Opus Northwest

Opus Northwest reacts quickly to market needs in creating new mixed uses along Cherry Creek

By Chryss Cada

What do the people at Opus Northwest want to build?

Ask the market. 

“Our dream building is one that is fully leased or fully sold and that respects the neighborhood it’s built in,” says John Shaw, senior vice president and general manager of Opus Northwest in Denver. “There’s no one at this table who wants to build a 50-story building just to have something big to say we built. The market, not our egos, dictates what we build.”

(Photo by Terry Shapiro)

Working closely with Shaw on the firm’s local projects are Scott Menefee, vice president of real estate development for Opus; and James Mansfield, a director of the company.

Opus Northwest is known for keeping the pulse of the market and adjusting projects accordingly. The latest example is its development of 1400 Wewatta and Wynkoop Residences, a two-building, Class AA office project that includes 22 luxury penthouse residences and ground-floor retail totaling more than 400,000 sq ft.

The penthouses chart a new direction for LoDo residential development.

“These are high-end penthouses, not lofts,” Menefee says. “I think moving away from lofts is part of a natural maturation of the residential market.”

Space in the mixed-use project has been adjusted to meet the rapidly changing needs of lower downtown.

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“It was a moving target for awhile,” says Chris Shears of Shears Adkins Architects, the local architect on the project. “The project had been primarily residential, and then with the weakening of the residential market it became primarily an office project that was a portion residential. Opus is always ready to adjust to changes in the market.”

The final configuration is 1400 Wewatta, a nine-story building that will provide 200,000 sq ft of Class AA office space and approximately 10,000 sq ft of retail space on Wewatta Street. The adjacent 1401 Wynkoop, a 10-story building along Wynkoop Street, includes 100,000 sq ft of office topped by three levels of luxury residences.

“This is the first mixed-use project we’ve seen on this scale in downtown Denver,” says Brian Phetteplace, manager of retail and residential development for the Downtown Denver Partnership. The project “is an example of a great new direction that things are going downtown—a direction that things have to go,” he says.

The site was one of the last undeveloped properties along Cherry Creek.

“LoDo sites are limited, and stacking a lot on one site is a responsible use of land,” Phetteplace says. “In addition, it was designed to look like it has always been there.”

Mansfield said although the look of the two buildings differs, they were both designed to fit with the neighborhood.

“The Wewatta building is more contemporary with an urban, corporate look featuring punched windows and ribbon glass,” he says. “The Wynkoop building is designed to look like a historic warehouse with brick and stone. There is a clear demarcation between the areas.”

For Opus, serving the market’s needs includes a commitment to the neighborhoods in which it builds.

“Opus’ guiding principle, which we shared, was the contextual issue,” Shears says. “A building has to recognize everything in the context it’s being built in—in this case, the neighbors, the creek, the quiet character of Wynkoop and the noisy, active character of Wewatta.” 

The building also takes into account the way the property will be used by LoDo residents. 

“The building will be the landing point on our side of the creek,” Shears says. “We left room, recognizing that this area will be a major pedestrian corridor into the future.”

Chipolte Mexican Grill, which is moving its corporate offices from 1543 Wazee St. into 1401 Wynkoop, is among the companies migrating to the banks of Cherry Creek. 

“The vision we’ve seen for downtown is tenants coming down from upper downtown to a more lifestyle-type office where they can walk out of their office into more of a neighborhood,” Menefee says. “That’s where demand is going to be, and we’ve gotten out in front of that demand.”

Menefee expects to continue to see office buildings similar to 1400 WynKoop built in LoDo.

(Photo by Terry Shapiro)

“We are market driven, not design driven, and the majority of demand in LoDo is for office buildings that are much smaller than oil boom buildings,” he said. “We’re looking at more well-leased projects that are bite-sized.” 

Menefee adds that closely monitoring demand has helped Opus deal with the current economic downtown.

“We’ve never had the frothy, speculative development you saw more of in other parts of the country,” he says. “As a result, we’re not struggling as much as others.”

James Mansfield
Director of Real Estate Development
Opus Northwest

Years as a developer 23 years in real estate; 3 years with Opus

Education Bachelor’s of business administration, University of Colorado Boulder

Hometown Denver

Important Projects 1400 Wewatta office project; multiple industrial properties within the Compark Business Campus in Englewood

John Shaw
Senior Vice President/General Manager
Opus Northwest

Years as a developer 30

Education Bachelor’s of architecture, Iowa State University

Home State Iowa

Important Projects Responsible for the operation of Opus Denver ($100 million in annual revenues) and Kansas City ($60 million in annual revenues)

Scott Menefee
Vice President of Real Estate
Opus Northwest

Years as a developer 19

Education Bachelor’s of business administration, University of Denver; Master’s of business administration real estate/marketing, Southern Methodist University

Hometown Greeley

Important Projects Assisted in more than 1.5 million sq ft of commercial development; currently working on the 458,200-sq-ft Pinnacle at City Park South