Tim Harty, The Business Times

When Martin Jensen and Anson Pierce bought CommWest from Nate Wallace this past November, they knew at some point they’d probably look for a different store location for the business than 560 S. Commercial Drive, Unit 4.

But it wasn’t Priority No. 1. Or two, or three…

It wasn’t something that was likely to happen in the first year of ownership of the technology-solutions business.

Or, it wasn’t likely until a perfect location came to their attention. Then, there was no ignoring it. Priorities got reconfigured quickly, and Jensen and Pierce found themselves moving downtown.

CommWest opened its doors at 441 Colorado Ave. on Aug. 1, a month after former tenant Realty ONE Group Western Slope vacated the space to move into its new home at 750 Main St.

Minus the right-place, right-time scenario Jensen doubts there would have been an upheaval of CommWest’s first-year plans.

“I don’t think we would have done it as quickly,” Jensen said of the location change. “We just bought the business, right? And so, we would have done it eventually, probably, but I don’t know if we would have done it as quickly, just because it’s a lot of change all at once.”

One of the appeals of 441 Colorado Ave. was its configuration. It was set up with a lot of offices, and those offices had large windows, helping provide an open feel about the place. And there was no need to do any renovation or buildout.

The building essentially was move-in ready, and CommWest spent the month of July moving. Care needed to be taken in moving equipment without disrupting service to CommWest’s customers, and Jensen said the staff met the challenge.

“It was a little bit of a stressful month, getting it all moved over,” he said. “Getting our phones and IP, like, we support everyone remotely, and so their systems are tied to our IP address, which is tied to our router, which is tied to our location. So, getting it seamlessly moved from there to here with Spectrum, without any interruption of service for our customers, was stressful to me. And it happened pretty flawlessly.”

Jensen expressed gratitude to both landlords – John Gordon at 560 S. Commercial Drive and John Hildebrand at 441 Colorado Ave. – for being “super helpful.” Jensen said Gordon allowed CommWest to start a six-month lease in January instead of a long-term lease. And when CommWest needed one more month at its former home, Gordon agreed to it.

Jensen said there was a time when the Commercial Drive address made a lot of sense, because CommWest was more about installing commercial phone systems when the business started a little more than 20 years ago, and it needed warehouse space.

But he said CommWest, while still doing phone and communications systems, has evolved into a different business that doesn’t require the warehouse space.

“We do a lot more supporting businesses with IT and cybersecurity, and so we don’t need a giant warehouse,” Jensen said. “We’ve got a shop here, we’ve got some space, but it’s more of an office space, so it’s better for our team.”

Jensen said CommWest isn’t the kind of business that needed to be in downtown Grand Junction, but being there has it perks, as he said, “It lets me go to Kiln (Coffee). I can walk to Kiln.”

Jensen added, “I think for us, we’re not a retail business, so we don’t need retail frontage, you know? We service our customers more than they come to us. But this (location) is premier. I mean, being on Colorado Avenue is fantastic for us, and when we get our signage up, I think it’s nice for us to have a presence in the community and be visible in the community. So, I like that for us to be here and be visible and be part of the core downtown of Grand Junction.”