The northwest submarket is relatively small, with a total 7.4 million sq ft of office space versus 28 million sq ft in downtown Denver and 36 million sq ft in the southeast submarket. In the third quarter, the northwest submarket reported 193,000 sq ft net absorption, compared to 300,000 sq ft net absorption for the entire Denver market.

Among the leases that have helped the Interlocken submarket’s absorption figures was the growth of Vail Resorts Inc., which leased an additional 63,000 sq ft of space earlier this year to bring 100 accounting employees from its Keystone offices to its existing headquarters at 390 Interlocken Crescent.

Other major leases were Webroot Software Inc., occupying 105,748 sq ft at Central Park Tower, and Cloud Peak Energy, taking 26,000 sq ft in the tower as well.

Proximity to Denver International Airport was the main factor in Cloud Peak Energy’s decision to move its marketing operations from Greenwood Village, says Heidi Lowe, a spokesperson for the Gillette, Wyo.-based company.

For Webroot, $94,957 in tax incentives helped persuade the company to sign a 10-year lease and relocate its headquarters from Boulder to Broomfield. Per the company’s agreement with the city, the Internet security firm will employ 220 people at the office tower by the end of the year.

Energy and high-tech companies have been the bread and butter of Interlocken, and developers are banking on that trend to continue and drive strong demand for area office space.

ConocoPhillips, the Houston-based energy giant, is planning to build a 2.5 million-sq-ft global training and research center on a 432-acre property in Louisville at the former StorageTek site—just minutes from Interlocken Business Park. The new campus will focus on the development of renewable energy and high-tech carbon fuels recovery.

The company aims to construct the project in phases over the next 22 years and open its first phase in 2013. Construction is set to begin in the spring.

Central Park Tower Becomes

New Crown Jewel at Interlocken

The owner of the new Central Park Tower at 385 Interlocken Crescent in Broomfield’s Interlocken Business Park is creating a headquarters-style building in a multi-tenant setting.

The 11-story building opened in August, with Sybase, a Dublin, Calif.-based computer company, moving from Boulder to the new building; Wyoming-based coal-mining company Cloud Peak Energy took occupancy of the fourth floor; and Webroot, a Boulder-based software company that makes computer security programs such as Spy Sweeper and Window Washer, leased four floors and is expected to move its corporate headquarters into the building by the end of this year.

About 52% of the building, now the tallest structure along the U.S. 36 corridor, is already leased.

The 300,000-sq-ft building boasts a multipurpose lounge, fitness center with locker rooms and showers, cafeteria, outdoor patio, and formal and informal lobby galleries. The ground floor also has retail space for a small café and deli.

In addition to nearly 950 surface parking spaces, there are 56 covered spaces in an underground garage—52 of which are designated for low-emitting vehicles.

Central Park Tower is the latest project from the team that created the neighboring 370, 380 and 390 Interlocken office buildings. Denver-based Prime West Development Inc. developed the family of office buildings in collaboration with Gensler, the architect, and The Weitz Co. of Denver, the general contractor.