Overlooking the lanes of traffic on Interstate 25, a new high-rise recently opened in southeast Denver.
A multi-million dollar project, the nine-story Vectra Bank Corporate Center at 7222 E. Layton Ave. is situated within Belleview Station, a budding mixed-use development that broke ground in 2012. The building joins about a dozen restaurants and even more businesses, which range from a dentist’s office to a salon to a yoga studio.
After three years and the COVID-19 pandemic, the mixed-use and corporate office building opened to employees in January, with a grand opening estimated to take place in April.
The building includes one floor of retail space, four floors of office space and parking, a conference center, outdoor spaces and more. It features art by Colorado creatives, a fireplace, a café and electric vehicle charging stations.
The site’s design prioritizes sustainability, with 16% more energy efficiency than building codes mandate and 40% less water use than a similarly-sized building.
“The technology wasn’t ready for us to electrify this building entirely, but we wired it so that, when the day comes, if we need to convert from gas to electricity, we can do that,” said Bruce Alexander, CEO of Vectra Bank Colorado.
On Friday afternoon, employees relaxed at tables and chatted over beers. After the work-from-home days of the coronavirus pandemic, “our goal is to get our team back together,” Alexander said. He hasn’t yet issued a return-to-office mandate.
Over the past two decades, he’s watched the bank grow in value to $4 billion from $1 billion when he first took on his leadership role. Vectra Bank Colorado has 35 locations throughout the state.
“We’re big enough to be a player that we can compete with all of the big boys, but we have a geographic business model that’s local, so we’re small enough to be able to take care of clients in Pueblo in Italian restaurants,” Alexander said at the new building Friday.
About 200 Denver staff members will regularly use the facility. The bank is part of a regional holding company with offices across the western U.S., which employs roughly 10,000.
Alexander started his search for a new property in 2018 after the team began to outgrow their old space. Leadership ultimately settled on Belleview Station because of its central location with access to the light rail station.
The neighborhood is still growing, with plans for a new Kimpton Hotel nearby, Alexander added. Another hotel and multifamily apartment building is undergoing construction next door.
Belleview Station “is gonna really be high energy,” Alexander said. “We wanted to be on the cutting edge of it.”
After building the Vectra Bank Corporate Center, the bank became financially neutral because it’s no longer paying rent at other Denver locations.
“The introduction of the Vectra Bank Corporate Center is a direct response to their need to consolidate several office properties that have traditionally operated separately and become outdated in their design,” said Marshall Burton, CEO of Confluent Development, a Denver-based firm that developed the project.
One of the building’s floors will be available for sublease in the short-term for cashflow, but Vectra Bank may expand to fill that space in the long-term.
“People say, ‘Well, why would you spend that much money during a recession?’ ” Alexander said. “And it really was a better deal for us.”
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