We'll move into the space in the summer and we expect by early next year to have about 100 people working there," Errol Stevens, senior manager of real estate services for the RTD, tells GlobeSt.com. "But we will have room for 130."
Stevens says that this space will serve as a "co-location area for RTD staff, plus all the salaried people assigned to this project." The RTD has its own building in Lower Downtown, but it is not large enough to accommodate all of the FasTracks staff, he says.
The Denver Post building also will be used for the project management group for FasTracks, consultants, and positions for the Colorado Department of Transportation and the City and County of Denver working on FasTracks, he says. "We want to have one cohesive unit so people who need to meet with people on FasTracks won't have to go to different buildings," he tells GlobeSt.com.
The RTD signed the lease directly with Equity Office Properties, which owns the building. "The value of the lease is within the $4.9 million approved by the RTD board," he says. Scott Reed, spokesman for the RTD, says the agency looked at a lot of buildings, and the Denver Post building was the least expensive by far. He says that it was $1.5 million less expensive than other alternatives.
It was also an attractive building because RTD owns the half-block of land under the Denver Post Tower. "We lease the air space to Equity Office Properties," Stevens says. "We started leasing it to the Galbreath Co., which developed it. EOP took over the lease for the air space when they bought it."
He says the air-space lease started in 1985, when the building opened, and will run for 65 years. The rent is $400,000 per year for the rights, he says. "It's kind of a nice twist," Stevens tells GlobeSt.com. "It's a nice association for us."
The RTD also owns the parking garage and the building sits next to a bus station. "One of our criteria is that the building be very near a multi-modal transit center, so it had to be at one end of the 16th Street Mall or the other." Phil Sweeney of CB Richard Ellis handled the deal.
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