Downtown Convenience, High-End Offices led New Tenants to Pick One Boulder

For commercial tenants, "wow" means everything from the architecture of the multi-building One Boulder Plaza complex to the amenities.

"It's exciting to be a part of this. It feels like a renewal."
— Joan Bleacher, Chief Financial Officer, Sterling-Rice Group

When Patrick Mercardante went looking for new space to house Wells Fargo's private banking services, he had two overarching objectives -- convenience and luxury.

"We wanted to be able to give our clients the best kind of wow experience," says the market area manager for Wells Fargo Private Client Services.

It was the wow factor plus the proximity to the bank's main offices that drew Wells Fargo to downtown Boulder's tony new mixed-use complex, One Boulder Plaza.

Wells Fargo houses its private banking services in 10,500 square feet on the second floor of the complex's just completed 1801 13th Street building, about a block away from its main banking facility on the Pearl Street Mall.

The wow factor at One Boulder Plaza, tenants agree, is considerable. For commercial tenants, wow means everything from the architecture of the multi-building complex to the amenities, which are considerable.

One Boulder Plaza boasts state-of-the-art information technology and security infrastructure, underground parking, great climate control and lots of retail development on the street level.

"We're very excited about being part of a mixed-use project," says Joan Bleacher, chief financial officer of the Sterling-Rice Group. "There is a vibrancy about it."

Boulder-based Sterling-Rice has leased 26,000 square feet on the fourth floor at 1801 13th Street making it an anchor tenant.

But it's the windows at One Boulder Plaza's 1301 Canyon Boulevard building that wowed John Sprow, senior portfolio manager at institutional money managers Smith Breeden. Smith Breeden leases about 3,000 square feet in the building.

"The fact that the windows open is a wonderful thing," he says. "This is the nicest space in town." Anyone who has ever worked in a hermetically sealed high-rise can relate to his joy.

Parking also gets kudos from Sprow. It's all underground, and clients can take an elevator to within 20 feet of Smith Breeden's door, he says.

For retail tenants at the new downtown complex, it's the age-old adage -- location, location, location -- that they say makes One Boulder Plaza the new address of choice downtown. The complex was designed to create a bridge between the Pearl Street Mall on the north and Central Park, the Dushanbe Tea House and the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art on the south. It also boasts a destination attraction: It will be the new home of downtown's increasingly popular winter ice rink.

"The location we felt was optimal in terms of attracting people," says Maria Uspenski, owner of the Tea Spot, which opens Nov. 22 in 1,467 square feet on the street level of 1801 13th Street "In the summer there are the farmers markets on Wednesday and Saturdays, and the plaza itself will be a draw because it will be set with tables. In the winter the ice skating rink will be right outside our door."

Uspenski also notes that One Boulder Plaza creates the two densest city blocks in Boulder. "1,200 people live or work in these two blocks," she says. "Even if we draw clientele only from this complex, if we did our business correctly, we would be successful."

The Tea Spot will sell more than 50 different loose-leaf teas as well as European hot chocolate and a variety of sweets. Teas will be brewed in a pot designed by Uspenski that has exact brew-time settings for green, black and herbal varieties. Uspenski is a mechanical engineer by trade. The Tea Spot is her first foray into retail.

For Theo Pangilinan, owner of the coffeehouse Cafe Siena, which also will do business on the street level at 1801 13th Street it was the building itself that attracted him. "The courtyard, the ice skating rink, the weekend events on the courtyard. All of those things were a draw for us," he says.

Pangilinan already runs one coffeehouse in the Siena Building at Broadway and Spruce Streets downtown. One Boulder Plaza will be his second location.

But for all these tenants, One Boulder Plaza also allows them to be in Boulder's central business district, an area they say they are committed to for the long term.

"There is a sense of community in downtown Boulder that we want to be a part of," says Colin Harris, managing partner at the Boulder office of Holme Roberts & Owen. The firm is leasing one-half of the third floor at 1801 13th Street "We had the opportunity to move to Interlocken. But we chose One Boulder Plaza to stay in downtown Boulder. It's a beautiful building. It's got classic architecture, and it's going to be a focus of community involvement and activity."

Sterling-Rice's Bleacher echoes Harris. "It's all about downtown. It's all about Boulder," she says. "It's exciting to be a part of this. It feels like a renewal."

Or even, perhaps, a new chapter, says Gary Beels of NetLynx Financial Advisors, a wealth management firm that leases space in 1301 Canyon Boulevard.

"I have clients that without any prompting have looked out the window at 1801 13th and said, 'This is going to be the Rockefeller Plaza of Boulder County,'" he says. "I couldn't agree more."

— by Nancy Nachman-Hunt
Correspondent for the Boulder County Business Report