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Coatings on eyeglasses can bead up, much like water on the lid of a pot, Kahn said. The ion beams
can help smooth those voids.
Much of the company's growth has been in ground applications, Kahn said.
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February 12, 2009
Kaufman & Robinson Inc. looks to expand along College
Avenue
BY PAT FERRIER
patferrier @coloradoan.com
Fort Collins is starting to see a return on its $10 million investment in the Dry Creek Floodplain on
North College Avenue as more businesses look to develop there.
By reducing the size of the floodplain from 1,400 acres to 300 acres in the three-year project, the city
cleared the way for new development along the corridor and did away with the need for some
businesses to carry flood insurance.
Now, new retail, commercial and housing projects are in the works - the first piece of a major
reconstruction effort along the corridor that residents and neighbors have said suffered from years of
neglect.
Ion blaster manufacturer Kaufman & Robinson Inc. plans to further its investment along the North
College Avenue corridor with a new building and a little help from the city.
Kaufman & Robinson, now in leased space at 1306 Blue Spruce Drive, wants to stay in the
neighborhood but expand to a new $1.3 million, 10,000-square-foot building just north of the Food
Bank of Larimer County on the east side of the road.
The company plans to ask the North College Urban Renewal Authority for up to $300,000 in tax
increment financing funds to help the company recycle about 500,000 gallons of water used to cool
its vacuum systems, said General Manager Jim Kahn. Tax increment financing is a development tool
businesses in Urban Renewal Authorities can use for public improvements.
"They want to make north Fort Collins look prettier, so they'll help with extra landscaping and outside
improvements," Kahn said.
The citizen's advisory group to the North College Urban Renewal Authority threw its support to the
proposal last week, suggesting Kauf-man request $300,000 in TIF money, $85,000 more than it
initially wanted, said Ron Lautzenheiser, a business owner and member of the advisory group.
The Urban Renewal Authority board, which essentially is the Fort Collins City Council, will also have
to approve the financing package.
Previously, the land would have fallen within the Dry Creek Floodplain and been nearly impossible to
develop, Lautzenheiser said.
The 27-year-old Fort Collins company has added five employees in the last year to bring its work
force to 13 and seen revenue grow about 20 percent, Kahn said. "We hope it keeps up."
Ion sources are used in space to keep satellites in one place, preventing them from rolling out of
position, and for ground -based applications such as eyeglasses, Kahn said.
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