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By Craig Young, Reporter Herald Staff Writer
LOVELAND -- The open spaces in north Loveland's Longview-Midway business development continue to fill in, with plans for Taco Bell and Verizon stores the latest to move forward.
Cellular Plus, a premium retailer for Verizon, recently bought a lot northwest of U.S. 287 and 65th Street, north of the Wal-Mart parking lot.
The Billings, Mont.-based company, which owns 57 Verizon stores including one at 1420 W. Eisenhower Blvd. in Loveland, plans to build a 2,000-square-foot store at the site, according to marketing director Merisa Saunders.
The company is still finalizing permits with the city of Loveland, Saunders said, but hopes to start construction soon and finish by the end of the summer.
The store at 151 W. 65th St. will employ about 10 people, be open seven days a week and sell Verizon cellphone services and a wide variety of products.
"We have all the Verizon products," Saunders said. "Samsung and Apple products ... cellphones and tablets, cases, accessories, power cords, portable power, car chargers, mobile Wi-Fi that we call Jetpacks, signal boosters, wireless speakers."
Loveland's LC Real Estate Group, which is developing the three-lot minor subdivision at 65th and U.S. 287 (Garfield Avenue), is working on closing the sale of the lot just south of Verizon, according to Nathan Klein, a partner with LC Real Estate.
Alvarado Concepts of Denver, a major franchisee of Taco Bell, plans to build a 1,900-square-foot restaurant with a drive-thru window on the corner of Garfield and 65th, according to executive vice president Jeff Geller.
He said by email that he hopes to close on the three-fourths-acre property in the next month, start construction in late July, pending building permits, and have the restaurant open in September.
The third lot, which is still for sale, has city approval for a 10,000-square-foot multitenant building, Klein said. The one-acre parcel sits between BioLife Plasma Services and the Taco Bell and Verizon sites.
Klein said his company could build on the lot and lease out the space.
"We may or may not build that," he said.
The developer recently hauled some fill dirt to the site, visible from Garfield Avenue, in anticipation of construction, Klein said.
Other projects in the area include the Esh's Discount Groceries store opening soon at 375 W. 71st St., a proposed King Soopers Marketplace store, gas station and other retail just south of Esh's, the Mountain Pacific business park in the works southeast of 71st and Garfield and more housing under construction in the Wintergreen subdivisions west and south of Wal-Mart.
Craig Young: 970-635-3634, cyoung@reporter-herald.com, www.twitter.com/CraigYoungRH.
