The lease is the largest signed along the Northwest Corridor between Denver and Boulder so far this year, the brokers involved in the deal tell GlobeSt.com.

One of the buildings will serve as its new headquarters, while the other will be used for light manufacturing. The company will be consolidating the assets of a Denver company it recently purchased, Vari-L Co., into the new location, as well as bringing in employees from Tempe, AZ, and California.

The buildings, at 303 South Technology Court, were formerly occupied by Sun Microsystems, which has a large office campus at Interlocken. Sirenza Microdevices is a designer and supplier of radio-frequency components for communications equipment.

"We're very pleased to welcome Sirenza Microdevices to our tenant roster and accommodate its evolving space requirements," says Mitchell E. Hersh, CEO of Mack-Cali. "Mack-Cali's ability to secure long-term leases has helped us maintain strong occupancies throughout our portfolio, even during a difficult economy," he adds.

Todd Roebken and Alex Hammerstein of CRESA Partners, Denver, represented the tenant and Doug Bakke and Frank Kelly of CB Richard Ellis, Denver, represented Mack-Cali in the transaction.

Chuck Bland, CFO for Sirenza, tells GlobeSt.com that the company first zeroed in on Colorado, and than chose Interlocken, after a broad search of the local market.He says that Colorado provides a great deal of cost savings for labor and real estate, compared with California. He also tells GlobeSt.com that Interlocken was attractive to Sirenza, because it will allow it to tap a large pool of potential technology employees both from Boulder and Denver.

Initially, the company will have about 190 to 210 employees, including about 150 from Vari-L. But he says the company in the past has grown rapidly, both internally and from acquisitions.