East Boulder Self-nomination-form

GREELEY — The East Colorado Small Business Development Center is hosting a two-day conference educating small-business owners on how they can participate in the budding hemp industry. Harvesting Hemp will take place Feb. 8 and 9 at Aims Community College. The seminar is part of the Leading Edge Strategic Planning Series. Leading Edge delivers comprehensive training to small businesses and has courses to help startups and existing businesses with finance, marketing, management and other skills. Lisa Hudson, director of the East Colorado SBDC, said the decision to have a seminar on hemp stemmed from a desire to have subject matter relevant to agriculture-heavy East Colorado. “Over the last year, year-and-a-half we’ve seen an increase in this industrial hemp industry,” Hudson said. “We heard from farmers who wanted to transition their current crops or start new crops that were industrial hemp.” Hudson said the Harvesting Hemp class will cover a variety of topics, starting off with an industry and market overview. It will also include topics such as business planning and navigating the liabilities and regulations of hemp. There will be a panel with industry experts talking about what they would have done differently when they first started. A buyers panel will include those who make purchases discussing what they’re looking for. Other topics include creative financing, what the Farm Bill means and what to think about when it comes to hiring and employees. The two-day class is open to anyone interested in hemp, including current farmers or just people who are looking to become entrepreneurs in a growing market. Registration costs $175 and includes meals, coursework and additional materials needed for the class. Registration is now open and limited to 40 people. “This is the first time the SBDC has covered this topic in Colorado,” Hudson told BizWest. “It’s exciting.”

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BOULDER — Unico Investment Group LLC, a Seattle-based real estate investment firm, has entered into an agreement to sell off a major portfolio of properties in Colorado and Washington, including 11 buildings in Boulder’s Pearl East business park. The 1.8-million-square-foot portfolio, known as Unico Partners I, includes 27 buildings across the greater Denver and Seattle metro areas. The price was $710 million. The buyer is Goldman Sachs-affiliated Broad Street Principal Investments LLC. Jason Flynn and Paul Nelson from Eastdil Secured represented Unico in the sale. “Unico will retain a stake in the portfolio and will continue to operate and manage the portfolio on behalf of the new partnership,” according to a company news release. “The transaction represents the successful conclusion of Unico’s first institutional discretionary fund Unico Partners I, which closed in 2014 after raising $265 million in equity from U.S. and Canadian institutional investors.” Unico’s real estate holdings at its 31-acre, 11-buildings Pearl East campus total more than 450,000 square feet. “We look forward to working with Goldman Sachs to fully complete the property repositions and new development opportunities still embedded within the portfolio,” Unico president Jonas Sylvester said in a prepared statement. “We are excited to continue our commitment to our tenants and our communities for many years to come.”

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