Projects range from build-to-suits, such as the 600,000-sfLucent Technologies campus in Highlands Ranch, to the proposedOpus@Bandimere project on the site of a current drag strip thathopes to move to the metropolitan area's northeast quadrant.

Watson says companies increasingly are choosing to build along aloop road called C-470 because congestion is far less than theInterstate 25 corridor, where most of the office parks are located.The I-25 corridor will only get worse starting next year, when aneight-year, multi-billion-dollar road-widening program begins. Thetransportation project also will bring light-rail service to theI-25 corridor.

The southwest area already is served by a light-rail line. Oneproject by Denver-based Pinnacle Development Co. is only ahalf-mile from the end of the southwest line and is the first busstop from the line. "It's no wonder the business community istaking up office and R&D space as soon as it is made availablein this emerging hot market," says Bill Conway, a broker withTrammell Crow Co.