BROOMFIELD - The team behind the new EOS at Interlocken has finished its 186,000-square-foot Class A office building. Now its job is to fill it.
 
Hines, a Houston-based real-estate investment and development company, opened the doors to EOS on Thursday, Aug. 16, hosting a reception for real estate professionals and officials from the city and county of Broomfield.

The four-story building at 105 Edgeview Drive is touted by Hines and CBRE, which is listing it, as "the 'greenest' office alternative for all of the Northwest Submarket." The U.S. Green Building Council is reviewing the building for LEED certification, and it could receive a platinum rating, CBRE senior vice president J. David Hart said. Hart and Chris Phenicie, also a CBRE senior vice president, are representing Hines in the search for a tenant.

Hines is touting EOS' solar panels, electric-vehicle charging stations and the salvaged wood it used in the lobby, taken from trees killed by pine beetles. The company also is playing up the environmental angle in the property's name, which Hart said is an acronym for Environmental Office Space but also is the name of the Greek goddess of the dawn.

The project is valued by the city of Broomfield at $12.6 million, according to building department records. The building was designed by Forum Architects of St. Louis, and Whiting-Turner Construction was the general contractor. Construction began last fall.

The reception was hosted on the EOS' unfinished fourth floor, and was significant enough that Gerald Hines, the 87-year-old founder and chairman of the company, paid a visit.

Hines built EOS on speculation, and as of now a tenant has not been found. That didn't seem to be a concern of Gerald Hines.

"We think the timing is right. We like this part of the city and think we have a good idea," Hines said of the decision to build on spec during a lagging economy. "We view Denver as one of the major expansion areas in the United States."  
 
Hines and CBRE are hoping to find a tenant that will take up all four floors, but Hines is willing to divide up the building for the right tenants, Hart said. EOS has 46,500-square-foot floor plates. The listed rate is $21 to $25 per square foot, with a triple-net lease.

The team is working with prospects from Boulder and out of state that are looking to relocate or consolidate offices within the region, Hart said.

But Hines is thinking bigger. EOS is planned to be the first building in a four-building campus that would have up to 850,000 square feet. The project would be the anchor eastern Interlocken has lacked since it was developed in the 1980s.
 
The ideal tenant could take up the entire campus, Gerald Hines said. Hines suggested that a deal with a tenant that would fill EOS and at least one yet-to-be-constructed building could be approaching fruition.

"We seem to have a number of major clients that are interested, and hopefully will have a major announcement in the next four months," Hines said.