Bike-parts firm eyes city for expansion

Move over Boulder, Colo., Bicycle Technologies International wants to make Santa Fe the hub of outdoors-related companies.

Preston Martin, the company’s vice president and co-owner, said the wholesale bicycle-parts distributor’s immediate need is for a warehouse, but the company ultimately hopes to build an office campus for outdoor-related businesses in Santa Fe.

The campus would help increase Santa Fe’s visibility for outdoors-related businesses, Martin said. “Santa Fe has a lot of great resources for outdoor activities,”.

BTI has kept a low profile during the 11 years it has been in Santa Fe, but Mayor David Coss had mentioned the company at a Coffee With Coss meeting at the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce.

The company hopes the city will help BTI secure an industrial revenue bond to help build the campus, much in the same way the city has helped Thornburg Cos. by putting its name on a $45 million bond to help finance the company’s new headquarters. The groundbreaking on that building near N.M. 599 is Friday.

Coss told a group of business people that city officials hope to help other companies the same way the city helped Thornburg, which employs 358 people in Santa Fe. He mentioned BTI as one possibility.

Thornburg’s bond helps the company by providing the business with significant breaks on property taxes, Coss said. The company pays the bond payments and must still pay impact and permit fees as well as money to the state and schools that is lost through the break in property taxes.

The company’s first priority is to find land for a warehouse, but would prefer the company find enough land for the campus. The company is scrambling because it has to be out of its present location, 1216 Mercantile Road, by 2008.

If the company successfully built the office complex, other Santa Fe businesses, such as the Harlot Clothing Co., which makes mountain-biking apparel for women, could set up shop there.

In addition, other bicycle-related companies would be interested in relocating to the campus because it would cut shipping times and fees from BTI. BTI sells bicycle parts only to other bicycle companies.

BTI employs 38 people in Santa Fe and moved to the city from Ashland, Ore., in 1996. The company started in 1993.

The company stocks 300 brands of bicycle components, parts, accessories and clothing that add up to more than 15,000 items for buyers to choose from, according to the company’s Web site. The Web site includes a feature consumers can use to find a store that sells the company’s products.

Coss started the morning coffee series in June 2006 in an effort to get his administration talking with Santa Feans.

Although Coss has met complaints from members of the business community at previous coffees, this one was comparatively low-key. At one point, there was silence, and Coss had to look around the room in search of someone to speak.

Coss and other city officials, however, answered questions about drivers running red lights, improving education in Santa Fe and extending Richards Avenue to Rodeo Road.

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