EchoStar Exploring New HQ Options

LITTLETON, CO-EchoStar Communications, which this fall could become the nation’s only satellite TV company when it buys competitor Direct TV in a $26-billion deal, is considering a larger headquarters. It currently has 190,000 sf on 32 acres at Bowles Avenue and Santa Fe Drive, the former Riverfront Festival retail complex it bought in 1997 for a bargain $7.5 million.

Among the properties it has looked at include the Merrill Lynch campus in the Meridian International Office Park in Douglas County, two buildings of 280,000-sf each. It also looked at the 691,000-sf Deer Creek facility owned by Lockheed Martin in Jefferson County. Local brokers, however, say they don’t think EchoStar will take either of those two buildings.

Todd Wheeler, the Cushman & Wakefield broker representing EchoStar, says the company has looked at virtually every building in the area that could fit its needs. The company isn’t working under any specific timetable, he says.

Another alternative would not be to move at all, but to expand as needed on its current site, Wheeler notes.

And while the site is seen as an ideal mixed-use redevelopment, Wheeler says he would be surprised if EchoStar would sell it, even if it moves into another headquarters building down the road.”It’s a nice facility for them,” Wheeler tells GlobeSt.com.