Colorado Real Estate Journal -
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. signed a five-year lease with Etkin Johnson Group for a 48,800-square-foot building in Lafayette Corporate Campus, a 132,000-sf office/flex project near U.S. Highway 287 and the Northwest Parkway. Ball Aerospace will occupy the building at 2675 Crescent Drive April 1. “Ball Aerospace is a world class, Colorado-based company, and we’re proud to have them as a tenant in our portfolio,” Ryan Good, Etkin Johnson Group’s vice president of leasing and sales, said in a statement. “This space is a great fit for them as they will be able to utilize a majority of the existing infrastructure,” he said. Good worked with Jones Lang LaSalle brokers Eric Brynestad and Ken Gooden, who represented Ball Aerospace in the transaction. The building Ball leased formerly was occupied by Northrop Grumman. When Etkin Johnson received notice that Northrop Grumman was vacating the building, it negotiated a lease buyout, relocated Northrop Grumman to a smaller space within Lafayette Corporate Campus and signed the lease with Ball Aerospace, all before Northrop Grumman’s lease expired. A.J. Paz, Northrop Grumman’s director of real estate, and Tom Silvers, Ball Aerospace’s director of corporate real estate, were instrumental in making the transactions happen. “There were a lot of moving parts with this deal,” said Etkin Johnson President David Johnson. “Ultimately, we were all able to work together to accomplish everyone’s needs and requirements.” The deal happened amid a flurry of other leasing activity. Etkin Johnson Group executed an additional 12 new leases in February, eight of which were signed in less than a week. Of those, four were at Etkin Johnson’s 6&40 Business Center in Golden, bringing leasing at the property to 97 percent. There also were three new leases at West I-70 Business Center in Arvada, which now is 88 percent leased. “The market has definitely bottomed out and is improving,” Johnson said. “We’re starting to see increased activity, with multiple prospects for the same building. Smart tenants are now taking advantage of lower rates, which are likely to rise due to increased demand for space and decreased availability,” he said.