May 20 2010
Flanked by more than 100 leaders from business, healthcare and city and state government, Corporex officials broke ground on Fitzsimons Village, an $80 million hotel office complex in the Fitzsimons Life Sciences District in Aurora, Colo.
Fitzsimons Village is the first new, mixed-use development that will bring needed amenities to the rapidly growing Fitzsimons Life Sciences District east of Denver. Phase one of the project includes a six-story, class A, 160,000-square-foot office building with 16,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor. Also included in phase one will be structured parking and a 153-room Marriott Springhill Suites hotel. A covered walkway over Colfax Avenue (US 40) will connect Fitzsimons Village to the Anschutz Medical Campus.
Present at the event were William P. Butler, chairman and CEO, Corporex; Thomas E. Banta, president and COO, Corporex; John LaCouture, chief legal officer The Children's Hospital; and Ed Tauer, Mayor of Aurora.
"This project represents the single largest private development of its kind in Colorado this year," Banta said. "The loan infrastructure has not been done in the state of Colorado since the bond market collapse in August 2008."
Fitzsimons Village will give related businesses a chance to keep up with the commitments the hospitals are making to their rapidly growing employee base. The Children's Hospital will be the first tenant to occupy the office building, which will house ancillary services upon its completion which is anticipated in 2011. The University of Colorado Hospital and the planned Veteran's Administration hospital also occupy the campus.
"Hospitals, in terms of design and structure cost about three times more than office buildings," Banta said. "By moving services like accounting, human resources and back office to the new office building at Fitzsimons Village, The Children's Hospital can make the most of its resources by dedicating its valuable real estate to its core business such research and providing hospital beds."
Banta said a spirit of public/private cooperation made the project possible. The office building needed The Children's Hospital as an anchor tenant, The Children's Hospital needed the hotel to provide rooms for families and the tax revenue to cover the bonds, and the bonds were needed to create the walkway over Colfax Avenue. Everything—including loans from five local banks came together and closed on the same day.
Source: http://www.corporex.com/