NAIOP Colorado

NAIOP Builds Trails at Wash Park with Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado

Submitted by Karen Van Heukelem, Colorado Hardscapes

On Saturday, October 15th, volunteers from NAIOP Colorado joined Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado to re-build a trail at Washington Park in Denver. NAIOP Colorado, along with hundreds of volunteers from around Colorado, worked together to spread and compact new crusher fines trails around the border of the park. Making it safer for runners and walkers alike, these new trails are an asset to the community of Wash Park. As we were constructing the trails, people were already trying to use them and showed their gratitude for the work of the volunteers. From NAIOP Colorado, Jennifer Taylor of Mile High Banks, Jason Newcomer of City Projects, Chris Gray of the City of Westminster Economic Development and Karen Van Heukelem of Colorado Hardscapes. If you’d like to know more about future volunteer events NAIOP Colorado is involved in, reach out to the Community Relations Committee. 

Congratulations to our NAIOP Young Professionals of the Year!

Each year, NAIOP looks at the Young Professionals within the organization across the country to see who stands out among the crowd.  NAIOP evaluates the nominees to find out who among them is at the top of the class.  The judges look at the Young Professionals'  accomplishments, career goals, lessons learned, obstacles overcome and how they are using their membership in NAIOP to influence the industry.  Click here to learn more about our local winners, Brian McDonald and Deidra Gonzales.  Brian and Deidra will be honored at the Development '11: The Annual Meeting for Commercial Real Estate next month in Scottdale, AZ. 

Congratulations Brian and Deidra!

DL Project Tour – Garrison Station

Submitted by Matt Lyons, Weston Solutions, Inc.

On Tuesday July 26th, Weston Solutions, Inc. (WESTON®) hosted the NAIOP Developing  Leaders 2011 Project Tour at Garrison Station. The transit oriented development (TOD) is located along the RTD FasTracks West Rail Line at 1435 Garrison Street in Lakewood.  Phase I of the Garrison Station project includes a 30,000 square-foot LEED® Gold pre-certified office building and a Chase bank branch. The planned Phase-II of the mixed-use development will encompass approximately 100,000 square feet of office and retail space.

The focus of the tour was the 30,000 square-foot office building that will be the home of WESTON’s Rocky Mountain regional headquarters.  Al Colussy, Klipp Architecture, highlighted sustainable features including a roof-top deck and GreenGrid® green roof, superior lighting through creative design, and energy efficient features all of which contributed to the LEED® pre-certification.  Due to these aspects of the development, WESTONs building received Lakewood’s 2011 Sustainability Award.

Following the tour speakers from WESTON and Lakewood Economic Development spoke to the attendees. Steve Blarr, WESTON Vice President, shared insight into the challenges of the project including environmental remediation, site selection, and project financing.  Michelle Hadwiger, Lakewood Economic Development, explained  how Lakewood’s master planning of the Colfax corridor has helped spur developments such as Garrison Station and how Garrison Station is expected to be a catalyst for future redevelopment along the corridor.

Weston Solutions, Inc. (WESTON®) is a global leader in environmental solutions, sustainable development, design/build construction, green buildings and clean energy. Dedicated to making a difference in the world, the company’s 1,800 people reach out from 60 offices around the globe to build strong stakeholder relationships and provide solutions that work. WESTON has been responding to its clients’ toughest problems for more than 50 years. WESTON has full-service offices in Lakewood and Colorado Springs, Colorado.

For more about WESTON, visit www.westonsolutions.com.

Mid Year Commercial Forecast - Denver Poised for a Rebound

If you missed the Mid Year Commercial Forecast on July 12th, there was some good news that you will want to know about.  Dennis Huspeni from the Denver Business Journal was at the event and posted a great summary about the information shared by the speakers.  Click here to read that posting.

Shedding Light on the Boys & Girls Club

NAIOP Colorado worked with the Boys & Girls Club of Metro Denver to help them implement sustainability initiatives in their metro area facilities. The focus of the effort was to implement energy conservation strategies, improving the indoor health environment, and educating the children on the importance and relevance of sustainable buildings.  The committee leading this directive is proud to announce the completion of a successful project with special thanks to Catamount Constructors and Sturgeon Electric Company for their contributions to make it a reality.
 
This project facility is the Boys and Girls’ Shopneck Club at 1800 Longspeak Street in Brighton. The project will save the club energy by providing more control over their lighting resources. The project has a meaningful impact on the facility and provides a great opportunity to teach the children through example about the importance of lighting energy efficiency.
 
The energy conservation measure included rewiring sixteen fixtures and replacing existing lamps with low-energy consuming LED fixtures. Five photocells, which respond to daylight, were also installed to control these fixtures.

With the help of Catamount Constructors and Sturgeon Electric Company, the club improved their energy efficiency by a significant margin. Catamount Constructors provided the materials and Sturgeon Electric donated their time and labor to make the professional installations possible.

The NAIOP Colorado committee that came together to make this possible comprised of a wide range of expertise. The team believed in the importance of helping the Boys and Girls Club, with an emphasis on sustainable practices. Members of this committee include Stephen Sanders of First American Title Insurance Company, Ben Woolf of The Conscience Bay Company, Jason Newcomer of Diversified Consulting Solutions, Lisa Kissler of Catamount Constructors, JD Praeger of Gensler, Sumaya Vanderhorst of Snell & Wilmer, Jeff Kroll of Frontier Renewal, and Karen Van Heukelem of Colorado Hardscapes.

NAIOP Colorado would like to thank Catamount and Sturgeon for providing the knowledge, materials, and labor to complete this project. NAIOP gives back to the community by helping to educate and shed light on a sustainable future.

To learn more about The Boys & Girls Club of Metro Denver, visit: http://www.bgcmd.org/

The Sponsors:
Catamount Constructors: www.catamountconstructors.com
Sturgeon Electric Company: http://www.myrgroup.com/

DL’s benefit from first Leadership Insight Breakfast

Submitted by Brinley Kelly, Workplace Resource

Thank you to those of you who joined us for our first Developing Leaders (DL) Leadership Insight Breakfast.  This was the start of our Leadership breakfast series and it was a great success!

Dan Murphy, COO of Continuum Partners, gave the group valuable insight into leadership during our current economic downturn.   The DL Committee has received quite a bit of positive feedback!!

Speakers are lined up for May and June, with July and August presenters already in the works.

For those not familiar with the Leadership breakfast series, we will be hosting these once a month.  They are a great opportunity to network with your peers and leaders in the industry in an intimate setting.  Please Click Here to visit our website and stay tuned for upcoming breakfast dates, times and locations.

You think your job interview was tough? Try presenting at 2011 Rocky Mountain Real Estate Challenge!

Submitted by Stephen Sanders, RMREC Committee Member

After beating out 40 of their classmates the winning teams from University of Colorado and University of Denver showed up Tuesday night, May 3^rd, to be judged not only by 13 industry leaders such as Michael Winn of Cushman & Wakefield, Chris Ernst of Aardex, and Stephanie Lawrence of Granite Properties just to name a few, but over 650 commercial real estate professionals. 

The evening started out festive with lots of shop talk by the sell out crowd and a beautiful ball room at the Marriot (kudos to the NAIOP Management and RMREC Committee for a wonderful setup).  As the attendees settled in the mood turned serious quickly and University of Colorado took the stage.   The superb support by OZ Architecture, RNL Global Design, CLC Associates, SEM Architects, The Mulhern Group and semplebrowndesign was evident as each team took the stage and their presentations came to life.  While both teams were polished and their proposals well thought-out, there could only be one winner.  After the dust settled University of Denver was presented with the winning Challenge Trophy and $5000.00 Scholarship by City of Aurora’s Mayor, Ed Tauer.  By the tone of the attendees the evening and the presentation was a great success!

A special thanks has to be given to John Buckley for sponsoring the event and providing such a great Challenge Site for the teams to work on. 

NAIOP’s next major event is a great cause Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Denver Gates Camp Clean-up!  On June 4th from 7am-2pm help get the camp ready for the kids!  This is a great team event for a great cause!   Hope to see you there!

Public Officials Support 2011 Rocky Mountain Real Estate Challenge

Submitted Thursday, April 14, 2011by Stephen Sanders, RMREC Committee Member

By the end of business today the winning teams from both the University of Denver and the University of Colorado will be determined for this year’s NAIOP Rocky Mountain Real Estate Challenge.   The importance of a project with the potential of Nine Mile Station, located at Parker Road and I-225, to the surrounding neighborhood and City of Aurora as a whole cannot be overstated.  The officials from the City of Aurora will have a front row seat for the team’s presentations May 3rd.  Additionally we are excited by having both State Senator Suzanne Williams from District 28 where the project resides and State Representative Nancy Todd representing House District 41 making introductory comments at the event.  To wrap up the Event, City of Aurora’s Mayor, Ed Tauer will be presenting The Challenge Trophy and $7500 prize money to the winning team.

 This is the 9th year of the Challenge for NAIOP Colorado and we are sure to have a sellout crowd again of over 600 commercial real estate professionals.  There will be plenty of time to network before the event.  Sign up early to make sure you get in! The 9th Annual NAIOP Rocky Mountain Real Estate Challenge takes place on May 3rd at the Denver Marriott City Center, networking starts at 5pm.  2 hours of Real Estate Continuing Education credits are awarded for attending.  Tickets and tables are now on sale, click here for more information or call 303-782-0155.  In the next Blog we will begin looking at who’s on the DU/CU teams and who’s coaching them!

Day at the Capitol Event Recap

NAIOP, the International Council of Shopping Centers and the Colorado Apartment Association co-hosted a Day at the Capitol for their respective members on Monday, March 7.  The half-day event featured short speeches by several prominent figures within the Colorado Government including:

• Senator Mark Scheffel – Senate Minority Caucus Chair, and NAIOP legislator of the year
• Representative Amy Stephens - House Majority Leader
• Representative Sal Pace - House Minority Leader
• Representative Tom Massey
• Representative Jerry Sonnenberg
• Representative David Balmer
• Henry Sobanet - Director, Governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting      
• Walker Stapleton - State Treasurer                          

Countdown to the 2011 Rocky Mountain Real Estate Challenge

Submitted by Stephen Sanders, RMREC Committee Member

This is the first of a few Blog comments on NAIOP Rocky Mountain Real Estate Challenge coming up May 3rd.  We are only 5 weeks out from the Challenge and both the University of Denver and the University of Colorado’s teams are working feverishly to prepare for what is sure to be an exciting night for both the team and audience participants.  This year’s location derives its name from the light rail station opened in 2006 Nine Mile Station (RTD) and has all the elements of a great development site.  As a TOD District the Site has some particularly exciting sustainable development opportunities. They include places to live, work, shop, and recreate within close walking distance of each other and the transit station.  Matthew DeBartolomeis, Vice President of CBRE has been working with owner/developer John Buckley (also the Event Sponsor) for the past several years to position this site for the maximum ROI development investment with no encumbrances.  Nine Mile Station (RTD)is located in the city of Aurora and has the second largest population in the metro area, with just over 308,000 residents.  This mixed use location, comprised of 15 +- acre, plus an additional 7 acres currently occupied by King Soopers , enjoys aggregate traffic counts of 250,000 VPD, Light Rail Ridership on the weekends of 63,000 (est.) and a population of over 136,000 with average household income of $65,506 within 3 miles!  Could you say this is the best TOD \ Multimodal development site in the City?  In a word, “location, location, location”, yes!

The presentation by the CU and DU Teams are assisted in their design/investment strategies by a wide range of local commercial real estate leaders.  Each year the presentations are superb, creative and are not to be missed!  Across the nation this is NAIOPs' premier event. 

As this the Colorado Chapter 9^th year we are sure to have a sellout crowd again of over 600 commercial real estate professionals.  Sign up early to make sure you get in! The 9th Annual NAIOP Rocky Mountain Real Estate Challenge takes place on May 3rd at the Denver Marriott City Center, networking starts at 5pm.  2 hours of Real Estate Continuing Education credits are awarded for attending.  Tickets and tables are now on sale, click here for more information or call 303-782-0155.  In the next Blog we will begin looking at who’s on the DU/CU teams and who’s coaching them!