Xcel's Platinum high-rise; 1800 Larimer, the first downtown Denver Skyscraper since 1986, aims for the highest 'green' certification.

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

It's just a hole in the ground today, but when the 22-story downtown office building opens at 1800 Larimer in June 2010 it is going to be two things Denver either never did have or hasn't had since the Pena administration.

Denver hasn't had the construction of a high-rise office building since 1986, when 1900 Broadway went up around Holy Ghost Catholic Church.

And Denver never has had a LEED Platinum-certified office building, to be precise a platinum pre-certified building. (1800 Larimer will have to be re-certified after construction.)

This means 1800 Larimer's infrastructure will comprise elements that highlight high-rises in Chicago and L.A. but never have here. It means that tenants will have to go out of their way not to qualify for LEED certification for their interior accommodations.

The building has been 77 percent pre-leased by Xcel Energy, which will seek LEED Platinum for its interior finish. Signed tenants include Citywide Banks, which will host a drive-in window one floor below the structure's quarter-acre roof garden; and a group of owner-related companies: Frederick Ross Co., Westfield Development Co., Westfield Capital Partners and Apartment Realty Advisors.

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Among other sales points, 1800 Larimer is being touted as a productivity booster.

Studies at UC-Berkeley and elsewhere" show that if, because of the building's clean air, employers can reduce one day of sick leave from their employee, it saves $1.40 a foot on their rent square footage, a huge number," says Randy M. Schwartz, chief operating officer of the building's developer, Westfield Development.

Tom Lee, Frederick Ross senior managing director-brokerage, backs the claim with a drawing of a side-section of a typical 1800 Larimer office space.

First, what isn't there? Columns.

What is? For one, windows that reach from sills about eight inches off the floor to the 9-foot, 6-inch ceiling. For another, 1800 Larimer features an 18-inch-deep under-floor air system, a green feature seldom if ever seen in Colorado outside of a federal building, e.g., the nearby regional headquarters for the Environmental Protection Agency.

The idea is the under-floor works like a huge air duct. Cool air is pulled through high-efficiency MIRV-13 air filters. Then convection sucks it into the office space through diffusers built into the 2-by-2 feet concrete slab floor. These diffusers can be placed anywhere in any number. For example, that would allow individual...