The former Russell Stover candy manufacturing plant will very likely have new owners soon, and this time, they’re local.
Just last month, the building went to foreclosure auction, and there were no bidders, returning the property to the lender.
But afterward, a local group was willing and able to work out a deal to settle the loan with that lender, giving ownership to this new group, which is represented publicly by Joey Burns, owner of the local brokerage firm Eagle Land Brokerage.
The figure agreed upon is not yet public record, and Burns didn’t say how much the group agreed to pay, but the minimum bid at the auction in June was set at $3.18 million.
He said the group doesn’t have the deed yet, but the deal is done and the money has been paid.
Burns indicated he is glad Western Slope-based investors will have control of what happens with the building moving forward.
He said there aren’t concrete plans as to what will happen with the building, but there is plenty of interest.
“The biggest reason (there has been interest) is where it’s located,” Burns said Wednesday. “There’s a lot of folks that have looked at it, and they look for a big storage facility, for cold storage… and really, the building has a lot of different facets to it.”
He said the building has multiple uses that could be utilized by Montrose.
“I think it’s probably one of the best locations of a piece of property that size in town that you could possibly find,” Burns said. “We’re a Montrose-based Southwest Colorado group that is looking at this as how we can do something to benefit Montrose?”
Burns said they are sitll in the planning stage and have hired civil engineers to work through the process.
Sandy Head, the Montrose Economic Development Corporation’s executive director, was at the auction in June and said there were three or four different groups looking at the facility.
She said she is excited about the new owners and that they’re looking at doing something different with the building than has been discussed previously.
Some potential uses previously discussed have included cold storage for produce and agriculture, manufacturing of food products, and more.
Burns said they don’t have any agricultural plans for the building.
“We’re taking a bit of time to get our arms around it and see what the future is going to hold,” he said. “I’ve had multiple meeting in the building, and we haven’t even got the lights turned out yet.”
The roughly 280,000 square-foot building has sat vacant since 2020, when Russell Stover closed the plant. At the time, Russell Stover was one of the largest employers in Montrose.
Montrose Cold Storage LLC was the most recent owner before defaulting on the loan.
At the time the plant closed, Russell Stover was one of the largest employers in Montrose.
The building sits on 22 acres of property on the south end of town, off Townsend Avenue.
Justin Tubbs is the Montrose Business Times editor. He can be reached by email at justin@montrosebusinesstimes.com or by phone at 970-765-0915 or mobile at 254-246-2260.
