Home Care In Arvada, CO

Construction-tech company Prescient, which fabricated components for multi-family buildings, is closing its Arvada factory and laying off 60 employees, according to a letter the company sent to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment on Thursday.

“This action is expected to be permanent, and upon conclusion of the shutdown activities the company would be closed,” Sandra Espiritu-Ortega, the company’s chief human resources officer wrote in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act letter filed with the state on Aug. 31, the date when layoffs were expected to begin.

John Vanker and Michael Lastowski founded Prescient on Sept. 1, 2012, in a large Broomfield garage, using state-of-the-art technology, including robotic welders, to produce panels, trusses and other components for apartment buildings, hotels, senior centers and student dorms.

The company integrated its design software tightly into the manufacturing process, and turned to designers, engineers and software programmers based in Eastern Europe to help lower costs. Once fabricated, those components were assembled at construction sites, speeding up construction times and saving clients money.

In the summer of 2017, the company moved its headquarters from Arvada, where it employed about 300 people, to Durham, N.C. The Arvada plant, however, remained open and its address is listed as the point of contact in the WARN letter.

Espiritu-Ortega didn’t respond to a request for information on whether the entire company was closing, but that seems likely based on the language in her letter.

Prescient has contributed in the construction of 90 buildings covering 13.2 million square feet to date in Colorado, according to the company’s website. Among its projects are Park 17, Radius Uptown Apartments, Civic Lofts, Alexan Arapahoe Square, Edison Lofts at Rino, a new dormitory at Colorado Christian University and a hotel, the Hyatt House Belmar.

Despite winning numerous contracts in Colorado and across the country, Prescient has struggled in recent years. The company laid off 50 workers at its Arvada plant earlier this year and shut down its North Carolina plant last year. A listing on LoopNet shows its facility at 14401 W. 65th Way in Arvada at 388,489 square feet.

Two days before Prescient filed, Broomfield-based Aktiv Pharma Group informed the state it would be laying off 70 workers at three of its locations in Broomfield and Fort Collins.

“Unfortunately, due to unexpected circumstances, the company must shut down substantially all of its operations,” CEO Amir Genosar wrote in his WARN letter.

Based in Broomfield, Aktiv was an innovator in auto injectors. One of its leading devices contained Atropine, which can be injected to counteract organophosphate poisoning including nerve agents and poisonous mushrooms.

Guidehouse is your guide for public sector Workday

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Guidehouse, a leading global provider of consulting, digital, and managed services to commercial and public sector clients, has announced that it was selected by the City of Arvada, CO to implement Workday solutions to replace and modernize the city's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.

The scope of the project includes implementation services for Workday Financial Management, Workday Human Capital Management, and Workday Prism Analytics to achieve Arvada's goals including project management, business process analysis, change management, and interface development.

"We are excited to be a part of this exciting modernization project for Arvada," said Collin Lopes, partner at Guidehouse. "Guidehouse offers a distinctive blend of experience deploying Workday with our local and institutional knowledge, providing trusted management and technology consulting services to public sector entities."

This project is one of several recent partnerships Guidehouse has announced that help public agencies implement Workday. Other recent projects include Workday implementations for Oakland Co., MI and Spokane, WA.

"The Guidehouse team provides the extensive expertise needed to help us exceed our objectives for this significant project, and Workday provides simplicity, unification, and flexibility," said Craig Poley of Arvada. "This powerful combination of talent is best suited to optimize Workday for the City of Arvada and enable our internal teams to focus on the mission of delivering superior services to enhance the lives of everyone in the community."

A leading Workday implementation partner for the public sector, Guidehouse experts empower organizations to efficiently manage finances, attract, and retain top talent, and create the workforce of the future. With a deep understanding of the unique challenges faced by public sector clients, Guidehouse combines management consulting techniques and Workday's deployment methodology to ensure a seamless system transformation.

A top 10 consulting firm in the U.S., Guidehouse is the largest consulting firm equally focused on serving the commercial clients operating in highly regulated industries and the public sector clients that regulate those industries. For more than two decades, clients have relied on Guidehouse for pragmatic and right-sized solutions tailored to their needs — whether embarking on a multifaceted transformation, unleashing innovation, remediating deficiencies, or enhancing operations.

About Guidehouse

Guidehouse is a leading global provider of consulting services to the public sector and commercial markets, with broad capabilities in management, technology, and risk consulting. By combining our public and private sector expertise, we help clients address their most complex challenges and navigate significant regulatory pressures focusing on transformational change, business resiliency, and technology-driven innovation. Across a range of advisory, consulting, outsourcing, and digital services, we create scalable, innovative solutions that help our clients outwit complexity and position them for future growth and success. The company has more than 17,000 professionals in over 55 locations globally. Guidehouse is led by seasoned professionals with proven and diverse expertise in traditional and emerging technologies, markets, and agenda-setting issues driving national and global economies. For more information, please visit guidehouse.com.

Media Contact:

GuidehouseCecile Fradkin [email protected]

SOURCE Guidehouse

The company charged with keeping uranium-tainted water out of Denver and Arvada’s drinking supply is walking away from cleaning up Jefferson County’s shuttered Schwartzwalder mine, and state officials are taking over a $7.3 million surety bond they say will continue to fund treatment.

Without water treatment and other uranium reclamation, the Schwartzwalder mine above Ralston Creek and Ralston Reservoir has leaked tainted water into key city supplies, state reclamation officials said in their stipulated agreement with Colorado Legacy Land. The company’s water treatment plant at the mine has been running May to October in recent years, and the state said Friday the previously posted bond will allow work to continue in 2024.

Colorado officials won’t know until the end of next year’s treatment season how many years the surety bond will last in running the plant, said Michael Cunningham, acting division director for Reclamation, Mining and Safety. Colorado could invest the surety bond and use proceeds to continue treatment, but the state may also have recourse to seek more funding from Colorado Legacy Land, Cunningham said.

The state revoked Colorado Legacy Land’s permit to run mine or cleanup operations at Schwartzwalder as part of the stipulation agreement. The stipulation agreement says no civil fines will be issued as part of the revocation and transition to state control. The latest surety bond agreement was for $7.6 million, but the state is moving to take over about $7.3 million left in the fund.

Community activists who have tried to track the uranium cleanups in both Jefferson County and Canon City said they were not surprised about CLL’s surrender of the Golden efforts.

The promises were “never going to be enough for the best cleanup possible,” said Carol Dunn, co-chair of Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste. “I could not guess where CLL got the highly optimistic idea that there was ‘easy money’ to be made.”

Reporters in the past have not received responses to inquiries at Colorado Legacy Land. A message left with Colorado Legacy Land representative Jim Harrington on Friday was not returned.

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The walkaway agreement signed last week is the latest in a series of failed cleanup sagas for two major Colorado uranium sites once controlled by Colorado Legacy Land, which in turn had taken over the two sites from Cotter Corp.

Schwartzwalder, about 7 miles northwest of Golden, has not produced uranium since 2000, state officials said, and is in the final stages of rock and dirt reclamation. Water treatment at the Jeffco site must go on for years, according to regulators at the reclamation division and the state health department.

Colorado Legacy Land had also taken over and later walked away from the Cotter Mill cleanup, an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site at Cañon City. Colorado Legacy Land surprised Cañon City residents in February with an insolvency and news it was giving up its share of cleanups at both Cotter Mill and Schwartzwalder.

State action at Schwartzwalder dates at least to 2010, when reclamation officials demanded action from then-owner Cotter Corp. over discharges into surface water. The state’s stipulation agreement last week says that without proper summer water treatment, tainted mine water builds up and then overflows into Ralston Creek, which feeds Ralston Reservoir.

Unless the treatment equipment is turned on again in spring of 2024, the pool of tainted water would begin overflowing in June, state officials said in the stipulation agreement approved by the mining reclamation board on Wednesday.

The land portion of the reclamation has a finite end and will be completed under the surety bond, the state’s Cunningham said. Rock waste is being moved above any water contact on the valley floor, and will be capped with soil to be covered in vegetation, he said.

“The division is going to have a much clearer idea of how long that water can be treated utilizing the financial warranty once we get to the end of the 2024 season,” he said

“The system that’s in place there will ensure that the water that is discharged into Ralston Creek meets water quality standards,” Cunningham said. “This is what Colorado Legacy Land has been doing themselves since taking over this permit. And they’ve been successful in meeting water quality standards up there.”

Arvada water officials said they have been monitoring the discussions about Schwartzwalder and have been advocating “for the protection of Ralston Creek.”

“At this time, we have no concerns about risk to water supply or water quality in Arvada,” said Arvada infrastructure communications manager Katie Patterson. “We are confident that the state and the Mined Land Reclamation Board are committed to continuing to run the water treatment plant in the year ahead and to determining a path for long term management of the site. The city will continue to monitor, support, and engage with the state in the future management of the site to ensure the protection of Ralston Creek.”

Denver Water officials have said in the past that their own water treatment systems for Ralston Reservoir water also keep uranium or other contaminants out of city supplies.

Friday, Denver Water officials said they are “monitoring the situation at the mine and appreciate the leadership of the Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety in its work to ensure water treatment continues at the site.”

Cunningham said the state has known since early this year that Colorado Legacy Land would be leaving the site. “CLL stated and confirmed it does not presently have the financial capacity to perform its obligations under the permit,” the stipulation says, in part.

“We feel well positioned to take the site over,” Cunningham said.

Michael BoothEnvironment Reporter

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Michael Booth is The Sun’s environment writer, and co-author of The Sun’s weekly climate and health newsletter The Temperature. He and John Ingold host the weekly SunUp podcast on The Temperature topics every Thursday. He is co-author... More by Michael Booth

ARVADA, Colo. — El Pollo Loco is continuing its expansion into Colorado with a second location.

The fire-grilled chicken chain has opened a new restaurant at 5480 Wadsworth Bypass in Arvada. That's near Interstate 70 and Wadsworth Boulevard.

The 3,800-square-foot store is the second El Pollo Loco in Colorado. The first Colorado restaurant at 4698 Peoria St. in Denver opened in November 2022.

“When our team discovered this vibrant spot in the heart of Arvada, we instantly recognized the location as the ideal home for our newest El Pollo Loco,” said Brian Carmichall, Chief Development Officer for El Pollo Loco.

“With a spacious dining room designed to reflect the warm, community-focused spirit of Arvada, we're excited to offer a place where locals can gather and savor their El Pollo Loco favorites as we continue to expand in the Colorado market.”

El Pollo Loco previously operated one restaurant in Denver that closed during the Great Recession of the late 2000s.

The restaurant chain is known for its L.A. Mex food, "an innovative blend of traditional Mexican cuisine and better-for-you eating, that Los Angeles is known for."

After first announcing plans to enter the Colorado market in March 2021, El Pollo Loco has signed two separate development agreements for eight initial restaurants in the Denver area.

The deals include four restaurants each on the east and west sides of the Denver metro area, according to El Pollo Loco.

El Pollo Loco said the franchise partners are experienced operators:

El Pollo Loco told 9NEWS it plans on opening 10 to 15 restaurants in the Denver metro area and as many as five others in the Colorado Springs area over the next five years. Each Colorado restaurant would employ as many as 50 people.

The restaurant chain said the Colorado expansion is part of a plan to open 140 new locations throughout the western United States by 2026. El Pollo Loco currently operates 478 locations in Arizona, California, Nevada, Texas, Utah, and Louisiana.

The nearly 50-year-old El Pollo Loco said its expansion will be driven by two recently-unveiled prototype designs.

One version has no indoor dining room, instead catering to off-premise sales with a take-out window, a dual drive-thru, parking for curbside pick-up, and patio seating. The second prototype will have a smaller-than-typical dining room that opens up to an expansive patio. This format will also feature a dual drive-thru and curbside pick-up parking spaces.

El Pollo Loco said each of its new prototypes share an enhanced digitized experience – including "Pollo To Go" cubbies for mobile to-go and delivery orders, digital menu boards and GPS-enabled curbside pick-up, all integrated with the company’s dynamic and versatile mobile app.

"This exciting franchise development is a reflection of our Acceleration Agenda, our strategic plan for ongoing national expansion through franchising," said Carmichall. "The success of our better-for-you menu combined with our new L.A. Mex restaurant design has continued to attract experienced multi-unit operators interested in our growing brand."

Of El Pollo Loco's 478 restaurants, 282 are owned and operated by franchisees.

The chain said it is seeking operators to help with its western expansion. The initial investment to own and operate a single unit is estimated between $770,000 and $2,097,000, which includes a franchise fee of $40,000, according to El Pollo Loco.

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A 35-year-old Colorado company that develops and manufactures medical products for clients worldwide is expanding its operation and moving into a 34,000-square-foot facility in Arvada.

ERI Group, formerly Evergreen Research, has leased the new manufacturing space and expects it to be up and running later this year. The company, whose main site is in Genesee, has doubled its workforce over the past year to about 100 employees and anticipates the staff growing to roughly 150 by the end of 2025.

“The addition of the Arvada office provides significant expansion to our manufacturing operations,” said Natasha Bond, president of ERI Group. “This is an investment to make the operations more efficient and really set the group up for success.”

The core of the company’s business involves the design and development of medical products. ERI also provides quality assurance and regulatory services.

“We also do diagnostic equipment, some laboratory equipment. And we actually do some environmental-monitoring equipment and high-end sports equipment,” Bond said.

The company’s mission is to enable entrepreneurs “to bring life-changing products to market,” Bond added.

The ERI Group’s clients include the creators of LUCI, smart wheelchair technology. Barry Dean and his brother, Jered Dean, a former Colorado School of Mines professor, started a company after designing and engineering features for a wheelchair used by Barry’s daughter to make it safer and able to connect to the internet.

The work on LUCI is a good example of what makes the ERI team special, said Bond, who joined the company two years ago.

“We helped them the first time around. They went out to the market and had some success. They came back with market feedback and wanted additional features,” Bond said. “We brought it in for about a month of really intensive work and brought the LUCI team to take a look at some of the options we put together, of where we might take the product for them.”

The ERI Group doesn’t create its own products.

“We are a service company. We develop and manufacture our customers’ products,” Bond said. “We are effectively a team of experts that somebody can wrap around a good idea to help it forward.”

The business became ERI Group two years ago when the former owners retired. The company is now backed by private equity that is Denver-based, Bond said. The company has seen business grow while maintaining longtime clients, including customers No. 1, 2 and 4 from 35 years ago, she added.

In 2022, ERI merged with LINK Product Development, a Denver-based industrial design and engineering studio.

About 75% of ERI Group’s clients are in the U.S. Others are in Mexico, Canada, Israel. New Zealand and Europe. Bond said the work ranges from putting in millions of dollars worth of effort into one project while providing a few hours of help for another with meeting regulatory requirements.

“We probably have a hundred projects open at any one time,” Bond said.

She said Colorado is the perfect setting for ERI Group. The company’s staff has expertise in mechanical, electrical, software and systems engineering as well as quality-assurance and regulatory consulting services.

The value of the availability in Colorado of highly skilled, highly motivated team members “who, frankly, are an absolute joy to work with can’t be overstated,” Bond said.