Roadside attractions: Saunders Construction builds on its legacy with high-profile projects like the new IKEA Centennial.

• Author: Lewis, David
• Position: WHO OWNS colorado

JOHN BEEBLE, CEO AND CHAIRMAN OF CENTENNIAL-BASED SAUNDERS Construction Inc., hurries from his car a few minutes late to an appointment in J. Alexander's restaurant, across from the new IKEA Centennial building at 1-25 and County Line Road.

Behind him gleams the bold yellow and blue of the IKEA building. From certain angles the 415,000-square-foot IKEA Centennial seems to loom over the highway like a Swedish spaceship; it might be the most amazing architectural advertisement ever built in Colorado.

Of course, it is brand new. Beeble's company just finished the construction of the building, but that's not why he's a bit rushed: He has just returned from a day with his surety company, the people who bond his company, Saunders Construction Inc.

His interviewer imagines all the construction companies in the past few years that would have dreaded a visit from their surety companies.

But, says Beeble, "It's only drama if your business is severely distressed."

Beeble's day was relatively stress-free.

"It is refreshing in the midst of this economy we're in, the times we're in, to be able to meet with our surety (company) and have that be upbeat and pleasant," he says. "Probably it is a little unique these days for a company in our industry."

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Probably it is.

And why not? Among the company's many accomplishments are these currently under construction or recently completed:

IKEA Centennial, already a Colorado icon. DaVita Inc.'s, $101 million downtown Denver headquarters, a 270,000-square-foot building that has already attained celebrity status hereabouts as a rare (unique?) example of a New York Stock Exchange-traded company moving its headquarters and expanding here.

Also, there's the NCAR-Wyoming Su-percomputing Center in Cheyenne, clue in 2012 to house one of the world's swiftest supercomputers and also to seek "gold" certification for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

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Next we have Saunders Construction's Metro State Student Success Building, designed and built with LEED Platinum certification in mind, the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, and the University of Colorado Denver Health & Wellness Center at the An-schutz Medical Campus--to name some of the more distinguished of the company's contemporary projects.

Just to jolt your memory, Saunders also has made its mark with high-profile Front Range construction such as the...