What was a good restaurant location in Fort Collins more than a decade ago has only gotten better, so Rayno Seaser is going for a second round.
Seaser just bought the recently vacated Sanford’s Grub & Pub restaurant building at 1526 Oakridge Drive in Fort Collins for $1.53 million. Seaser, who developed the property with partner Rhys Christensen and later sold it, now is looking for another restaurant, microbrewery or distillery, while also seeking to broaden the building’s appeal.
“It’s near and dear to me since I was the original developer,” Seaser said. The 6,425-square-foot building sits on the busy Harmony Road corridor.
Seaser and Christensen developed the property in 2002. Christensen built the Sanfords building, originally a Boston Pizza, and Seaser developed a Mulligans Food & Ale (now HighPoint Services) just to the east. They included a cross easement so the restaurants could share parking.
Seaser and his wife, Patty, who co-founded the Egg & I, looked a year ago at moving their restaurant on Oakridge Drive into the Sanford’s building, but decided not to relocate. “When the REIT that owned Sanford’s realized they were struggling, they called us, and we saw some opportunity there,” Seaser said. With Northern Colorado becoming an epicenter of microbreweries and distilleries, “We thought that would be a wonderful opportunity for either a microbrewery or one of the distilleries to go into that location,” he said.
Since HighPoint Services doesn’t need evening parking, and the cross easement provides for a total of 61 spaces, “We think that’s a plus for us,” Seaser said. “We’ve had some interest from a few national tenants that want to come into the market,” he added, noting Foothills Mall has attracted new-to-market restaurants including Bar Louis and Grimaldi’s, “but their rents are a little bit higher and their CAM charges are considerably higher than what we have to offer.”
“I think there’s a lot of opportunity for them to come into this market and be successful on the Harmony corridor.”
The building has a fully equipped kitchen and “fabulous” enclosed patio. “I think we’re below the market for the Harmony corridor, and we’re the only turnkey restaurant space on the Harmony corridor,” Seaser commented.
Nevertheless, Seaser also plans to seek approval for a drive-thru so the building could be leased to a bank or dry cleaner, for instance.
Christensen’s son, Chase Christensen, a broker with Cushman & Wakefield, is marketing the building with Aki Palmer, also of Cushman & Wakefield.
Palmer, along with Cushman & Wakefield brokers Jim Palmer and Jared Goodman, represented the seller, Spirit Master Funding III LLC, in the sale of the building to Seaser.
