NEWS BLOG |
Loveland's Independent News Source |
Below Are Links To LovelandPolitics' Stories Regarding the Former Agilent Campus in Loveland beginning in January of 2011 (bottom) to the most recent at the top. |
Brad Kelley founded Commonwealth Brands Tobacco in 1991. During a time the tobacco industry was losing capital and fighting government regulations, Kelley invested in a company to offer the lowest price cigerettes on the market. According to one gentleman who had met Kelley and worked for his company at that time, posted the following description online; "I noticed that the place was full of old cigarette manufacturing machines that seemed to always be breaking down. There was an old guy or two working on the machines every time I went in there to perform the service. One of the workers said Mr. Kelley bought the machines from a cigarette manufacturing in North Carolina. Also, I used to see large cardboard boxes of imported tobacco from foreign countries like Africa and places like that. The place was not the cleanest in the world either and looked like everybody in there smoked. They even had a computer graphic designer in an office who designed the cigarette package labels as well as advertising. I can honestly say that I had been in that particular office many times where such world famous brand names of cigarettes were created such as "USA Gold, "Bull Durham" and "Malibu." Mr. Kelley's office was really cool too. He had a lot of stuffed wildlife animals in there and he was a tall, burly red headed and bearded man. I said "hello" to him several times and he seemed like he was pretty friendly fellow, at least he was to me. It looked like he was trying to create some new BBQ, steak and wild deer sauces too. They had even had labels created for the sauces that were laying around. And I serviced a large old house near the Bowling Green airport that served as the sales office for the company and a large distribution center warehouse on Russellville Road in Bowling Green where he kept his million dollar Provost camper bus." Eventually, Kelley sold his company about eight years ago for over $1 billion. He began buying real estate across the nation becoming one of the largest single land holders in the country. Kelley is a significant owner of various equine racetracks which include the location of the Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs. Kelley also owns over 1 million acres of ranching and farm land in the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, Florida and New Mexico. You will see very little if any mention of Kelley by the Loveland Reporter Herald, Denver Post or Northern Colorado Business Report. This is because representatives for C&W have threatened to cut-out any news agency from interviews or information about the Agilent property if they mention Kelley by name or as the owner of the project. |
Subsidy For ACE Project Back - Under New Name |