MONUMENT • After much discussion at last week’s Board of Trustees meeting about Eagle Rock Distributing Company of Colorado’s potential parks and open space dedication, the firm was approved to set up camp in Monument.
The Town of Monument Board of Trustees on June 20 approved two resolutions for the preliminary/final Planned Unit Development for Eagle Rock Distributing Company and its final plat for subdivision filing No. 1 to be included in Falcon Commerce Center.
However, the approvals came after the presentation of the resolutions were preempted by town Planning Director Nina Ruiz’s explanation of how the application may or may not meet the town’s code for dedicated land use for parks or open space. She went on to explain the board’s options if was decided it did not.
The application was for a PUD plan involving 23.39 acres adjacent to Terrazzo Drive and Woodcarver Road, located in the Falcon Commerce Center near the existing Pilot fueling station and the under-construction UPS Distribution Center. Plans for Eagle Rock’s latest distribution center involves one 262,500-square-foot building with office, warehouse and distribution spaces, 49 feet in height, and a 10,000-square-foot maintenance facility.
Parking on one lot of the acreage would involve spaces for 172 passenger vehicles, 106 box trucks and 11 semi-trucks. Although a traffic study suggested a traffic light would be warranted at the intersection of Terrazzo Drive and Baptist Road on the northside of Falcon Commerce Center, town planner Debbie Flynn said the Colorado Department of Transportation recently started the design phase of constructing a roundabout at that intersection instead. She said the lead time on the roundabout is approximately 18 months and updates would be forthcoming.
A rendering of the Eagle Rock Distributing Center planned for Falcon Commerce Center in Monument.
Planned immediately adjacent to the distribution center was an area of 1.2 acres of grass which the applicant asked to be considered as its required dedicated land to parks and/or open space. However, Ruiz stated that the town planning staff felt it did not meet the criteria to be considered the appropriate land dedication and recommended the board accept fees in lieu of dedication, calculated to be $97,255.
As for the project’s alignment with economic opportunities put forth in the town’s comprehensive plan, Eagle Rock Distribution Company’s Monument location would involve over 100 jobs. Eagle Rock of Colorado co-owner and president Mike Economos said the average annual salary of employees in the Monument location would be $73,000.
Economos presented the board with a history of the company and its locations and customer base in Colorado, as well as its interest in becoming a part of the Monument community. Eagle Rock Distributing Company is a family-owned and operated business in Georgia and Colorado. The business distributes a variety of brands of beer, wine, spirits and non-alcoholic beverages. The Economos family is three generations deep in the beer industry, with two generations involved in distribution.
With 22 years in business, Eagle Rock serves 6,700 customers with on-site consumption, like taverns and restaurants, and off-site consumption, like grocery and convenience stores. Due to capacity constraints, the company’s growing portfolio of brands, and reasons related to the condition of some existing warehouse locations, the company looks to have a distribution center in Monument as its southern Colorado hub, with one in Loveland as its flagship in northern Colorado, for distribution purposes.
Economos said the Monument facility, pending approval, would be expected to open in 2023.
The Eagle Rock Colorado president noted the firm’s community partnerships, including sports partners including professional teams such as the Colorado Avalanche, Denver Broncos and Denver Nuggets, and college teams such as Colorado College, University of Denver, U.S. Air Force Academy and University of Colorado, which has been a $7.5 million investment, Economos said.
Last year, Eagle Rock sponsored 125 community events around the state, and anticipates expanding that number, Economos said.
Trustee Redmond Ramos asked why the plan’s grass area wasn’t further developed into something that could be deemed an active improvement to be considered dedicated land. The project’s architect Matt Borner of Wade Malcolm said the area could be in the future.
Tom Blanc of Falcon Commerce Center noted the entire development has 33 acres of dedicated open space, 29 acres of which is for mouse habitat. However, an additional 1.7 acres for park space is set to come before the Board of Trustees at its July 5 meeting.
Ruiz noted that although Falcon Commerce Center as a whole may have the proper amount of dedicated land, the process of the town deciding whether to accept the land offering or approve fees in lieu of land had not yet been completed. Thus, the specific filing involved in the resolution before them at the time had to be determined on its own merits, she said.
Trustee Ron Stephens asked if the traffic study for the distribution center included the results of studies performed in the process of approving previous projects within the commerce center development which would make use of Terrazzo Drive to Baptist Road. Ruiz said the traffic study findings did take all projects thus far approved into account, and the town’s engineering consultants advised the planned construction to Terrazzo Drive would be able to support the addition of the Eagle Rock center.
Economos said trucks would be leaving the facility from 3-9 a.m., but the fleet of deliveries to its on-site clients are staggered to avoid a “mad rush” at one time during the morning.
During public comment, Steve King, Home Rule Charter Commission chair and leadership figure with the Save Monument citizen’s group, said Save Monument had several meetings with Blanc about some of aspects of Falcon Commerce Center. The Save Monument group would be in support of the Eagle Rock distribution center, which is why there has been no opposition to it up to this point, King said.
The board was in agreement that the proposed land dedication for the distribution center was not sufficient, and decided to approve the $97,255 of fees in lieu of dedication.
“The whole community is excited to have your company here, but I think we also have a process for a reason,” Ramos said. “I don’t think the grass area is enough.”
Trustee Darcy Schoening moved to amend the resolution to reflect the fees in lieu of dedication, and Trustee Jim Romanello moved to approve the resolution as amended. Both resolutions passed 7-0.
