Commerce City, CO

Canadian oil refinery company Suncor Energy is poised to eliminate 1,500 positions but in the nearly two weeks since the announcement, there are no indications if the company’s Commerce City location will be impacted.

Suncor’s new chief executive officer, Rich Kruger, notified staff about impending cuts on June 1. In an email, he said the company needs to reduce staffing costs related to competitors, according to Canadian Broadcasting Corp. News. Kruger said the layoffs will impact both employees and contractors across the entire company, but did not offer specifics like locations that would be affected.

“Staffing reductions will occur at all levels of the organization and will be based on both performance and business need,” Kruger told staff in the email. “As we do this, we will eliminate work, critically looking at what we do, why we do it, how we do it and the value it adds.”

Kruger said the goal is to cut costs by $400 million by the end of the year.

Suncor Energy named Kruger as president and CEO in February. Kruger was previously CEO of Imperial Oil Ltd. from 2013 through 2019.

Suncor Director of Corporate Communications Sneh Seetal told the Commerce City Sentinel Express that the company is not providing any additional details at this time. She also said there is no timeline in place for any announcements on the topic.

“Suncor is always looking for opportunities to drive value and improve performance in our business,” Seetal said. “Cost reduction is one of those opportunities.”

As of June 12, there were also no formal filings indicating any Suncor layoffs in Colorado, according to state records.

The state requires that employers provide warning notices of mass layoffs under the Worker Readjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN). Under WARN, employers must provide details 60 days in advance on how many employees will be laid off. The notices are meant to protect workers, their families and communities from the impacts of layoffs.

Suncor reported profits of $1.8 billion in the first quarter of 2023, a 34% decrease from last year’s $2.7 billion.

Suncor’s Commerce City refinery location produces around 98,000 barrels of gasoline, diesel fuel and paving-grade asphalt each day. The company’s website says it sells nearly 95% of its products within the state and employs over 500 regional residents.

The refinery has recently made headlines over the past few months. It was shut down for maintenance for around three months at the beginning of the year. It has also made the news for multiple issues, including a settlement over past emissions violations and criticisms from the community about communications about health concerns.

COMMERCE CITY, COLO. — Industrial Outdoor Ventures (IOV) has completed the disposition of an 11.9-acre Industrial Service Facility (ISF), which is a property that is used to store, maintain or dispatch vehicles, equipment or bulk materials. The sale also included a flex building at 8780 E. 93rd Place in Commerce City. The buyer and price were not disclosed.

Completed in September 2022, the 52,500-square-foot Class A maintenance and repair facility features 4,200 square feet of office space and can accommodate a single user or multiple tenants. The shop area features two wash bays and 18 drive-through service bays, as well as sealed concrete floors and trench drains. Additionally, the property includes a fully fenced and secured yard for parking and storage, LED lighting and extensive landscaping.

Mike Wafer, Mike Wafer Jr. and Mike Viehmann of Newmark represented IOV, while James McGill and Chris Schultz of JLL represented the buyer in the transaction.

MESA, ARIZ. — Phoenix Commercial Advisors has arranged the sale of Mesa Gateway, a three-building retail property at the southeast corner of Power and Ray roads in Mesa. The property traded for $11.8 million, or $371 per square foot.

Totaling 31,824 square feet, the three buildings were fully leased to a mix of national and local tenants, including Verizon, Comerica, Jimmy John’s Sandwiches, Fit Body Boot Camp and Boba CuTea.

Danny Gardiner and Chad Tiedeman of Phoenix Commercial Advisors represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction. The name of the buyer was not released.

WEST COVINA, CALIF. — Quest Capital Partners has sold Atrium on the 10, an office building located at 2934 E. Garvey Ave. South in West Covina. A Covina-based nonprofit owner/user acquired the property for $22.2 million.

In recent years, more than $3 million in capital has been invested in the 100,724-square-foot building. Updates include exterior cosmetic and common area enhancements, upgrades to furniture, installation of a living wall in the atrium, tenant improvements and updated building systems.

Sammy Cemo, Mark Shaffer, Anthony DeLorenzo, Gary Stache and Bryan Johnson of CBRE’s Capital Markets, Investment Properties team, along with Steven Saunders and Philip Woodford of CBRE represented the seller in the transaction.

TOLLESON, ARIZ. — Evergreen Devco has opened Park Tolleson, an apartment community located at 8727 W. McDowell Road in Tolleson. The project team includes BMA Architects and Scottsdale-based MT Builders as contractor.

The 258-unit property features six three-story residential buildings offering a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units with covered and uncovered surface parking spaces. Apartments feature wood-inspired plank flooring, quartz countertops and stainless steel appliances.

The community features a single-story clubhouse, resort-style pool, spa, resident great room with billiards and shuffleboard, and pet playground with a washroom.

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. — Phoenix-based Creation has acquired 18 acres within Scottsdale Airpark for the development of Thunderbird Commerce Park, a $60 million industrial center.

Located at the southeast corner of Scottsdale and Thunderbird roads, the project will feature a 243,360-square-foot Class A industrial building offering 51 truck doors, 32-foot clear heights, 3,000-amp power, four electric vehicle dual charging pedestals, 130-foot truck court depth and 322 car parking spaces. Construction is slated to begin later this year.

Creation sourced the land on an off-market basis and is currently processing entitlements through the City of Scottsdale. The project team includes LGE Design Build as general contractor and LGE Design Group as architect. Completion is scheduled for late 2024.

Play/Pause

Mute/Unmute

Embed video

Playback Speed

Video Quality

Embed video

Copy the code below to embed the video.

<div _="@=1446,dis=none"><div _="@=1447,dis=none"></div></div> Copy

Playback Speed

2

1.75

1.50

1.25

Normal

0.50

Video Quality

Play/Pause >>

Mute/Unmute

0:00 / 0:00

Settings Closed Captions Picture in Picture Cast Fullscreen

Play/Pause >>

Mute/Unmute

0:00 / 0:00

Settings Closed Captions Cast Fullscreen

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — A new report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the Suncor refinery in Commerce City produces more air pollution than 11 similar refineries across the United States.

The analysis states the refinery may experience more air quality incidents due to inadequacies in preventative maintenance, testing and inspections of liquid level control systems and electrical equipment.

The EPA found that from 2016 to 2020, Suncor had the greatest number of tail gas incidents, which caused the release of excess sulfur dioxide. Suncor also had the second-greatest number of acid gas incidents, which released hydrogen sulfide gas.

Suncor was in the middle of the comparison group at the seventh-greatest number of hydrocarbon flaring incidents out of the 12 refineries.

The company has received criticism from nearby residents for years. Guadalupe Solis, director of the environmental justice program for the nonprofit Cultivando, says her group has been collecting data regarding these impacts for some time.

"Air pollution doesn't recognize county borders. It doesn't recognize city borders," Solis said. "And so if we continue to mess with this natural order of the environment, it's going to have an impact on us all."

The EPA says the report will help Suncor understand what other refineries are doing differently in order to make the necessary changes.

"It really helps identify some very specific targets and opportunities," said KC Becker, the EPA's regional administrator. "It's one step towards improving Suncor's compliance and its operational performance and reducing incidents leading to air emissions that can harm nearby neighbors. I know the community is really interested in seeing action. I think this is just going to be one thing that helps continue to drive down emissions."

To read the full report, click here.

COMMERCE CITY — Derek Rinehart wants to disrupt the cohesion in his neighborhood — and he wants to save hundreds of gallons of water doing it.

But Rinehart’s desire to rip out the grass in front of his home, a ubiquitous feature lining the quiet streets in Commerce City’s Reunion neighborhood, and replace it with drought-tolerant vegetation is running up against a formidable obstacle: city regulations.

Commerce City’s landscape standards say that the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street, also known as the tree lawn, “shall consist of turf grass and automatic irrigation system.” That means Rinehart’s plan to plant Delosperma Table Mountain — a drought-resistant, purple-flowered ground cover — across 130 feet of tree lawn on two sides of his house is on hold.

“I see a lot of towns spending a lot of money on xeriscaping and we’re fighting it for some reason,” Rinehart said, referring to the practice of mixing low-water plants with elegantly situated rocks to create a landscape more aligned with Colorado’s semi-arid environment. “We’re stuck in the past.”

It’s a policy that the 37-year-old father of one sees as running counter to a trend that’s been sweeping across the Front Range, and in Colorado writ large, as a historic 20-plus-year drought tightens its stranglehold on the state’s myriad waterways and reservoirs.

In 2021, state lawmakers passed a bill preventing homeowner associations from restricting residents’ use of xeriscaping. And last year, Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill to create a statewide turf replacement program, which pays property owners to replace lawns with more water-efficient landscaping or offers matching dollars for replacement programs already in place.

Meanwhile, two metro area cities — Aurora and Castle Rock — passed ordinances in 2022 to ban or restrict thirsty “cool-season turf” on the lots of any newly built homes.

“We can xeriscape our lawns and still have them look nice,” said Rinehart, who hails from a much greener part of the country, Illinois. “It’s time to be environmentally responsible.”

Commerce City Councilwoman Susan Noble said she’s eager to have that conversation and expects the city to take a look at its landscaping guidelines in the coming weeks.

“We do allow xeriscaping of front and backyards — it’s only the parking strip (tree lawn) that isn’t, in the interest of cohesion for neighborhoods,” she said.

That visual uniformity is important to many in the city, Noble said. The councilwoman is also concerned about eliminating the cooling effect of turf grass and creating “hot zones” in neighborhoods. But overall, she said it’s high time to talk about potential changes to Commerce City’s landscape code.

City spokesman Travis Huntington said those conversations are coming to the City Council “very soon.”

“Tree lawns are where matters become more complicated, since that property is part of the right-of-way, where property owners don’t typically replace those plant materials, and the concept of uniformity is a greater consideration,” he said.

Kevin Reidy, water conservation specialist with the Colorado Water Conservation Board, said many local governments on the Front Range still cling to “legacy codes,” like turf requirements.

“These legacy codes can take time to change but there is momentum across Colorado to change them to fit today’s climate and water supply situation,” Reidy said.

The 2023 Colorado Water Plan, he said, provides grant money to Western Resources Advocates to help two or three communities “create new landscape codes that would limit turf and implement 22nd-century climate-appropriate landscapes.”

Rinehart would like to see changes come as soon as possible. He got approval from the Reunion HOA to proceed last August but hasn’t been able to move past the city’s blockade. His outdoor water use would decline by 80%, he said, after swapping out the current sprinkler line with a drip irrigation system.

Using a breakdown of his water bill, Rinehart estimated that watering just the tree lawn adjoining his property used about 10,000 gallons a month on average last year.

“I’m trying to reduce my monthly bills and save water,” he said. “And if I do it, others might do it too.”

The owners of the 88 Drive-In said they put the property up for sale about two years ago, and it's been under contract for about 18 months.

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — A Commerce City drive-in movie theater is closing after a decades-long run, and the city council is considering a request to rezone the property to accommodate a warehouse.

The family who owned the 88 Drive-In at 8780 Rosemary Street said they put the property up for sale about two years ago, and it's been under contract for about 18 months.

The family released a statement outlining the history of the drive-in and saying:

While the family has made some of their best memories here, and has raised four generations on the property, we feel it is best to allow the family to retire.

While we understand we have raised our children and children’s children alongside you at this establishment where cherished memories are housed, we feel it is best to close the chapter on the 88 Drive-In. This is because we want your last memories of us to be happy. We would rather you think back on us lovingly while we have aged gracefully, and to allow us to reap the benefits of our 47 years of work. We were not approached by any buyers prior to putting the property up for sale.

Credit: 9NEWS

It's unclear when the drive-in's final shows will be.

"We do not know when our last night will be at this point, but we will be sure to post it when it is set," the owners wrote. "In the meantime, come on out and enjoy some movies under the stars and make some lasting memories."

The new owners of the property, First Industrial Realty Trust, have submitted a proposal to rezone it to "light-intensity industrial" in order to accommodate a 80,500-square-foot multi-tenant warehouse building.

The Commerce City Planning Commission voted unanimously in favor of the zoning change at a May 18 meeting, the Denver Gazette reports.

"We’re super excited to be here and we really like this opportunity to build what we think is a quality product in your community,” First Industrial Realty Trust Regional Director John Strabel told those in the nearly-empty commission meeting room last month.

"We feel the land is at its highest and best use for the community in the re-development plan the buyer has created," the family wrote in their statement. "We have enjoyed serving Commerce City, and the entire Denver-Metro area."

The full City Council took up the issue at its meeting Monday evening, discussing it for about two hours before postponing further discussion and action until their July 17 meeting.

Related Articles

Credit: 9NEWS

Credit: 9NEWS

> Top stories curated daily just for you! Sign up for the 9NEWSLETTER to get can’t-miss stories, Next and Broncos content, weather and more delivered right to your inbox.

SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Latest from 9NEWS

Watch more from 9NEWS on the free 9NEWS+ app for Roku and Fire TV.

9NEWS+ has multiple live daily shows including 9NEWS Mornings, Next with Kyle Clark and 9NEWS+ Daily, an original streaming program. 9NEWS+ is where you can watch live breaking news, weather updates, and press conferences. You can also replay recent newscasts and find videos on demand of our top stories, local politics, investigations and Colorado specific features.