Colorado Real Estate Journal - July 5, 2017
Industry RiNo Station is becoming a springboard for companies growing out of Industry Denver and also is drawing other users as it heads toward a November opening. Three Industry Denver tenants will occupy nearly 30,000 square feet, or about 30 percent, of the leasable space in the new building at 3858 Walnut St. in Denver. Industry RiNo Station is an approximately $55 million reinvention of a multitenant refrigerated warehouse, which was taken down to the steel frame and is being reborn as creative office space within a block of the 38th and Blake commuter-rail station. “We’ve had huge growth with companies that we have at Industry,” said Jason Winkler of Qfactor, which developed Industry Denver at 3001 Brighton Blvd. and is developing Industry RiNo Station. “I like to think we’ve been helpful in that being part of an environment like this has helped some of these companies to grow quickly and be successful quickly.” Yet, “If we were not opening another building, we probably would have lost them because we couldn’t have accommodated their growth,” said Brady Welsh, director of leasing and development. “I am ecstatic about our move to RiNo Station,” said Ben Wright, CEO of Velocity Global. “We see it as everything aesthetically and operationally we loved about Industry Denver but more space for a company that is growing like we are. I honestly don’t know how else we could have married our real estate needs with our headcount growth. The Industry model is simply a perfect fit for a high growth company like ours.” Velocity Global, which started in around 200 square feet in Industry Denver, will occupy 19,000 sf at Industry RiNo Station. Cloud Elements, which has grown from about 1,500 to 5,000 sf, will lease approximately 6,000 sf, and Feldmann Nagel, a law firm, will occupy 2,100 sf. Also, General Assembly Denver, a training company moving out of WeWork, will occupy 2,900 sf. The 152,000-sf building will have 110,000 sf of leasable space, including a restaurant space of 2,500 sf or larger. It will reflect lessons learned in developing and operating Industry Denver. For instance, a common café will be located toward the entrance of the building, rather than tucked around a corner, to be more accessible to the neighborhood and visitors. The “stadium,” or an open area with tiered seating, will be larger and capable of being enclosed for company events while still providing loads of natural light. New to the concept will be a 3,000-sf outdoor deck with “amazing” mountain views where people can work, relax or have special events using a barbecue area and stage with surround sound, said Welsh. “We can accommodate a tenant as small as 300 or 400 square feet all the way up to 20,000 or 30,000 square feet,” said Welsh. Industry RiNo Station will be the first office building in the immediate vicinity of the 38th & Blake Station, which was a “big driver” for Cloud Elements, according to the technology company’s Chris Nelson. “We’ve seen a handful of larger, and in some cases traditional, companies come through. I think that’s mostly because people were thinking even two years ago that being in creative office – or what I call new, modern office – was very outside of the box. In reality, people are realizing it’s just a smart way to office,” said Winkler, adding it definitely is “not a one-size-fits all.” Industry RiNo Station differs from Industry Denver in that it is predominantly office space vs. a master-planned development with apartments and townhomes. Winkler sees room for both concepts, and said he and his partners will be rolling out one of each in markets outside Colorado within a year. “We’ve put more process around what we do and how we do it. So, in some cases, I could see us doing something like the mixed-use Industry neighborhood. In other markets, we would do something that’s more of just an office application, like we’re doing at Industry RiNo Station.” They’re also are thinking ahead about maintaining long-term partnerships with their tenants. “As we think about some of these growth companies and where they’re headed, we’re realizing we need to be thinking about where their next steps are, too, so that two or three or five years down the road, if these folks continue to have that kind of growth, we want to work with them to meet whatever their crazy, growing, changing needs are over the long term,” said Winkler, noting that could mean finding an existing building or completing a build-to-suit for a company on a turnkey basis. “If they get too big for our ecosystem, we’d like to grow with them and help then in their future space as well,” he said. Noting the build-to-suit process can take months to explore and execute, Winkler said, “What CEO wants to be thinking 18 to 24 months out about their company’s growth in real estate? Real estate is so important for a company to do well, but if the C-suite in a growing company is thinking about the real estate, they’re not thinking about their core business.” “I think our biggest value proposition is that we help our tenants attract and retain good talent, and by making that offering and growing with them, we really become their partners,” added Welsh.