Page 42 —
COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
— September 21-October 4, 2016
Tim Kretzschmar
was pro-
moted to division manager for
Swinerton Builders’
Colorado
operations.
Kretzschmar brings more than
20 years of experience in plan-
ning, preconstruction and con-
struction. As division manager,
he provides
leadership,
technical
expertise and
is responsible
for managing
all resources
within
the firm’s
Colorado’s
division to
ensure all cli-
ent expecta-
tions are met, employee satis-
faction and that each project is
successfully completed.
He will oversee a staff of more
than 100 construction profession-
als from the firm’s Arvada office.
Kretzschmar joined the firm
in 2014 as operations manager.
Prior to joining Swinerton, he
was senior vice president of
Q&D’s Building Division, a
Sparks, Nevada-based gen-
eral contractor and heavy civil
engineering firm. At Q&D he
oversaw day-to-day operations
for commercial building, special
projects and millwork divisions.
His construction experience
includes hospitality, multifam-
ily, K-12 and higher education,
health care, airport and owner’s
representation. He holds a Bach-
elor of Science in construction
management fromMinnesota
State.
s
Bryan Construction
hired
Robert Michaels
as president
of Bryan International, and
Matthew Johnson
as execu-
tive manager of the Multifamily
Group.
Michaels joins the firm after
a career as chief of construction
division –
U.S. Army
Corps of
Engineers,
Omaha
District. He
brings exten-
sive interna-
tional knowl-
edge and
construction
expertise, and
will be responsible for expand-
ing opportunities for the firm
around the world.
Johnson comes to the firm
fromAlliance
Residential,
one of the
largest private
U.S. multi-
family build-
ers. He has a
broad range
of experience
in all aspects
of multifam-
ily construc-
tion. He will be based in the
Denver office, overseeing state-
wide multifamily projects.
s
David Crowder
joined
McWhinney’s
community
development team as vice presi-
dent and general management
of Centerra.
In this position, Crowder will
manage and oversee the strate-
gy, vision and execution, as well
as the development and man-
agement of Centerra, McWhin-
ney’s 3,000-acre master-planned
community in Loveland.
Prior to joining the company,
Crowder was vice president of
Community Development of
Newport Beach-based DMB
Pacific Ventures, overseeing
entitlements, land development,
marketing and lot sales for Sum-
merly, a 700-acre, 1,600-home
master-planned community in
Lake Elsinore, California. Prior
to its disposition, he was a mem-
ber of DMB Pacific Venture’s
Tejon Mountain Village manage-
ment team.
He served as senior execu-
Who’s News
Tim Kretzschmar
Robert Michaels
Matthew Johnson
by Jill Jamieson-Nichols
Jason and Ellen Winkler
never meant to stay in Denver,
and they certainly didn’t expect
to change a whole neighbor-
hood.
“We didn’t say, ‘If we do
X, Y and Z, other people will
build things and all of the
sudden River North will be
this growing, crazy, awesome
neighborhood. We did what
we thought was the right thing.
We thought, ‘People will like
this, people will benefit from it.
We’ll bring people together and
help their companies grow,’”
said 44-year-old Jason Winkler.
Known for their catalyst
RiNo development, Industry,
the Winklers came to Denver to
open a satellite office for their
Jackson Hole, Wyoming, com-
pany, which produced events
for big-name lifestyle brands
– Red Bull, Oakley, Quicksilver
and others. In Jackson Hole,
they were losing employees
who couldn’t afford the high
cost of living, plus they had a
child with physical issues who
was starting school. “We just
thought Denver would be a
really good foundation for him,
and for us to knowwhat he
needed. But we only came to
Denver thinking it was for 18
months,” said Ellen Winkler.
Except for Taxi, which didn’t
quite fit their needs, they
couldn’t find “cool” office space
that worked for their company
culture, however. “Everything
was incredibly vanilla. It was
just very uninspiring, and we
couldn’t have these lifestyle
clients visit us in the office
between an accounting firm
and a legal firm,” Jason said.
So they teamed up with The
Public Works, an Evergreen
firm that wanted to expand
to Denver, to buy what Jason
called a “crazy, dilapidated,
spray-painted, tree-growing-
out-the-side” building at 621
Kalamath St. with “homeless
people living in it, and needles
and broken bottles all over the
place.” They called it Battery
621.
“We thought the location was
brilliant because it’s right at the
entrance to SixthAvenue, so it
is literally the fastest shot out to
the mountain for all of us,” said
Ellen. “We just looked at this
place and said, ‘This could be
so cool. It’s perfect for all of us.’
“We just started building this
facility that – we had no idea
what we were building. We
were building it for us and how
we wanted to work and what
we wanted to be able to do. We
didn’t think about rules,” said
Ellen, who created the com-
pany’s Jackson Hole office.
The 30,000-square-foot Den-
ver building had way more
space than they needed, “So
what we did is we invited
our friends. We invited all the
companies we knew in Denver
who we felt were the best in
breed in action and lifestyle
sports”: Icelantic, Spyder Cloth-
ing, Jiberish, CompanyBE
and others. It was like putting
together “a great dinner party.”
“Battery was this crazy suc-
cess we never dreamed of. We
were full. We had a wait list,”
said 45-year-old Ellen, recalling
that, within only a fewmonths,
the mayor and governor want-
ed to host events there. Devel-
opers and bankers were calling
and walking through. Realizing
what they’d done could be
profitable, interesting and fun,
Ellen began to look for another
building.
“We couldn’t afford anything
nice. We kind of really loved
the grittier areas. We knew that
our demographic, the people
who were going to come into
our building, never minded
any of that. So we started look-
ing north of the city because
that was the only thing we
could afford. You have to
remember the Source wasn’t
here. The only thing that was
up here was Taxi.”
She looked at around 100
buildings before walking into
a former grocery warehouse at
3001 Brighton Blvd. that was
three times the size of what
they were seeking. “I walked
in and was like, ‘Jason, I found
the promised land. This is the
greatest building I’ve ever been
in.”’
That was Industry.
Raising money from fam-
ily, friends and others, they
bought the original building
for creative, shared office space
and restaurants, and assembled
surrounding properties to add
office space, parking and apart-
ments. They went into the com-
munity and found what they
considered some of the best
like-minded companies in Den-
ver: Uber, Roximity, Zenman
and Booyah.
“Those four companies,
when I tell you they got it, they
got it,” said Jason. “You’re half-
way through the conversation
and they’re finishing your sen-
tences, and you know you’re
talking to the right people.”
The building filled as quickly
as it could be readied. The Win-
klers now are starting construc-
tion of the 152,000-sf Industry
RiNo Station, planning a
second Battery and looking at
markets outside Denver.
They’re part and parcel of
Denver. Ellen visited Europe
with Bike Denver last year,
helps chair Denver Moves
and co-chaired the Greenway
Foundation’s annual fund-
raiser with Jason, a passionate
member of the foundation’s
board. “Part of the reason Den-
ver is succeeding and doing so
well as a city is that in both the
private sector and public sector,
it’s open arms. If you have a
great idea and you have energy
and passion, you’re received
with open arms, and they want
to hear what you think. They
want you to contribute,” Jason
said.
The Winklers credit Mickey
and Kyle Zeppelin with pio-
neering RiNo, and the city and
county of Denver for helping
spur the neighborhood’s trans-
formation.
“I don’t think we ever
thought about it while we were
doing it, and now all of the
sudden it’s this crazy freight
train up here that is still going
pretty strong,” said Ellen. “I
think we’re really proud of its
and I just hope that people can
look at what we did, look at a
beautiful old building that we
kept, and I really wish that peo-
ple could look at what they’re
deciding to build – the archi-
tecture, the design – and try to
stick with what the heart and
soul of this neighborhood is.”
“I think that above all pro
forma and using conventional
metrics to measure the success
of a project, we try always,
always to say, ‘Will we be
proud of this thing in 10 years,
in 20 years?’ And if the answer
is no, I don’t care howmuch
money it’s going to make,
we’re not going to do it,” Jason
added.
A“place-maker” more
than developer, Jason always
thought he’d be a doctor –
until he took a year off before
medical school to ski in Jackson
Hole, turned pro, fell into TV
and event production, and
met his wife, who was visiting
fromNewYork, on the dance
floor of Jackson Hole’s Mangy
Moose Restaurant & Saloon.
He’s big picture, she’s task-
oriented, and without one
another, Industry may not have
happened.
“People thought every single
step of the way, even the peo-
ple who supported us, that we
were absolutely off our rockers.
I don’t think there was a single
person who told us this was
a good idea. If we didn’t have
each other to be grounded and
centered, we would not be able
to keep the smart path,” said
Jason.
Although Jason may stay in
development, Ellen, a former
engineer, event manager and
now designer, said, “I’ll change
and do something totally differ-
ent and reinvent.”
With children Georgia, 13,
Jagger, 11, and Jett, 7, along
with two dogs, a lizard and
a fish, the Bonnie Brae family
keeps “a lot of plates spinning,”
said Jason. “Even not sleeping
a lot, I don’t get done almost
ever what I wish I got done in
a day.”
Yet, “I think for two parents
who work as much as we do,
we actually spend more time
with our kids than almost any
other couple that I know.”
They prefer skiing, biking,
getting away to Winter Park
and traveling the world to liv-
ing in a huge house.
“When our kids are out of
high school, we’re going to
have a humongous rock-ʻnʼ-roll
RV, and we are going to liter-
ally hit the road and travel with
a Jeep towed behind, and bikes
and surfboard and skis and
every other toy imaginable to
man on top of the Jeep and on
the back of the RV,” Jason said.
“But we’ll always have
a home in Denver,” Ellen
added.
s
Profile
Jason Winkler
Ellen Winkler
