Denver Skyline Adds New LEED Office Tower

DENVER — The Connecticut-based private investment firm Starwood Capital Group plans to develop a new office building in the Union Station neighborhood of Downtown Denver, called 16 Chestnut. The company is working through a controlled affiliate and East West Partners, a Denver-based development company specializing in, building, selling, managing and supporting high quality real estate to complete a third collaboration project in the Downtown Denver area.

The property’s main tenant will be DaVita Healthcare Partners, a provider of kidney and dialysis services in America. The company will expand their headquarters from across the street at its current location and will use around 265,000 square feet of the new building, according to a statement. “DaVita believed in our vision for the Union Station neighborhood long before it came to fruition. We are honored that they are entrusting us in making a second home for their teammates,” said Chris Frampton, managing partner at East West Partners, in a statement.

Starwood Capital Group and East West Partners have announced that the groundbreaking for the building is currently scheduled for July 2016. The building will cost $190 million, will have 19 stories and will stand at 250-feet tall. Starwood Capital Group is seeing this building as an opportunity to invest in Denver and the community and also to reaffirm it’s commitment to East West Partners’ vision for the Union Station neighborhood, Dan Schwaegler, senior vice president in the asset management group at Starwood Capital Group said in a statement. Construction on 16 Chestnut is currently scheduled to be complete in Oct. 2018, according to a release by DaVita.

In addition to the office space that will be occupied by DaVita, there will be four other floors totaling in 40,000 square feet each. These floors will all feature their own lobby and own elevator bank for the tenants. Leases for the rest of the office building’s 410,000 square foot space will be available as of January 2016.

East West Managing Member Christ Frampton believes they will not have troubles leasing out the rest of the offices. “We know more and more tenants are looking for the type of incidental contact that comes from having more people on one floor as opposed to a few separate floors, “ Frampton said in a statement.

Upon completion, Starwood Capital Group and East West Partners are targeting LEED Platinum certification. The design to 16 Chestnut includes environmentally efficient features and operations, according to a statement. This includes a large amount of glass, which will also allow for each floor to have views of the city and the Rocky Mountains.

The building is also located near two Light Rail stations that will provide alternative transit access to the occupants. 16 Chestnut will be located next to the South Bound Light Rail Station and will be only two blocks away from the location where the North Bound Light Rail location is planned. The shuttle that runs along Downtown Denver’s outside 16th Street Mall will also run through the building.

Gensler, a San Francisco-based architecture firm is providing the architectural design on the project. BuildMark, a Denver-based development and project management company is providing the construction management services. The general contractor on the 16 Chestnut project has yet to be announced.