The Aardex LLC development firm of Golden plans to break ground this summer on a 410,000-square-foot, $150 million office building in Centennial.
The 18-story building — to be called Signature Tower — will be located on 4.3 acres at the southeast corner of East Peakview Avenue and South Syracuse Way.
The site is a few blocks from the Arapahoe at Village Center Station transit-oriented development (TOD) being built off Interstate 25 in Greenwood Village. Aardex expects its environmentally friendly Signature Tower to complement the mass transit-oriented TOD project.
Aardex plans to complete its Centennial project in the summer of 2010.
“Signature Tower has a two-year design and development schedule, and we’re well down the road on design. The opportunity here is clear and obvious,” said Ben Weeks, Aardex principal.
Aardex is working on a TOD project of its own, having recently been named developer of the Denver Federal Center Station TOD project in Lakewood. The station is part of the Regional Transportation District (RTD) FasTracks program’s West Corridor Light Rail Project. Started in 1983, Aardex specializes in developing sustainable, “green” buildings with what it calls User Effective Design. Elements of such design range from heating and air conditioning located under raised floors to exterior sunshades to cut glare. “Our real goal in projects is to provide abundant natural light, views and controlled, fresh, clean air — things that make employees happier and much more productive,” said Randy Swearingen, Aardex’s vice president of office developments.
The developer’s 186,000-square-foot Signature Centre office building in Golden’s Denver West office park, completed in 2007, is one of Colorado’s first LEED Platinum structures.
Aardex expects Signature Tower to be LEED Platinum as well. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and is the U.S. Green Building Council’s rating system for energy-efficient, sustainable buildings. Platinum is LEED’s highest designation.
The developer hopes to attract a headquarterstype tenant for a large portion of Signature Tower’s space,similar to the Gambro BCT Inc. headquarters it got for Signature Centre. Gambro BCT, part of Swedish medical technology giant Gambro AB, develops and manufactures blood-collecting machines, and is moving its main offices from Lakewood to 150,000 square feet at Signature Centre.
Asking rent for Signature Tower’s office space ranges from $20 to $24 per square foot, excluding office-space operating expenses such as taxes, utilities and insurance fees.
The Golden developer also expects the new project to include a retail component, tentatively called 360, and apartments developed by the Trammell Crow Co.
Building amenities will include 1,500 parking spaces in a six-story garage, plus some street parking, as well as a cafe, fitness center, meeting rooms and outdoor plaza with WiFi connectivity.
Signature Tower’s design will include under-floor heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC); temperature and ventilation that can be controlled by employees; heat-reducing window glass; task lighting; and electrostatic air filtering. Native and other natural materials will be used in construction to reduce environmental impact.
After Signature Tower is completed, Aardex hopes to sell it in a deal similar to the one it executed for Signature Center early this year. The developer sold the Golden office building to IVG Institutional Funds GmbH of Germany in January for $46 million.
“We expect a foreign exit, too, for Signature Tower,” Weeks said.