RE/MAX To Build $50M HQ in Tech Center

DENVER-RE/MAX International founder Dave Liniger and associates will build a 250,000-sf headquarters at the northwest corner of Belleview Avenue and Interstate 25, the northern entrance to the Tech Center.

By John Rebchook | December 21, 2004 at 07:49 PM

Liniger and some long-time associates will own the building and lease it back to RE/MAX International, a franchise that this month will mark having 100,000 agents. The building will be developed by the Denver Tech Center and designed by Denver architect Michael Barber. "It's a gorgeous building," Peter Culshaw, president of the Tech Center tells GlobeSt.com. "I think it is going to be the nicest building in the Tech Center."

Liniger says the building on the 4.5-acre site is proposed to have 11 stories of office on top of six stories of parking. The parking structure, which will include two levels underground, will have 880 parking spaces.

Experts estimate the building will cost about $50 million, although Liniger says the costs haven't yet been penciled out. But, he says, it will be the most expensive building ever built in the Tech Center. "It will be the first true class A or class AA building built in about 15 years," he says.

Of course, not everyone would agree with that. Hines, for example, built a class A building in the Tech Center in 1999 and the now mostly empty two-building campus for Invesco mutual funds opened in 2001.

Culshaw and Barber say the building will be the tallest building in the Tech Center. And it also might be the most energy efficient one, too. "We haven't decided yet if we'll have it certified as a green building," Liniger tells GlobeSt.com. "We may just go ahead and do whatever we can to make it energy efficient. I have no doubt that energy costs are going to continue to skyrocket. The demand from India and China for oil will continue at a much faster rate than the opening of new refineries. And we plan to be in this building for the next 20, 30 or 40 years."

On the other hand, Liniger tells GlobeSt.com Barber is designing the building so it easily can be converted into a multi-tenant office building, in case it ever needs to be sold. Currently, RE/MAX is leasing approximately 150,000 sf in several buildings, with its corporate headquarters at 8390 E. Crescent Pkwy. in the Tech Center. Culshaw says RE/MAX is been an ongoing tenant in the Tech Center longer than any other company.

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