Fort Lupton city and business officials helped kick off work on a 37,000-square-foot facility and welcomed a tractor-trailer dealership to town May 5.

The City of Fort Lupton officials welcomed Intermountain Trailers with a groundbreaking ceremony. Construction Concepts will build the 37,000  square feet facility on 28 acres at County Road 8 and Rollie Avenue.

"Fort Lupton was very accepting of the business, which has been great and not too far out. It's been great working with the city, and excited to get the project underway, said Travis Johnson, owner of Intermountain Trailers.

Intermountain Trailers' primary business is similar to a car dealership, but features is a semi-truck trailer. The company sells new and used semi-truck trailers, fixes and repairs them, and sells parts for heavy-duty trucks and trailers.

"We are currently in Commerce City, the group that owns our property sold the property to a neighboring business. So, it forced us to go out onto the market and find something new," Johnson said. "We loved coming up into the Fort Lupton market."

Johnson said Intermountain Trailers is a legacy company, but it has been in business in its current configuration since 2017.

"We had several ownership changes and have been around since 1996 in the Salt Lake market," Johnson said. "In 2017, we acquired Wabash National Assets here in Denver, took on our employee base here – which has been our best asset – and went to work."

Construction Concepts, which is building the Intermountain Trailers facility, founded in 1990, has mainly  worked as a residential builder. 

"It's now changed ownership; our company president worked for the company before he bought it and took it over about two years ago," said Joel Hardy, preconstruction manager and chief estimator.

Hardy said Construction Concepts' strong suit id esign-built projects. The company hires architects and engineers and manages all construction. It's a more efficient way to get through the design process as quickly as possible, he said.

"With this particular project, we started working year ago with Intermountain Trailer. We did three or four different interim estimates, to make sure that our project costs are tracking," said Hardy.

Michelle Magelessen, Fort Lupton Economic Development Manager, said it's a new industry for the city.

"We have manufacturing but this will expand on that. We're excited to see the capital investment and a lot of new jobs. It is really going to help support the growth of this area, and it supports City Council's goal of economic sustainability for the community," Magelessen said.

Claud Hanes, Fort Lupton City Councilor, said  "It's another addition for potential jobs in the community, which is what we need. Years ago we thought jobs were the key to bringing in rooftops and bringing in retail."

"I think it's going be a good addition to the city and they are a regional operation, " said  Bruce Fitzgerald, Fort Lupton City Council.