UCCS wants site to pay off

The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs is looking for ways to turn a profit on a commercial building it obtained through a bargain sale in December.

Several proposals are on the table for the use of the 144,000-square-foot building, said Brian Burnett, UCCS Vice Chancellor of Administration and Finance. Between 20 and 30 organizations have expressed at least some interest in renting or buying the property, he said.

“We’re probably a few months away from making a decision,” he said about the property’s use.

The CU Foundation purchased the building on behalf of the university for $2.8 million. That’s half the price former owner and real-estate developer LeRoy Landhuis paid in 1998, according to the CU system’s “Silver & Gold” newspaper. A March appraisal by UCCS valued the building at more than $8 million, Burnett said.

In the meantime, the university is using the building to store items such as theater props and equipment for its physical plant. Because UCCS formerly paid to store such items off campus, it will save about $30,000 this year, he said, when the costs of utilities and maintenance are compared to the costs for renting storage.

Referred to as the TRW building after a former company that used the building, the property sits on North Nevada Avenue about a mile south of Austin Bluffs Parkway. It was vacant for nearly seven years when the CU Foundation purchased it.

Landhuis considered UCCS along with a group of nonprofits for the bargain sale.

As part of the real-estate deal, the CU Foundation agreed not to sell the property for three years, until January 2010. Still, Burnett said there are lease-to-purchase options that could be used for interested buyers.

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