Barbara Lawlor
Nederland
The building at 80 Big Springs Drive is huge. As the roof was finished and the walls were built, residents began stopping to look, many thinking that they never expected to see a three story, 21,000 square foot private building go up in Nederland, a town known for balking at large growth within town limits.
Some people asked the owner if the structure was going to be a marijuana grow facility.
Steve Karowe and his team of architects and builders received approval of the plans in December of 2013 and broke ground last August.
Sitting next to the Black Forest Restaurant, in front of a wall of lodgepole pine trees and across Big Springs Drive from the Tebo Shopping Center, Karowe's building is massive but blends in with its surroundings. Architect Debbie Davenport designed the structure knowing what locals would accept and what they wouldn't.
When the building is completed and the tenants move in Steve's business, African Market Baskets, will take over 75 percent of the bottom floor, using the majority of the building for warehouse and distribution, as well as offices.
"We will also house our non-profit, Every Basket Helps, which donates money to the basket weavers and their families in Ghana, registering a thousand people each year for free health care, and providing school supplies for 700+ children annually. We have several tenants committed to the building so far."
Karowe also plans to create a “business hub” or co-working space, designed to provide professional space and offer exceedingly high speed internet for locals who want to work among other like-minded individuals and startups. This will be a friendly space with a café area to facilitate interaction of ideas and goals among members. Dedicated desks, open seating, and cozy couches will be available for relaxed and communal work.
Karowe says the town has expressed interest in offering assistance for speakers to give seminars open to the public at little or no charge, creating a sort of business incubator for the town.
We will have a variety of memberships available, and plan to open spring of 2017. We are looking for a business name for this space, and we’ll offer a prize for whoever comes up with the name we use."
Email ideas to: skarowe@yahoo.com
Karowe and his wife, Jen, and their two children live in Nederland and plan to be around for a long time. After commuting many hours per day for the past 16 years, Karowe can now leave his house on his bike and be at his office in 40 seconds. His wife can know the joy of being a full-time mother and the ability to give of her time to the town and to the community.
Now that the building has become so visible, residents are wondering what, who and why. Is this a grow building? Who would want to put an African Basket business in a small town in the Rockies and why is it so large?
Karowe grew up in upstate New York in a farmland area. His father was a doctor, his mother was a lawyer and they had six children. Karowe remembers that he always wanted to be a builder. He could sketch buildings when he was five and he had a passion for building special things with blocks, stacking them over and over to create balanced structures. He also had a knack for getting the perspectives right in his sketches.
When it came time to choose a major in college, he figured studying biology and geology would give him a ticket to travel, maybe in the oil industry.
One of his brothers, a professional blackjack player, had traveled through Southeast Asia and kept telling Steve stories about the great arts and crafts, the textiles, he had seen.
"I decided to know more about the people and their products and spent one of my elective courses on East Asian studies, especially the temples. This is when I decided to go into the import business, figuring my geology knowledge would tie in."
Karowe ended up going to Africa. He had a friend in the Peace Corps who called him and said there was a place for him and he flew to an area South of the Sahara. He learned about the life, the culture and made connections. In 1983, he called the Smithsonian who said they would like the products that Karowe had.
"For the next year and a half, I worked as a construction laborer to save money to go back to Africa. When I got there, I asked the same question to 10 people selling their wares, looking for the most common answer. The question was, 'Where does this work come from? Where was it made?'"
With this information guiding him, Karowe traveled to a region where the raw materials were abundant and the artisans were prolific. He had to travel by local buses, where he was made to sit up front with the chickens and the goats. It was extremely hot and he wore the big, flowing shirts and shorts that the locals wore, shopping in the village bazaars.
He says he was quite the spectacle, being white and not knowing the language, but the African people he met said he communicated well by listening to the phrases and mimicking the common ones. He traveled through vegetation filled flatlands, volcanic areas and tropical areas. His main mission was to talk to anyone he saw making something and ask them questions. Usually there were members of the younger generation who could help him with the language.
"I was mostly intrigued by the basketry and then by the traditional music instruments, typically percussion. The wood carvings were beautiful and I thought there would be a market for them."
Karowe had saved $10,000 for the buying trip and he burned through it all in three weeks, carrying it as excess baggage. He brought his purchases to his parents' house in New York and stored his inventory in the basement. Then he went through the yellow pages, looking up retail import shops. Learning how to deal with shop owners was a personal development for him.
His first selling expedition was in Ann Arbor, Michigan where he found the Peaceable Kingdom. He walked in with his samples and the owner loved them so much she bought a good portion of them and gave him a bunch of advice. That was 30 years ago and the beginning of a 15 year relationship.
Karowe built close relationships with the African crafts people, communicating with them by telegraph. He worked out of his parent's basement for the next five years, but he would only be home about six weeks out of the year, traveling and buying the rest of the time. His customer base included museums and zoo gift shops, who sold these items to people wanting to have something from the cultures they learned about.
"At this point, I traveled so much I became a loner, but I didn't mind. I had my college friends and family and would travel six to eight times a year around the country, over 300,000 miles. I would go to Africa and buy for a month and a half with no American contact and then come home and travel."
Soon Karowe had the transporting part down to a schedule, sending the product by aircraft to JFK and then renting a huge U-Haul and driving it to his parent’s house.
He admits it was a crazy business model. In 1990, he hired his first employee who worked in the basement filling orders along with some high school kids who did the packing. He would drive most of the time, using pay phones for communication and leaving his car in a parking lot to fly home now and then and attend to business.
"I had a dream I would create something sustainable. Even though I was just treading water, I had a dream."
Karowe left New York in 1993 and moved to the Rocky Mountains, to Boulder. He rented a warehouse and a six-month apartment near Arapahoe and 55th Street, going up to the mountains every afternoon, meeting Nederland, which he describes as the only sustainable easy access to Boulder.
He then found a warehouse in Broomfield and began 12 years of commuting, becoming more and more determined to live in Nederland, where there was a community and infrastructure. He found a run-down A-frame in Big Springs, about 200 square feet in the fall of 1993. There were snowdrifts in the living room. He began to rebuild it from the inside out, living next to his wood stove.
"I was a commuter and I didn't know anybody. My business was flourishing, but I wanted to find someone I could have a family with. I began dating on Match.com., the only way it seemed I was going to meet anybody."
In 2007, he made a date with a woman who was also from upstate New York. They hit it off immediately and within a year, he and Jen were married and began remodeling the A-frame. They also decided they didn't want to dawdle, wanted to start a family as soon as possible and they did, bring Dylan and Lizzy into the world. In a whirlwind of kids and building their house and running the business in Broomfield, Karowe realized that he had to cut down on his travel time. He stopped going to trade shows and considered dealing with his huge customer base from home, in Nederland, where he could be around to help Jen raise the kids.
It takes 40 seconds to ride to work and four minutes to get back home.
The idea to put up a warehouse/office building was ignited when Karowe saw the for sale sign in December of 2013. He asked local architect Debbie Davenport to draw up some rudimentary plans and then began testing the water to see if he could get town approval. In the spring of 2014, he began going through the permitting process. Fortunately the area was zoned commercial so no variances were needed.
The deal was closed in August of 2014. Karowe says that there was no real opposition to the project and the Town was supportive and knowledgeable throughout the process.
Groundbreaking occurred on August 21, 2015, and excavation and construction have continued ever since. The foundation was poured last February.
"There is a lot of engineering involved in a project like this," says Karowe, "so it is taking some time. The slab wasn't poured until the end of May."
Valentine Gane, of Rollinsville, is the general contractor for the project and Karowe says he will hire local people whenever possible. Gane was also the contractor for the Carousel of Happiness.
There will be phased occupancy of the building, with tenants moving in in the late fall, with an expected 100 percent occupancy by the end of the year.
"The town has been amazing and excellent to work with throughout the whole process. I can’t commend them enough. The town staff helped me to understand what was required and answered all my questions thoroughly and promptly through the whole process," says Karowe.
At this point there have been 12 local, non-tourism jobs created and another 5-10 jobs in the coming year just from a few tenants
One of the tenants, AirTurn, on the ground floor, manufactures accessories for musicians who use tablets to display music, lyrics and tabs. This includes remote control foot switches to turn pages, manage effects and control specific functions on their tablet. AirTurn also manufactures universal tablet holders and portable mic and tablet stands. They also supply wireless controls for assisted technology, medical, dental, lab, presentation and other industries.
Good Life Pilates, owned by Pamela Rose, will be an integral part of the “healing arts center” that is being created.
Kate Reppucci, Massage Therapist, will also be part of the healing arts center, as well as Four Points Acupuncture, owned by Michelle LaPointe.
Karowe says he is hoping to get more healing arts practitioners and he is leaving space near the others to create a great atmosphere of like-minded healers all in one place.
There is still some office space available at competitive rates, from 10 x 12 up to 4 times that size. Please contact Steve Karowe at skarowe@yahoo.com for leasing information, or call (303) 465-9585.
Karowe points out that the building is built with very high energy and water efficiency, as he decided to build to a higher code than the town requires. The building is being constructed under the 2012 code which has much higher energy efficiency requirements than the current town code of 2006. Included in the energy efficiency list is 100% LED lighting, all low flow water fixtures, high efficiency heating and cooling (96%), and Karowe plans to offset 100% of the building’s electrical usage by solar panels. There will be a backup electric generator in case the power goes out in town; the tenants can remain open and productive.
"We are the first public building to have fiber optics, with 100 Mbs internet speed. The fiber optic infrastructure will allow us to increase internet speeds as needed over time. We deeded land for a trail so people can have access from Big Springs Drive to Ponderosa and Valley View. We will landscape with native grasses and wildflowers. " promises Karowe.
It will be a while before residents stop saying, "Wow," or "Whoa" as they watch the building evolve from a skeletal structure to a completed facility that fits in with the Nederland ambiance and the forest service background. However, soon local employees will be tending to business within its walls, and communication hubs will be hosting meetings and workshops, just another part of the growing Nederland neighborhood.
