With offices and personnel scattered across the greater Denver area, a local government board found an ideal solution in scooping up a recently vacated building that gives it the space necessary to house everything and everyone under one roof.
The Douglas County Board of Commissioners, the local policymaking arm that oversees much of South Denver, signed a long-term, full-building lease for the property at 11045 Lansing Circle in Englewood, Colorado. The $35 million deal not only provides the board with more control over its future real estate plans, but also backfills a large vacancy at a point when the Denver office market has been inundated with available space, earning the deal a 2025 CoStar Impact Award, as judged by real estate professionals familiar with the market.
The agency will replace space left behind by Catholic Health Initiatives at the Healthpeak Properties-owned building. The 15-year deal includes multiple extension options as well as a purchase option if the Douglas County board ultimately decides to snap it up outright. The array of potential options made the property a standout as the board over the past two years was scouting for properties that would make it possible to consolidate its four previous office locations.
The board was able to negotiate free rent on the first floor of the more than 81,000-square-foot building for the first year, and rent on the second and third levels will kick off once finish-out work is completed.
The lease is especially notable given "the economics it delivered to the tenant from lease signing to occupying several floors," CoStar Impact Awards judge Randy Danielson, a senior director of real estate development for The Opus Group, said of the deal. "The ability to occupy the first floor for free and allowing rent to start once improvements were completed on the remaining floors provided great flexibility and benefit to the tenant.”
About the deal: The lease, one of the largest to be signed in the Douglas County area last year, made it possible for the board to consolidate its previously scattered office footprint in an effort to boost interdepartmental interactions as well as economize its space. More than 175 employees will now be housed at the Englewood office, which the government board could ultimately acquire thanks to an included purchase option.
What the judges said: “This deal is impactful because it combines strategic location, operational efficiency, and economic benefits," CoStar Impact Awards judge Alexander Shapiro, an associate broker with Transwestern Real Estate Services, said of the deal. The board "consolidated four departments into one centralized space while increasing the local economic activity with 175 employees.”
They made it happen: Jeff Brandon, a principal at NavPoint Real Estate Group, worked with the Douglas County Board of Commissioners on its site-selection process and represented it in the deal with the landlord, Healthpeak Properties. Cushman & Wakefield's Douglas Wulf, Andrew McCabe and Dan Miller represented the landlord in the deal.
CoStar Market Manager Kathryn Binns contributed to this report.