The Denver office of JE Dunn Construction announced the recent completion of the Residences at Belmar Plaza, a $25-million, 185,023-sq-ft, five-story project located in the heart of the Belmar Development in Lakewood.

Designed by QPK Design of Syracuse, N.Y., the Residences at Belmar Plaza consist of ground-level retail and four upper levels that include 62 residential units. The residences were designed as 16 one-bedroom units, 29 two-bedroom units with dens, six three-bedroom units, two three-bedroom units with dens, and eight fifth-floor penthouse residences ranging from 950 to 2,888 sq ft.

JE Dunn and the developer, Continuum Partners, a Denver real estate development company, also worked directly with one of the future residents, Doug Wells, to customize his 2,500-sq-ft, fifth-floor penthouse. JE Dunn was one of the first contractors on the Belmar site when the redevelopment for Lakewood's new downtown began several years ago.

Swinerton Builders of Denver broke ground in late September on the Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Denver, a new 45-story hotel and residence tower located at 14th and Arapahoe streets in downtown Denver.

The building is scheduled for completion at the end of 2009, when it will become the fourth-tallest building in the city. It will house 230 hotel rooms on the first 16 floors and 102 private residences, ranging from 964 to 6,100 sq ft, from the 18th floor up. The private residences are offered in a mix of floor plans, from one-bedroom pieds-a-terre to two-level penthouse suites.

The project’s design team is led by Carney Architects of Jackson Hole, Wyo., with HKS Inc. of Dallas as the architect-of-record. Bilkey Llinas Design of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., is the interior designer of the hotel while Atlanta-based Clausen-Chewning Interior Design will handle the residences.

Pinkard Construction Co. of Lakewood and Sink Combs Dethlefs Architects of Denver completed the new, $21.2-million Student Recreation Center for the Colorado School of Mines in Golden in September.

The 108,000-sq-ft project serves the college’s fast-growing student body and includes a versatile competition/practice gymnasium with seating for 2,500 spectators; a separate recreation gymnasium; multiple fitness areas; an extensive climbing wall; an indoor competition/recreation pool; student and team locker rooms; offices; outdoor recreation program headquarters; multi-purpose meeting rooms; and casual lounge space distributed throughout the facility.

Early this year, Vail Resorts Inc., headquartered in Broomfield, announced an ambitious green development project called “Ever Vail.”

The $1-billion project will be built on the 9.5-acre site, currently known as West LionsHead. The green, multi-use resort village will consist of residences, a hotel, offices, retail shops and restaurants, mountain operations facilities, a public parking garage, a new gondola and related skier portal and a public park. Pending approval by the town of Vail, the project is anticipated to be complete in 2013.

Ever Vail will encompass approximately one million sq ft and include between 600,000 and 700,000 saleable sq ft of residential and commercial space. The site is currently occupied by Vail Mountain’s vehicle maintenance shop yard and warehouse, a retail and office complex and gas station. The new resort village plans call for 150 to 250 whole ownership condominium units, 75 to 125 fractional ownership condominium units and a 100,000-sq-ft mountain operations facility.

If approved, Ever Vail will be the largest of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED-certified projects for resort use in North America and is one of the first proposed projects for consideration in LEED’s new “Neighborhood Development” certification program, Lombard said.

MW GOLDEN CONSTRUCTORS of Castle Rock recently completed the $508,000 remodel of Byers Elementary Schools in Byers. The work for this project consisted of adding walls to the previously open-classroom concept school, replacing ceilings and upgrading mechanical and electrical systems.

The 1,540-space parking structure on the Anschutz Medical Campus, located at Scranton Street and Montview Boulevard in Aurora, opened Sept. 21, six weeks ahead of schedule.

The seven-level, 495,000-sq-ft garage was designed to reduce the volume of vehicular traffic inside the campus while providing parking spaces near the Research Quadrant and university administration. It is also within walking distance of the University’s educational facilities, library and research zone. Fentress Architects designed the structure and Kiewit Construction Co. of Englewood built the $22-million project.

The second of the campus’ two research centers, RC II, recently reached enclosure. The $201.5-million, 11-story, 500,000-sq-ft building provides facilities for the transition of all remaining research programs from their original 9th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard location to the Anschutz Medical Campus.

Fentress Architects, in collaboration with Kling Inc. of Philadelphia, began design in 2002. The contractor is Denver’s M.A. Mortenson Co.

Pinkard Construction Co. of Lakewood broke ground on North Metro Fire Rescue District’s new $14.5-million Integrated Maintenance and Training Facility and Fire Station No.68.

The 14-acre campus will include a four-bay fire station, a four-bay fleet maintenance building, a classroom and office building, a warehouse and a three-building fire training center. This new facility will be located near the intersection of I-25 and East 168th Avenue. Construction is scheduled to being this month, with completion expected in summer 2008.

Allred & Associates of Broomfield is designing the fire station and fleet maintenance facility. Development Strategies Group Planning & Design of Newport Beach, Calif., will design the classroom/office, warehouse and training facility.

Hyder Construction Inc. of Denver broke ground August 23 on Arapahoe County Facilities and Fleet Management Dept.’s new Eastern Service Center. The $6-million project consists of three buildings: a fleet maintenance facility, a vehicle wash area and a materials storage facility. Additional amenities located on the 15-acre site include a fuel island, a 250,000-gal. water storage tank and leach fields. The new service center is located at Quincy Road and Brick Center Road south of Bennett.

The project was designed by OZ Architecture of Denver and slated for completion in summer 2008.

University of Colorado at Boulder Chancellor G.P. “Bud” Peterson announced in his annual campus address in September a $20-million gift from professor Marvin Caruthers to go toward construction of a new interdisciplinary biotechnology building on the CU-Boulder campus.

The gift is one of the largest in the history of CU-Boulder and the largest ever by a faculty member.

The building, part of CU’s Colorado Initiative in Molecular Biotechnology, will total approximately 260,000 sq ft. It will host 60 faculty and more than 600 researchers from a wide variety of science, engineering and medical disciplines to collaborate on high-tech solutions to biomedical problems, Peterson said.

The facility will also contain classrooms, teaching labs and seminar rooms for more than 1,000 students annually from science and engineering disciplines across campus.

In honor of Caruthers’ gift, the building will be named the Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building pending approval by the Board of Regents in honor of Caruthers’ late wife. Remaining funds for construction will be provided by additional private support, CU, the state of Colorado and through indirect cost-recover funds. The building is expected to open in 2010.

Architectural firm Ohlson Lavoie Collaborative, headquartered in Denver, has completed the design for the spa at the world-famous Hot Springs Lodge & Pool resort in Glenwood Springs.

Completion of construction at the Mineral Spa, with its nine treatment rooms specializing in therapeutic massage and hydrotherapy, is due for late summer or early fall 2008. R.A. Nelson of Avon is the general contractor for the project.

Renovation began in October on the historic 1890s red sandstone building, which measures approximately 17,500 sq ft. The hot springs pool will remain open to the public during construction. The Mineral Spa at the Hot Springs resort will be the first major spa complex for Glenwood Springs. Treatment will concentrate on the healing and natural aspects associated with the historic pool.

The dedication for Valor Christian High School’s academic building was held Sept. 12, one week after the new Colorado private school opened for the first day of classes.

The $90-million, 35-acre project broke ground a year ago, and when complete, will consist of four buildings measuring a total of 250,000 sq ft. They include the three-story academic building; a state-of-the-art performing arts center, scheduled for completion in March 2008; an athletic complex with an eight-lane Olympic track, stadium and playing fields, scheduled for completion within the next year; and a chapel.

Located at the main entry to the site, the academic building houses the administration offices, 39 classrooms, eight science labs and the 5,300-sq-ft library. The project team earned LEED-silver certification, making Valor the first private school in Colorado to earn the designation. The building features thermal displacement ventilation, low-flow/automatic bathroom fixtures and an advanced lighting and daylighting control system.

Slaterpaull Architects of Denver designed the school complex in collaboration with The Lund Partnership of Lakewood and Denver-based Anderson & Hastings. Saunders Construction Inc. of Englewood is the general contractor for the project.

In an effort to give small and minority-owned businesses a competitive boost, the Regional Transportation District revealed its new bonding program, which RTD says is the first of its kind in the nation.

This program provides a bonding alternative from outside broker Marsh USA to give small and minority-owned businesses the opportunity to bid on FasTracks subcontracts. The RTD board of directors hired Marsh USA to help evaluate and provide alternatives to performance and payment bonds for subcontractors with contracts of $500,000 or less.

The bonding opportunity was developed and approved by the RTD board in response to the small business community’s concerns that the ability to procure bonds is an obstacle to competing for contracts, said Juanita Chacon, chair of the board’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Committee.

The Home Depot signed as a tenant to co-anchor Firestone City Centre, a $40-million, 400,000-sq-ft retail enclave located at Highway 119 and I-25 in Firestone.

THF Firestone Development LLC of St. Louis acquired the 78-acre site from American Furniture Warehouse in 2006 and has since been working with the town of Firestone, the sixth-fastest growing community in the nation last year, to optimize the development of the site as a power center and capitalize on its location in the I-25 corridor, said Karen Blumenstein, THF project director.

Firestone City Centre will feature approximately 20 retailers, comprised of six inline retailers and 14 out-lots. In addition to The Home Depot, THF is pursuing a second anchor and complementary retailers. Golden-based Good Times Burgers and Frozen Custard has signed a contract to join the center.

Construction on The Home Depot will begin in mid-2008 and it is expected to open in 2009.

Denver architectural firm emphasizes sustainability, integration of functions.Denver-based Ohlson Lavoie Collaborative an architectural firm specializing in the design of wellness, recreation, fitness and aquatic facilities announced Sept. 21 that contractor M.J. Harris of Birmingham, Ala., has started construction on the 75,400-sq-ft Good Shepherd Wellness Center in Longview, Texas.

OLC designed the two-story wellness center for a “continuum of care” for patients and members alike. The array of amenities includes gymnasiums, an aquatic center, fitness studios, weights, physical therapy, occupational therapy and cardiac rehabilitation. The center also includes a multi-purpose classroom for community educations and functions. OLC’s design includes separate member and patient entries that join in a large common concourse lobby.