SPRINGS & CO. Inside local business

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Feb 1, 2004

A computer system to watch the sky now is online at Cheyenne Mountain.

It's the first piece of a $1.5 billion contract Lockheed Martin Corp. won in 2000 to modernize NORAD'S computer systems here and at other locations.

It became effective Jan. 13.

Under the 15-year contract, Lockheed will consolidate computer systems for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, some of which are 40 years old, into one integrated system inside Cheyenne Mountain.

The first piece of the system does surveillance of the planet's atmosphere. It looks for airborne threats to the United States and Canada. Commanders decide how to react to threats based on real-time information.

The system was designed by Lockheed engineers in Colorado Springs, where the defense contractor employs about 2,300 people.

STRONG ENOUGH?

Two Colorado Springs institutions have taken opposite approaches with Strong Capital Management Inc.'s involvement in the mutual fund scandal.

The El Paso County Retirement Plan fired Strong Capital, one of seven investment managers it employs to manage $205 million in assets. Strong had $17.5 million invested in large-cap growth stocks, said David Klemmer, plan administrator.

The plan's board fired Strong on Dec. 16, two weeks after Richard Strong resigned as CEO of the Wisconsin-based mutual fund company. Strong and his company are targets of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's investigation into the fund industry.

The plan moved the $17.5 million to State Street Global Advisor's Russell 1000 Growth Index Fund. Board members will interview three companies to replace Strong as the plan's large-cap growth investment adviser, Klemmer said.

El Pomar Foundation decided to retain Strong as manager for $34 million of the foundation's $450 million in assets, El Pomar President Thayer Tutt said. Strong's Dick Weiss has managed a portfolio of mid-cap value stocks for El Pomar since 1992, Tutt said.

"None of his funds have been implicated in the scandal, and his ethics have not been questioned," Tutt said.

LAND REMAINS IDLE

The sign on 700 undeveloped acres near the Colorado Springs Airport should say, "Still for sale."

Nearly 1 1/2 years after Intel Corp. scrapped plans to buy the land for what business leaders hoped would be a Springs expansion, it remains available.

Kevin Butcher, who is marketing the site, said a new strategy is in the works.

Some buyers have shown interest in chunks as small as five acres. So representatives of the owners will ask city officials to fine- tune a long-term plan for development.

The goal: Resolve issues, such as how utilities will be provided, to better position the property to be sold in pieces.

But the advance work could drive up costs. Buy the entire parcel now, and it's yours for $10,000 an acre, Butcher said. Buy smaller pieces in the future, after development issues are addressed, and the cost could be as high as $20,000 per acre.

Got a news tip for Springs & Co.? E-mail businessnews@gazette.com or call 636-0372.

Contributing writers: Paul Beebe, Wayne Heilman, Rich Laden