Hexcel reportedly signed a long-term lease for a 100,000-square-foot high-cube tilt-up industrial building that will include manufacturing, warehouse and office space. The lease reportedly includes expansion rights. Great Western Development executive Rich Montgomery declined to comment on the details but did say construction has begun and the company is expected to be operational at the new location in late 2009.

Great Western Development, a division of the Denver-based Broe Group, is charged with developing 1,400 acres surrounding the Great Western Railway, which connects to both the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern railway systems and is owned by OmniTrax, another Broe Group affiliate. Other companies in the park include Eastman Kodak, Owen-Illinois, which is the largest manufacturer of glass containers in the world, and Front Range Energy, a state-of-the art ethanol plant.

The new Hexcel facility will provide glass fiber "prepreg" material to the Vestas blade factory, a 250,000-square-foot facility that opened in March of this year. "Prepreg" means the composite fiber comes "pre-impregnated" with an amount of the matrix material used to bond them together and to other components during manufacture.

Hexcel's facility will be part of a five-building, 600,000-square-foot development on a 32-acre tract of land immediately west of the Vestas factory. Montgomery tells GlobeSt.com that the four other buildings will be built as tenants sign leases, and that he is discussions with multiple users that would fill an additional 200,000 square feet.

The overall development plan for the entire 1,400-acre tract includes a mix of uses, Montgomery says. To the east of Eastman Kodak, which sits in the middle of the park, will be heavy industrial uses such as Vestas and Hexcel. To the West of the Eastman Kodak facility eventually will be a mix of light industrial, professional office, retail and residential.