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December 2020 \ BUILDING DIALOGUE \ 89 through (from 19th Street and Wynkoop to 20th Street and Wazee) was a direct result of thosemeetings.” Hensel Phelps Joins the Team With a vision for the project firmly taking shape, a construction RFP went out in 2017 and Hensel Phelps, fresh from its highly suc- cessful 1144 15th St. project, was added to the lineup in early 2018 for design-assist and construction. For the next year, Hensel Phelps worked with Stantec and the newly formed development group West Lot through preconstruc- tion and to reconcile the programming wish list with budget real- ities. “The goal is to get the budget tomatch the desires of ownership, the design team, or any of the other stakeholders in the project,” says Kurt Seeman, operations manager for Hensel Phelps. “Trying to get those things to balance can be challenging. So, it had to be a collaborative process and therewere a lot of conversations, a lot of giveandtakebyeverybody toget thosecomponentsalignedbefore we actually started construction.” Groundbreaking was held in October 2018 with a targeted com- pletion date of December 2020. With such an aggressive timeline, Hensel Phelps knew it had no margin for error. Aswith any urban infill project, phasing and stag- ing were issues to be dealt with, but with their experience on 1144 15th, HP deftly handled those with special attention paid to their LoDo neighbors. Contaminated ground water was nothing new, but coal ash, left over from the location’s decades of use by Union Pacific railroad, was a new challenge. Of everything, though, the timeline turned out to be the biggest hurdle. “The speed inwhichwewanted tobuild this thingwasdefinitely a challenge,” says Seeman. “It was a challenge from a logistics and resource standpoint and, certainly, COVID-19 didn't help.” Topping out was in February and, despite all of the challenges and a global health pandemic, completion ofMcGregor Squarewill be only a few weeks behind the original scheduled completion date. A Win for the Community and the Rockies When construction on McGregor Square was well underway, someone intheRockiesorganizationfoundthatnowfamousemail McGregor wrote back in 2006. To everyone’s amazement, McGregor Square is nearly the exact realization of what he had envisioned. The 13-story boutique hotel is managed by Denver-based Sage Hospitality, which also operates The Crawford, The Oxford and Maven. It offers 176 rooms on levels four through 12, 20,000 sf of ballroom space on the third level coupledwith 10,000 sf of outdoor terrace space that overlooks theplaza. Restaurants, bar, coffee shop and lobby anchor the first level and coming soon to the second lev- el will be a Rockies Hall of Fame. The 13-story residential tower offers 103 luxury units – 500-sf stu- dios to one- and two-bedroom units – loaded with every high-end amenity you can imagine. One buyer already has purchased three units to form a 6,000-sf penthouse. At $1,100 per sf, the units are al- readymostly soldout. Andoneof theproudest residentswill beMc- Gregor Square developer DickMonfort. The hotel and condo buildings are connected via a skybridge on / McGregor Square / OPENING ART: McGregor Square is being transformed into a mixed-use development featuring a hotel, condos, offices, retail and restaurants. The three buildings encircle a 28,000-sf plaza that will host year- round events like pre- and post-game activities, concerts, a skating rink and more. Courtesy Rocky Mountain Photography TOP LEFT: The rarely used Wynkoop Walkway was seen as an opportunity to create something similar to Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center, pairing a more passive plaza with an activated plaza.. TOP RIGHT: An expansive open-air gathering place on the 13th floor is shared by hotel guests and condo residents, complete with a pool, firepits, grilling area and knockout views of the city and foothills. BOTTOM LEFT: The 13-story residential tower offers 103 luxury units, including 500-sf studios as well as one- and two-bedroom units. BOTTOM RIGHT: The retail element of McGregor Square is activated year-round.