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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBOHLENDER FUNERAL CHAPEL - FDP230011 - SUBMITTAL DOCUMENTS - ROUND 1 - PROJECT NARRATIVETodd Sullivan Development Review Coordinator City of Fort Collins 281 N. College Ave. Fort Collins, CO 80524 RE: 3350 Eastbrook Drive – Planning and Zoning Change of Use While taking into consideration the City’s employment zoning district “secondary use” allocation as it relates to the relocation of Bohlender Funeral Chapel to 3350 Eastbrook Drive, we ask that the planning department consider the following benefits that granting this move would have for the City of Fort Collins: - The 3350 Eastbrook Drive building allows the Bohlenders to move out of their downtown location opening the door for a new in-fill development. Vacating the current site at 121 West Olive Street will create an opportunity for economic growth in Fort Collins o The proposed 0.80 ac development will create a six-story complex with 198 apartment units, 178 parking spaces and 4,300 Sf of class A retail space in the Downtown District. o The site is currently underutilized as a funeral home and parking lot when considering unit density and building height permitted on the parcels. o Sales tax will directly increase through the 4,300 Sf retail space and will raise the total sales tax collected by bringing approximately 200 full time residents into Old Town Fort Collins. o The development will address the city’s housing shortage and low apartment vacancy. Considering the location in the TOD district, residents will be able and encouraged to utilized alternative modes of transportation. o Adjacent developments such as Uncommon, Max Flats, Old Town Flats, Mill House, 281 Willow and Mason Street Flats have positively contributed to the economic vitality of Fort Collins. - There will be no change in the number of employees at 3350 Eastbrook o Previously FRII had 11 employees at 3350 Eastbrook. They are currently winding down their business and letting staff go. FRII will remain in the building under a lease allowing them to disassemble their operations.  FRII is currently transferring their customers to other local internet service providers and will be letting go all employees. o The Bohlenders will be increasing their staff from 6 to 10-12 to accommodate their service growth at 3350 Eastbrook. o Currently, the majority of the first floor at 3350 Eastbrook, as seen on the drawings attached, is utilized as a data center. The other buyers the Bohlenders competed against March 23, 2023 to purchase the building intended to continue to use the space as a data center, limiting the number of positions created in the building. o The Bohlenders plan to continue to provide office lease space at 3350 Eastbrook. Initial plans include approximately 7000 Sf of lease space. Current tenants would likely be offered the opportunity to stay in their space at 3350 Eastbrook, retaining employees in the district. Aside from FRII there are three separate tenants, below are employee number provided by the property manager:  Riverside Technology: 5-10 employees (depending on remote workers)  Old Town Computers: 8 employees  Derby Associates: 1 - The Fort Collins class B and C office market is under significant negative vacancy pressure after the onset of COVID. Utilizing 3350 Eastbrook as a funeral home will not impact the City’s ability to offer employers comparable office space. o There is 227,023 SF of available office space in the surrounding areas.  This likely stems from employers allowing staff to work from home.  Please see attached report from CBRE for details. o Three adjacent buildings to the 3350 Eastbrook property have current vacancy.  Madwire – 3405 Timberline - 102,258 Sf of office space available immediately  Neenan – 3325 Timberline- 27,896 Sf of office space available immediately  3351 Eastbrook – 8,429 Sf of office space available immediately o A funeral home will bring much needed activity into the office park surrounding 3350 Eastbrook without stressing the current space, streets or residents. The number of Fort Collins residents choosing cremation as their final disposition continues to increase annually. About 2/3 of the Bohlender’s business is cremation. While some families are still choosing to honor their loved one with a formal funeral or memorial service, the number of large services, on-site at the funeral home, is small. The Bohlender’s estimate that annually, they conduct approximately 50 funeral services at their current facility, less than one/week. Services range in attendance from 20 – 150 with most seeing about 75 participant’s/service. o Due to limited functional building access and ceiling heights, 3350 Eastbrook is not a candidate to be converted for manufacturing/light industrial space which is in higher demand. o As a data center, the building has limited upside for additional employee growth. o If this building is offered as an office building for lease it would add another 10% capacity to the market. Bringing the total up to almost a quarter of a million square feet of vacant office space. o This building will be an owner-occupied facility. Bohlender Funeral Chapel has been a family owned and operated business in Fort Collins since 1980, and a funeral home in it’s existing site since 1930. At this time the Bohlender’s intention is to continue to own and operate the funeral home and provide an opportunity for their oldest daughter to become the third generation leading the business. - 3350 Eastbrook allows Bohlender Funeral Chapel to grow and offer more services. o They provide an essential service for community members. Clients are comforted knowing a local, family-owned operation can promptly handle challenging circumstances. The Bohlender’s business is unique in that they are the only funeral home in Fort Collins that offers all their services under one roof. This allows them to offer the families they work with the security of knowing their loved one stays in one location. o The Fort Collins community continues to grow at a rapid pace which has put pressure on the funeral industry to grow their service offerings. 3350 Eastbrook creates room for Bohlender Funeral Chapel to grow to meet community needs. The influx of active seniors moving into the Northern Colorado area, as well as the aging of the large “baby- boomer” generation, will continue to force the local death-care industry to adjust to accommodate the increasing number of individuals needing end of life services. o The additional increase in operations and chapel size will grow their employee count from 6 to 10-12. o The Bohlenders have toured 12-15 buildings in Fort Collins over three years. 3350 Eastbrook is the first building that fits all of their requirements. o Throughout the past few years, one of the key areas of office demand from tenants has been from counseling groups. We believe that this building, and the Bohlender’s specific use, creates a unique opportunity to further meet the demands of our community through both the Bohlender’s business but other complementary tenants utilizing the building. - Attached you will find a series of plans the team developed to provide analysis on the impact of the secondary use. The evaluation was done by referencing the New Hampshire Subdivision document. Also, the team provided more detailed floor plans that show the changes on the first floor to accommodate the new chapel and specific program needs. The second floor is to show the existing tenant suites will remain available to either the Bohlenders or future tenants. Thank you for your consideration.