Urban Villages

Sugarcube Suites 250, 300

Historic Sugar Building Suite 350

Featured Project

  
    Project Details
  
    DATE
    2024 - April 2025
  
    ADDRESS
    Sugarcube Building Address: 1555 Blake St, Denver, CO 80202
  
    Historic Sugar Building Address: 1530 16th St Mall, Denver, CO 80202
  
    Service
    Pre-Construction Estimating, Design Build for MEPF Scope, Construction
  
    Size
    35,106 SF
  
    Value
    $1,054,924.15

Behind the Scenes

Design Build Tenant Office Suite Build Out. We provided MEP design build for the remodeling scope of the Suite spaces designed by Interior Designers. The original Architectural scope was priced and the MEP scope was estimated based on the information available on the Interior Architectural sheets. Once the MEP Design Permit Drawings were completed, we provided a change order to capture the final costs for all the MEP modifications and new lighting package. The new light design was coordinated with our MEP Designer MDP, our Electrical Trade Partner CNC, our client Urban Villages, and the Interior Designers to ensure we didn’t compromise their design intent for each Suite space.

We had to navigate everyone’s availability to walk the space and review the lighting options our client and design team would aesthetically approve for their Suite spaces. After a few back and forth meetings, teams calls, and site visits, we finalized the lighting design package and our electrical trade partner CNC was able to provide a value engineered option that saved our client about $60K in lighting costs.

We also assisted our client in identifying additional funding for the new lighting package through the Energize Denver initiative, as the project required updates to comply with City and County of Denver permit code requirements mandating all lighting be LED, dimmable, and equipped with lighting controls. The project was successfully completed through close collaboration with our design partners, client, and trade partners to align scope, design intent, and project goals.

Client: Urban Villages

Design: State Studio & Metodo Architects

MEP Design-Build Partner: MDP Engineering

Construction Design-Build: Ellipsis Construction

Project Details

Our client Urban Villages had a team coordinating with us. Their Building Engineer General Manager and Building Manager both helped us with MEP room access, along with the history of any prior building modifications, and material delivery coordination. The VP of Sustainability served as our Project Manager, coordinating all points of the project, final decision making, and invoice approvals. The Project Asset Manager coordinated site walks with potential lessees of the spaces.

Finally, the Property Manager provided us with Site Access and commercial + residential tenant communication, allowing us to coordinate appropriate times for loud noise. Our Project Manager coordinated with our Urban Villages PM for weekly or biweekly OAC meetings and site walks. Our project Superintendent managed the trade partners onsite by providing building access, coordinating start times, and reviewing scope questions, as well as conducting all safety orientations and enforcing onsite PPE.

Sugarcube Suite 300

We enabled our MEP Engineering Design Team to complete their design drawings by providing them with all the information they needed to complete their drawings. We followed up with everyone when deciding which light fixtures to select for the final design, allowing us to stay on track with project completion. There was a back-and-forth question with our Life Safety trade partners in regard to the building permit. We brought in IsoA/D to help us pull a permit for all the Suites and since the occupancy was like-for-like, we acquired the building permit within a month of submitting. The permit review with City and County of Denver was a concern for the project schedule, but approaching the options available for an expedited review, we were successful.

The strategy of expedited permit review was an option we learned about from a previous Retail Project we completed within the City and County of Denver jurisdiction which successfully allowed us to stay on project schedule and open up the retail space for a winter clothing company that wanted to open their doors within 1 month of starting construction.

Sugarcube Suite 250

Prior to closing up walls, we walked the suites with our client and design team to obtain MEP rough-in approval before proceeding with wall closures and final MEP trim installation. After construction was completed, we conducted punch walks with our client and design teams to ensure quality control and final acceptance. A few carpet concerns were addressed in Suite 350 with our flooring trade partner, along with minor wall touch-ups and paint patching.

In the end, we successfully completed all three office suites for our client, Urban Villages. We are proud of how the suites turned out and hope they support UVI in leasing the spaces quickly. Urban Villages was a pleasure to work with, and we look forward to continuing our working relationship with them on upcoming projects. Future tenants will benefit from a prime location in the heart of downtown Denver, with convenient access to walkable lunch options and nearby retail spaces.

In the end we delivered a successful completion of all three office suites to our client Urban Villages and maintain a good relationship with them, should they ever need our services again.

Historic Sugar Building Suite 350