Page 20
— Office Properties Quarterly — June 2016
9025 Grant Street, Thornton, Colorado
Thank you to Bob Pipkin and Jeff LaForte with Fuller Real Estate for bringing Arapahoe
House to 9025 Grant Street to fully occupy the building.
Thank you to Roger Simpson and Jared Leabch with
Newmark Grubb Knight Frank for representing the
landlord, SNH Medical Office Properties Trust.
Managed by The RMR Group
303-501-1000
100% Leased!
9005 Grant Street, Thornton, Colorado
Thank you to Roger Simpson and Jared Leabch of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank for
representing SNH Medical Office Properties Trust in a 17,701 RSF surgery center
renewal.
A
nyone keeping tabs on the
Denver market over the last
few years has seen count-
less articles talking about
how Denver has topped the
list of best places to live, to attract
millennials, to invest in real estate –
the list goes on.
From a commercial real estate
perspective, this rapid growth and
continued popularity have created
challenges and opportunities for
companies looking for office space.
Leasing rates are significantly high-
er than they were a couple years
ago. Average lease rates ended 2015
8.8 percent higher than 2014, and
the upward trend is expected to
continue through 2016.
As a result, tenants of all sizes are
looking outside of the central busi-
ness district to find more affordable
office space solutions. They don’t
have to look far. The area just 20
minutes southeast of downtown
has the potential to provide solu-
tions – beyond sticker-shock relief
– that many of today’s tenants seek.
By addressing several key areas and
taking a more holistic approach to
development, southeast Denver can
capitalize on the growth and popu-
larity of the Denver area, and set
the example for what the office of
the future should look like.
Access.
There are 14,237 residents
in the Denver Tech Center area and
more than 40,658 daytime residents
in the business community, accord-
ing to the Denver Metro Chamber of
Commerce. With all of those people
communing, prox-
imity to easy and
efficient public
transit is one of
the most impor-
tant issues facing
the area.
Unless we drasti-
cally change the
way we get around,
we’re looking at
a 213.5 percent
increase in vehicle
hours of delay by
2035, according to
the Reason Foun-
dation’s 2015 study on Denver’s
traffic congestion. No one wants
to sit in that kind of traffic. If we
hope to create a thriving center for
business, we have to look at offer-
ing a more robust range of mobility
choices outside of accommodating
single-occupancy vehicles.
Recent improvements and addi-
tions to light rail are promising. In
Greenwood Village, there is access
to three light-rail stations. The
extension to Denver International
Airport now makes it possible to
access the airport from the area.
There are other alternative trans-
portation solutions available. We
started offering our own solutions
as tenant amenities. Our bike-share
program provides lightweight, fold-
able bikes, ideal for carrying onto
the light rail, and a partnership
with Zip Car for car sharing helps
cut down on the number of person-
al-use vehicles on the road.
Sustainability.
Beyond building
more sustainable new develop-
ments, one of the best ways to
demonstrate a commitment to
responsible resource use in south-
east Denver is to repurpose or retro-
fit what we already have for a new
generation of tenants.
For our part, we are making a con-
certed effort to buy back properties
we developed and sold, like 5700
Quebec Court. The bones are good;
we have spent the last four decades
focusing on quality materials and
design in our properties.
By bringing these properties back
into the portfolio, we hope to add
features and services that will
contribute to the long-term vital-
ity of the buildings and tenants. By
year-end, for example, we will begin
offering a composting option in
partnership with Alpine Waste.
Wellness.
Generally speaking, as
developers, we have to do better
for the people who use our spaces
by making more informed design
choices for the built environment.
Businesses today are taking a more
holistic look at the actual work
environment and its impacts on
employee health, corporate culture
and productivity, so we need to
understand what that means for
the spaces we offer.
With the growing popularity of
the WELL building standard and the
shifting expectations of the new-
est generation in the workforce, we
have tremendous opportunity to
create a more attractive commercial
development while also improving
the health and happiness of the
people who use our spaces.
In 2015, a Gensler survey found
that 87 percent of U.S. employers
believe that wellness programs
positively impact work culture,
which is up from just 10 percent in
2013. And it’s no wonder: Americans
spend an estimated 90 percent of
our time indoors. It’s only natural
that the environment we spend our
time in will impact our sense of
well-being.
In addition to looking inside the
building, our location outside the
crowded CBD affords us the ability
to provide better outdoor amenities.
The American Public Health Asso-
ciation links access to nature to a
host of health benefits – from lower
levels of illness to stress relief to a
greater sense of well-being. From a
pure productivity standpoint, when
people have green views or spend
time outdoors in nature, evidence
shows they also perform better on
tasks that require focused attention.
Happy, healthy employees ulti-
mately can lead to a stronger corpo-
rate culture and better outcomes for
companies as well as better tenant
retention and higher-occupancy
rates for property owners. The bot-
tom line is that we must capitalize
on our strengths in southeast Den-
ver, with access to transit, sustain-
able spaces and the latest in well
workplace design research being
chief among them.
s
Blair Madden
Bui
CEO, John Madden
Co., Greenwood
Village
Developer Spotlight
