting tunnels, an indoor soccer field, and an inflatable jumping area specifically for young kids. Thornton boosts several unique family fun centers, including X-treme Fun, Rockn and Jamn, Sonesta Lanes bowling and Xpress Sports.

Jump-Street is located at 8225 N. Valley Highway in Thornton Colorado. From I-25, take 84th Avenue west to Acoma Way. Turn south on Acoma, then east on 83rd Place and follow the curve around to Jump-Street. Jump-Street is open seven days a week. For more information contact Jump-Street at www.jump-street.com or 303-426-jump. For more information on entertainment and recreation centers in Thornton visit the business search page on the City of Thornton website: www.cityofthornton.net/buslist/SearchBus.aspx.


Thornton Business Development Partners with Schools to Explore Urban Renewal


Local students will soon learn about urban renewal in Thornton, thanks to a collaborative project between the City of Thornton Business Development team, Adams County Education Consortium and teachers at local high schools and technical and community colleges. This fall, students at Horizon High School, Legacy High School, Bollman Technical Center, Thornton High School and Front Range Community College will learn about the redevelopment process including elements such as land assemblage, working with stakeholders and the community, financing of an urban renewal project, marketing studies and environmental clean up issues.

Our goal is for students to learn about the complexity of redevelopment projects and explore possible solutions to a specific urban revitalization challenges, stated Thornton Business Development Director Robert Smith. The students will be learning using the Thornton Shopping Center as a case study. The success of redevelopment projects is almost always based on several ideas from several different perspectives. It would an amazing story if a new solution came from the community through this process, Smith added.

The goal of this contextual learning experience, facilitated by the Adams County Education Consortium, is to provide students an opportunity to make a direct connection between academic learning and real life community issues. If I had an opportunity as a student to work on a real life project such as this, I would be excited! stated Sandy Steiner, Executive Director of the Adams County Education Consortium. Due to the complexity of the Thornton Shopping Center, the teachers are each tackling one area of the urban renewal. Some are planning to perform a marketing study of surrounding neighborhoods, others are looking specifically at the state environmental clean up requirements.

After taking time to study this center and its unique characteristics, the teachers, Adams County Education Consortium and the Thornton Business Development team hope to have students present their findings and thoughts to the public.



New Campus President for Everest College in Thornton


The new school year brings with it a new college president for Everest College in Thornton. Bruce R Pileggi started this past August in his new role as president, chief executive officer and on-site administrator. Mr. Pileggi has served as Regional Vice President for Everest College overseeing 11 campuses in seven states and Area Vice President for Westwood College managing online, national, international and three ground schools in the United States. He has also worked for Corinthian Colleges, Inc. and held management positions with fortune 500 companies including Eastman Kodak, Laboratory Corporation of America and Oce.

Mr. Pileggi stated that it was watching the 102 students graduate last spring that inspired him to take the leadership role at Everest College. Everest College provides students with short-term, career training in a variety of programs. The Thornton campus offers diplomas and/or degrees in accounting, business administration, criminal justice, medical assisting, medical administration assisting, medical insurance billing and coding, paralegal, surgical technologist. Mr. Pileggis goals are to increase the student body population, expand current offerings and increase placement rates.

Everest College is located at 9065 Grant St. just south of Thornton Parkway. For more information about Everest College visit www.everest.edu/.

Launch of Geo-Eye1 on Track for Beginning of 2008


Thornton's commercial satellite imaging company GeoEye is slated to launch its next-generation GeoEye-1 satellite near the end of the first quarter of 2008.

GeoEye-1 will be the worlds highest resolution commercial Earth-imaging satellite. Designed to take images of the Earth from 425 miles in space while moving at an orbital velocity of approximately 7.5 kilometers per second, the spacecraft will be able to focus clearly on objects on items as small as 16 inches - thats about the size of a stadium seat at Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium.

The satellite will be able to collect a vast amount of images per day, which will be ideal for large-scale mapping projects. Geo-Eye1 has the capacity to revisit any point on earth once every three days and precisely map an objects location (without ground control points) to within three meters of its true position on the surface of the Earth. This degree of accuracy has never been achieved, so the satellites launch is highly anticipated by several commercial companies and government agencies.

The images taken by GeoEye-1 can be used for defense and intelligence, homeland security, oil and gas mining, insurance purposes, land use management, natural disaster management as well as mapping. Currently, images provided by Geo-Eye satellites are aiding in the search for pilot Steve Fossett, who's been missing since September 3 in Reno, Nevada. Geo-Eye1's ability to produce sharper photos than the current satellites could be a help in these type of searches.

GeoEye was formed as a result of Orbitimages acquisition of Thornton-based Space Imagining in January 2006. Thorntons GeoEye facility is located in the Washington Square Employment Center.



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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

John Eisel

Denver , COLORADO

John Eisel has posted 2865 stories and 12 comments since joining on 9/14/2005. John Eisel's average story rating is 4.39.
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