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92 / BUILDING DIALOGUE / March 2018 Koelbel and Co. folks loved the idea; they just needed a place to put this industry integrator. Luckily, they knew just the guy. Enter Larry Burgess, who had developers calling him on a dai- ly basis to get their hands some/any/all of his properties. But Burgess had more than real estate profits in mind. “Larry didn’t just want to sell his land, he wanted to be a part of something,” says Koelbel. So, Biselli and Koelbel pitched the idea of Catalyst to Bur- gess, whose wife had, coincidentally, just retired from Kaiser Permanente after 36 years. With some spousal insight into how dire the situation was in America’s health care system, Burgess saw the chance tomake a difference. He came in with his land as equity, Koelbel and Co. was on board as developer and Biselli was the visionary. Ground was broken in late Octo- ber 2016 and Catalyst was on its way. Health Tech’s Rise in Denver According to Biselli, Denver’s health care ecosystem began to form in late 2011, early 2012, with the arrival of Prime Health and the introduction of digital health and health tech. That in turn quickly attracted the providers, engineers, entrepreneurs and government groups who started to come together to push forward health care innovation. Fast forward a few years … “Now we have a large talent pool continuing to move into the greater Denver area, about 75 percent of these new arrivals are 35 and younger,” says Biselli. “So you’re seeing a very highly educated workforce coming here that is very, very passionate about making an impact. And I don’t know what’s more im- pactful than reimagining health care.” The Collaborative Office Reimagined With the need, the vision, the players, the land and a pas- sionate community all in place, the next step for Koelbel and Co. was unique. “The mindset of most developers is to build it, lease it up and flip it,” says Koelbel. “But we actually went out into the community. We sent out a 50-question survey to about 500 people with questions like ‘What is this building look and feel like?’ The survey came back that people wanted historic, Colo- rado and industrial chic.” “Having input from the end user on a real estate develop- ment is very atypical. So we designed this building for the end user input,” says Koelbel. “All the amenities and the way we designed it with this monument staircase connecting the lob- by to the fourth floor, was all brought together through the survey. So that’s why I think this is one of the most unique developments we’ve done.” Denver design-build firm The Beck Group, which previous- ly had teamed with Koelbel and Co. on University Station, was called in to bring the vision to life. “This is really the reimagining of a collaborative office space that provides a platform for the health tech industry to work comfortably in that venue,” says David Morris, design director and principal of The Beck Group. According to Morris, Beck originally was tasked with the de- sign and construction of the core and shell, but their respon- / Catalyst HTI A Revolution in Health Care Hits RiNo /

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