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MARCH 2017 \ BUILDING DIALOGUE \ 85
G ranite Place at Village Center
is on the leading edge of a
new breed of office towers in
Denver’s southeast suburban
market.
Due for core-and-shell
completion in March and occupancy by
summer, the 10-story, 300,000-square-foot
Class AA office tower broke ground early
last year, and features a slick “corporate
living room” on the ground level and a
1,000-space parking structure. The trap-
ezoidal floor plate is designed for maxi-
mum flexibility, as it’s a speculative proj-
ect, not a build-to-suit.
The 5-acre site in Greenwood Village
– just east of Interstate 25 and south of
Orchard Road – has been owned by the
Koelbel family for decades. With easy
access to light rail and the interstate,
the area is emerging as a fertile,
transit-oriented node.
Cody Cowan, Confluent Development’s
construction manager, says access to light
rail “is what people are looking for these
days. That’s what all the brokers are look-
ing for.”
That means speed to market has been
key.
“Our biggest challenge is the sched-
ule,” says Steve Mortenson, senior super-
intendent at GE Johnson. “It’s 13 months
to build a $50 million project … If we
stubbed our toe on glass or fixtures or
anything else, there’s no way this would
have happened.”
The dirt work was extensive, he adds.
“We had to pipe in tens of thousands of
yards of structural fill.” Balance that with
WORDS: Eric Peterson