CREJ - Office Properties Quarterly - June 2016
The city of Lone Tree is a premier Colorado community connected by great neighborhoods, vibrant public spaces, a beautiful natural environment and thriving businesses. Located at the crossroads of Interstate 25 and C-470, the city resides in the heart of the Denver south and the Denver Technology Center corridor. Like all of metro Denver, the economy is booming and, as a result, we are seeing significant job growth and great interest in our real estate opportunities. In late 2015, construction was completed on the 650,000-square-foot Charles Schwab campus. Currently the largest primary employer in Douglas County, the company will have the capacity to employ 5,000 in Lone Tree when it completes it growth in the next two years. Our major office users, however, do not stop there. We also are home to the significant operations of Level 3, Nationwide Insurance, Allstate Insurance, Public Service Credit Union, Zynex Medical and Intermap Technologies. All told, our current office vacancy rate is 9.3 percent. We only lag Boulder, Cherry Creek and downtown Denver in our office rents. The medical office sector is thriving as Sky Ridge Medical Center completed its $119 million expansion. This includes the new Sky Ridge Women’s Hospital, a new parking garage, a children’s pavilion and the completion of medical office building No. 3. University of Colorado Hospital Lone Tree Health Center consolidated its south Denver operations to its Park Meadows Drive campus, and Kaiser Permanente continues to grow at its new Lone Tree Medical Offices. Finally, there are several medical office projects in Lone Tree and south Denver that solidify the region as a premier medical destination in metro Denver. Though outside of the office market, Park Meadows Retail Resort anchors the city of Lone Tree’s dining and shopping scene. This is an important piece of the regional economy, and the city’s 3 million sf of retail and restaurant space serves the office worker and adds significant value to the local quality of life. Transit-oriented development is driving Lone Tree’s success. We are fortunate to have two existing RTD light-rail stops and to have three more in development as RTD broke ground on the southeast light-rail extension in May. Light-rail construction will play an enormous role in the city’s future as RidgeGate will begin work east of I-25. This TOD will have the potential to attract up to 11 million sf of office projects in the next 30 years. The city of Lone Tree is well positioned for success. As the I-25 southeast corridor and metro Denver continue to grow, we see a bright future ahead.