Denver’s largest office landlord, Equity Office Properties, is scaling back its local operations by transferring accounting and human-resources functions to Seattle. The move will cost 14 jobs, including that of top Denver executive Kim Koehn.
After 12 years with Equity Office, Koehn is being replaced by John Gallander as vice president and market leader for the Chicago-based company’s Denver office. Gallander, who has been with Equity Office for 14 years, worked in the Denver office from 1995 to 2000.
He reports to Pat Callahan, senior vice president for the Seattle region, which now includes Denver.
At one time, Gallander and Callahan both reported to Koehn. Koehn could not be reached for comment.
In addition to Koehn, who will remain with the company through March, 13 other people in Denver are affected by the cuts. Positions the company is eliminating are in leasing, customer service, finance and operations. The reductions leave 82 people working for Equity Office locally.
Equity Office says it is realigning its business to increase operating efficiency. Other offices affected are San Jose, Calif., which now reports to San Francisco, and New Orleans, Austin and Minneapolis, which now report to Chicago.
Denver remains an area the company targets for growth, said Peyton Owen, the company’s chief operating officer.
Equity, which also is the nation’s largest office owner, owns six buildings downtown, including the Denver Post tower, and nine in the Denver Technological Center, totaling 5 million square feet.
At its peak, Equity Office owned 128 million square feet of office space nationwide. That number has been reduced to 112 million square feet.
“The capital markets are strong, and we’re taking advantage of that to pare down our portfolio in core markets and sell out of non-core markets,” Owen said.
Staff writer Margaret Jackson can be reached at 303-820-1473 or mjackson@denverpost.com.
