BLOOMINGTON, MN (BRAIN)—Quality Bicycle Products took a key step toward building a new distribution center in Utah this week with the formalization of a $1.366 million purchase agreement with the city of Ogden.
QBP president Steve Flagg signed the agreement to buy the 8-acre parcel of land on Monday. Closing is scheduled for mid-March with the groundbreaking on the 85,000-square-foot facility expected some time in April, said Kim Brown, director of distribution for QBP.
QBP has hired Salt Lake City contractor Tom Stuart Construction to head up the project, dubbed Q West. The site is located next to the Ogden Nature Center about two miles from the city’s historic downtown.
Flagg said he anticipates a December completion.
“It’s kind of a fast track so it’ll be interesting to see if we can pull that off. It’ll be darn close if it’s not then,” Flagg told a group of about a dozen Utah-area dealers last weekend during a Frostbike gathering with Ogden Mayor Matthew Godfrey.
QBP invited Mayor Godfrey to last weekend’s annual Frostbike event to tour the distributor’s 500,000-square-foot Gold-level LEED certified headquarters in Bloomington, Minnesota. QBP is also aiming for gold certification at Q West, Brown said.
By April 1, a temporary distribution center located in nearby Clearfield should be shipping to retailers in 11 western states: California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Wyoming, New Mexico and Arizona, Brown said.
QBP’s decision to build in Ogden furthers the city’s goal of becoming a hub for the outdoor sports industry, Godfrey said. The former railroad city of about 82,000 located 40 miles north of Salt Lake City has attracted numerous outdoor brands in the last decade including Rossignol, Salomon, Scott, Kahuna and Nidecker.
This has helped drive an economic rebirth through new jobs and ultimately sales tax and property tax revenue increases, according to Godfrey, a three-term mayor.
“We believe if you do the big things, the little things will come,” he said.
The next big thing on tap for Ogden is a 250-meter indoor velodrome planned in downtown. Through grants and private donations—including a $2 million commitment from Easton—the city has already raised about half the money needed for the $14 million project, which would also include tennis courts, an archery range and soccer and lacrosse fields.
—Nicole Formosa
(PHOTO: QBP president Steve Flagg addresses a room of Utah-area dealers at Frostbike last weekend while Ogden, Utah Mayor Matthew Godfrey looks on.)
