URL: http://www.abqjournal.com/AED/502124business10-16-06.htm

Monday, October 16, 2006
Ashley Furniture Coming to Paseo/I-25
By Richard Metcalf
Of the Journal
    COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE: Cabot Superior MicroPowders, making the transition from research and development to manufacturing, has leased 17,293 square feet in Washington Commerce Center.
    "We'll build out some office area there, but most of it will be manufacturing," said John Pautler, the company's director of operations.
    Three years ago, Cabot Superior MicroPowders was almost entirely research and development, he said. Now, about 30 percent of the operation is the manufacture of nanotech powders with fuel cell and electronic ink applications, including anti-counterfeiting uses.
    The company has about 100 employees and is growing.
    "Our projection out is somewhere in the order of 10 to 15 percent growth over the next 12-18 months and continuing with that at least in the short term," Pautler said.
    Superior MicroPowders was founded in Albuquerque by Mark Hampden-Smith and Toivo Kodas and purchased by Boston-based Cabot Corp. in 2002. Hampden-Smith and Kodas remain general managers.
    The company currently leases 42,000 square feet at 5401 Venice NE, near Balloon Fiesta Park, from John Mechenbier. When the company needed more space for manufacturing, it turned to Mechenbier again.
    Cabot will take up half of a new 34,586-square-foot building at 8500 Washington NE, also near Balloon Fiesta Park, in Mechenbier's commerce center.
    "Since they were growing their manufacturing, they wanted something with M-1 zoning," said leasing agent Mike Leach of Sycamore Associates. "There was a convenience factor as well." Ashley Furniture HomeStore

    Ashley Furniture HomeStore is taking a big plunge into the Albuquerque market with construction of a nearly 49,000-square-foot store and lease of a 40,200-square-foot warehouse.
    Ashley's arrival will create more than 100 jobs at the store and warehouse.
    A key component of the plunge is the store's location near Interstate 25 and Paseo del Norte, said Bill Johnston, managing partner of the Albuquerque store.
    "We want to be in a position to capture a growing area of the market," he said. "Paseo being one of the only thoroughfares across the Rio Grande was a major factor in determining where we wanted to locate."
    Johnston recently closed on the site at 7912 Pan American NE south of the Target Store and Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse.
    "We had other interest, but they were so aggressive in trying to get the deal done, we didn't really shop the property," said listing agent Bob Feinberg of Grubb & Ellis New Mexico.
    Ground has already been broken on the 48,857-square-foot store, which is due to open in March. A roughly $1.7 million construction project, the store will face the interstate on the frontage road.
    Last summer, Johnston committed to the lease of an entire warehouse and distribution building, currently under construction at Gateway West Industrial Plaza at Unser and Los Volcanes NW.
    Ashley's building is the second one at the industrial plaza. Longust Distributing Co., a supplier of floor coverings, will soon move into 20,000 square feet in the first building. There's 24,000 square feet of shell space still available, said David Genrich of Real Estate Advisors.
    Johnston, who will move his family here, will be an independent owner of the Ashley Furniture HomeStore through a license with Ashley Furniture Industries Inc., a privately held company based in Arcadia, Wis.
    The more than 250 HomeStores, most of which are independently owned, had sales of about $1.6 billion in 2005, Johnston said. The stores sell a broad line of furniture.
    Johnston is a member of a family that has owned and operated Moore's Home Furnishings in Kerrville, Texas, since 1892.

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