Colorado Real Estate Journal - February 4, 2015
Shorenstein Properties is building on its leasing success at Denver City Center by transforming an entire floor at Johns Manville Plaza into speculative suites. “They’ve undergone a program to spec a lot of vacancy with a standard that is a bit higher than is typically seen in this type of asset,” said Peter Merrion of JLL. Much of the leasing activity, as in the market, has been from tenants in the 3,000- to 6,000-sf range, he said. “As a response to that, we’ve decided to go ahead and capture more of that by doing the whole floor all at once.” Denver City Center consists of two office towers – Johns Manville Plaza at 717 17th St. and a neighboring office tower at 707 17th – comprising 1.3 million sf.
The 24,000-sf 16th floor ofJohns Manville Plaza is being turned into five suites ranging from 2,400 to 6,500 sf. The space will be delivered by the end of the quarter. “This is the first time we’ve done an entire floor all at once,” said Merrion, who markets the building with JLL’s Peter Schippits and Michael Crane. While the spec suites at 717 17th have been geared to traditional office tenants, at neighboring 707 17th, Shorenstein also built out a 4,300-sf creative space to demonstrate that “tenants don’t need to go to LoDo to get great space,” Merrion said. Build-out included an acoustical “cloud,” or floating, ceiling with exposed, spiral ductwork that served to increase ceiling height by some four feet. Skookum Digital Works leased the suite within 60 days. The build-out has given other tech tenants a look at the type of space that can be created, said Merrion. Shorenstein Properties purchased Denver City Center just over a year ago. The previous owner, Crescent Real Estate Holdings LLC, completed a $7 million renovation that included adding storefront glass to the main level and enhancing the outdoor plaza, which is the largest in downtown Denver. Dining options were added with the Corner Bakery and Green Fine Salad, and a “very, very high-quality” fitness center was completed. The new amenities, in conjunction with spec suites, have resulted in 94,670 sf of leasing activity in the two buildings in the past year.