Granite Properties has another three years to find a big tenant in the Denver Tech Center.
Last week, the Greenwood Village City Council granted the Texas-based development firm a three-year extension of the entitlements for the company’s planned 12-story office building in the southern suburb.
“We saw as much leasing activity in 2025 as we did in years. And so we feel optimistic that the time is coming for this new development,” said Stephanie Lawrence, senior managing director with Granite.
The council originally approved the 325,000-square-foot project in July 2023, even though one council member said the company was “kind of contrary to where the market is.” The planned building would go up at 6430 S. Fiddlers Green Circle, next to Granite’s existing 5-story High Pointe Tower office building.
The 2023 approval was originally set to expire this summer, three years later.
Lawrence told the council last week that, in hindsight, “we just asked for this too soon.”
“What we did not anticipate when we got the initial entitlement was how frozen the tenant activity was at the time,” she said.
The office sector has been battered by the pandemic, to say the least, but there is still demand for top-tier space. A big tenant, however, is critical. Lawrence said lenders no longer want to provide capital for a project that will break ground empty.
“There used to be money available for spec office development. … It wasn’t the most cost-effective lending, but you could get it. Today they just won’t take the risk,” she said, referring to breaking ground on a project without a tenant.
Lawrence said “green shoots” of a recovery emerged in late 2025, citing a number of companies seeking large amounts of space in the area, from insurance company Lockton to Richmond American Homes parent M.D.C. Holdings.
“Although there are options for big blocks of space in second-generation product, there’s nothing thatap new and of high enough quality for a lot of these users,” she said.
Lawrence warned that groundbreaking is still far off. She estimated needing 12 to 18 months just to secure a tenant, with additional time to negotiate a lease and tailor construction to the company’s needs.
The approval from the council was unanimous. Councilman Tom Stahl, a real estate broker, called the extension “a very reasonable request.”
“The first question any tenant is going to ask is do you have your entitlements, are you 100% sure that the municipality is going to allow the construction of this building,” Stahl said.
Granite owns four Denver-area office properties, including High Pointe Tower and Plaza Tower One in Greenwood Village. Granite sold the Prentice Plaza building in Greenwood Village in 2024.
Read more from our partner, .
