CREJ

S endGrid is well known as a unicorn in the world of tech IPOs: the email delivery com- pany is profitable, steadily growing its customer base and headquartered in Colorado. Back in 2016, SendGrid also was seen as a unicorn to landlords in upper downtown Denver. The tech company left its his- toric, brick-and-timber digs in Lar- imer Square for the lower floors of 1801 California, owned solely by Brookfield Properties at the time. SendGrid employ- ees traded in free lunches at The Market for steak frites at Guard and Grace. Ibotta, the cash-back coupon company, also backfilled some of CenturyLink’s vacancy at 1801 California in 2015 and again in 2017, but the phenom- ena of tech tenants flocking to upper downtown Denver did not extend any farther than 1801 California – until today. What specifi- cally changed in Lower Downtown Denver to influ- ence OpenTable to lease office space at Wells Fargo Cen- ter in the fourth quarter of 2017? Perhaps OpenTable was attracted to the five, 86-foot floor-to-ceiling LED columns installed by Beacon Capital Partners in the lobby and Lyft dis- counts offered to tenants. Maybe a workplace strategist quantified for OpenTable the efficiencies gained by working across a large floor plate, instead of being fragmented among several small floor plates. Or the Gold Wired Score at Wells Fargo Please see Page 24 Alyssa Teboda, Transwestern Wells Fargo Center and 1660 Lincoln are two office buildings successfully courting tech tenants that have made the move from Lower Downtown to upper downtown Denver. June 2018 Tech migration drives upper downtown resurgence INSIDE River North roundup PAGE 12 Project spotlight PAGE 23 Design for recruiting PAGE 20 Catalyst, pictured above, is one of the many anticipated new office projects in RiNo. To cultivate a creative office tenant mix, unique retail and restaurant amenities matter. The design of a workplace can help in attracting and retaining the best and brightest. Whitney Hake Senior vice president, Transwestern Jamie Gomez Associate, Transwestern Dr. John Oro