EPA Building New 250,000-SF 'Green' Tower

The new building would be built on slightly more than half of the 100,000-sf site of the former US Post Office Terminal Annex Building.The site, owned by Houston-based Hines, currently has a 406,000-sf building on it that needs to be razed, as Hines must turn over a clean site to the US General Services Administration. The GSA handles all of the real estate needs for the federal government.The GSA soon will be seeking proposals from the government to develop the new site. Hines can bid for the project, notes Ron Simpson, senior realty specialist for the local office of the GSA.

The EPA currently rents about 210,000-sf at Denver Place. The government agency is moving into the build-to-suit for increased security, more efficiencies and greater energy savings. As an added bonus, at the new site at 16th and Wynkoop streets, the new building will be next to Union Station, where a region-wide intermodal hub featuring various modes of transportation is planned.

Also, the Hines property is in a historic district and Simpson says the federal government likes to give preference to being in a historic district when it can. The 10-year lease rate will be determined by the cost of the new building. The building will meet energy saving standards set by the US Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

Simpson hopes to move into the new building by July 2006. The EPA's current lease expires at the end of June 2006, he says. The new building will feature 25,000-sf floorplates, while the current average size of a floor in Denver Place is 11,000-sf, Simpson says. There are few Downtown buildings with 25,000-sf floorplates, and even fewer with contiguous large floors available, he notes.

In addition, it will be easier to provide security in a single-tenant building than in a multi-tenant building, he notes. It's virtually impossible to guard against who can enter or exit a multi-tenant building, while that can be controlled in a single-tenant building.

Also, the new building will have no underground parking, as that could be a safety issue, he notes. Instead, the GSA will lease nearby space for about 40 government cars, he tells GlobeSt.com.

The downside of the move, of course, is that the EPA would more than double the amount of available space currently at Denver Place. "Denver Place will be backfilling that space for $10 per sf," one prominent Downtown broker tells GlobeSt.com.