Howard Ecker + Co. Enters Denver Market/CH2M Hill Will Manage Better Denver Improvements

Howard Ecker + Co. Enters Denver Market

Howard Ecker + Co., a national commercial tenant representation firm, has opened an office in Denver and appointed Solveig Tschudi Lawrence as the tenant representative and regional manager.

The new office is located downtown at the Dominion Towers at 600 17th St.

The opening of a Denver office synchronizes with Howard Ecker + Co.'s strategic goal to focus on leading office markets with high vacancies in order to help clients negotiate favorable lease agreements.

Howard Ecker + Co. also offers green consultancy services in high demand for tenants in the region. In the last year alone, requests have increased for the development of environmentally friendly buildings in the Denver metro area, with many LEED-certified projects currently in the pipeline.

Howard Ecker's green consulting team, led by Vice President and Global Environmental Specialist Claire Woolley, specializes in helping tenants reduce their operating costs through energy conservation programs and low-cost green initiatives.

CH2M Hill Selected to Manage Better Denver Improvements

Mayor John Hickenlooper announced in January the selection of Colorado-based engineering and construction firm CH2M Hill as the city's private sector partner to assist in managing Better Denver, the sweeping infrastructure maintenance and improvement program approved lin 2007by Denver voters.

Hickenlooper also announced the appointment of Don Hunt, former chief executive of engineering firm BRW Inc., as director of the bond program.

The Better Denver program will address the city's critical maintenance and infrastructure needs, including streets, parks and recreation facilities, city buildings, health and human services facilities, libraries, cultural facilities and public safety facilities.

CH2M Hill will manage a team that also includes Matrix Design Group Inc., and several other firms, including local minority- and women-owned businesses.

Fransen Pittman Recognizes Employee Safety Achievements

Englewood-based Fransen Pittman General Contractors has recognized 17 members of the firm's field management staff for maintaining outstanding jobsite safety on 2008 completed projects.

The firm's nearly 100,000 completed work-hours for the year, including over 5,000 overtime hours, were executed with no lost-time injuries. The projects ranged from $50,000 renovations to $19-million new facilities for clients in the institutional, commercial, defense, medical and nonprofit sectors.

Rocky Mountain Institute’s Boulder Office Is Certified LEED Platinum

The Rocky Mountain Institute's Boulder office recently received LEED Platinum Commercial Interiors certification.

Since high-performance building design is one of the critical elements of RMI's mission, the nonprofit redesigned its Boulder office with the intention of showcasing tangible and affordable high-performance building strategies.

Completed on a budget of only $24 per sq ft-which includes furniture, IT, security and signage-the new facility is expected to cut energy costs by 30% to 50% over the bills of the previous tenants, saving RMI $25,000 - $35,000 over the three-year lease.

Polsinelli Shughart Merger Finalized

The merger of the newly created law firm of Polsinelli Shughart PC, formerly Shughart Thomson & Kilroy PC in Denver, became effective Feb. 1. The transition makes Polsinelli Shughart among the 100 largest law firms in the U.S., based on number of attorneys. The firm has 480 attorneys practicing law in 13 offices stretching from Phoenix to Washington, D.C., and 26 of those attorneys practice law in the Denver office.

Kimmel Mechanical Adds Special Projects Division

With the recent hire of Tom D'Agostino, a master plumber with more than 35 years experience, Kimmel Mechanical has formed a new special projects and service division.

Denver-based Kimmel Mechanical has been in the Colorado market for 28 years; however, the firm has never offered its residential and commercial clients a service department, according to Neal Kimmel, president and founder.

The special projects and service division will focus primarily on smaller residential and commercial installation, remodels and tenant improvement.

“Today, people are more willing to spend money improving what they already have than buy something new,” said D'Agostino. “This demand will allow us to follow the high standards already set by the commercial division, and we will carry that over into the special projects and service division.”

JVA Celebrates 10 Years of Civil Engineering

JVA Inc. recently announced the 10-year anniversary of its Civil Engineering Department.

The firm began providing civil engineering services in February 1999 at JVA's Boulder office, with Kevin Tone directing the new department. Tone was originally supported by one additional civil designer. In the past 10 years, the civil department has grown to 23 engineers and designers working out of the Boulder and Winter Park offices.

The department has continued to expand upon its base services in site and utility engineering and now includes significant expertise in water and wastewater, synthetic turf fields, municipal consulting and LEED-certified projects.

DLR Group Selected to Serve on Parking Facility Project at Mines

DLR Group of Denver has been selected to provide architectural programming services on behalf of the Colorado School of Mines for a new parking facility near the campus.

DLR Group's work will include planning for infrastructure requirements, growth forecasts and overall needs.