Engineering, architecture firm moving its 500 employees within downtown Denver

Brad Martin has been with HDR for 25 years, back when it had just 67 Colorado employees. Now, he’s leased a new office that’ll support a staff more than seven times that.

The Omaha, Nebraska-based architecture, engineering and construction services firm inked a deal last month for 2 1/2 floors, 74,000 square feet, in the Block 162 tower at 675 15th St. in downtown Denver.

“People do the best work when they’re happy, and my goal is to create an environment where the best in the business can exercise what they’re good at,” said Martin, who runs the company’s Denver office.

HDR’s has been at 1670 Broadway since 2013. The company’s Denver staff numbers 500. It’s the second-largest office, trailing only the Omaha headquarters. The firm has 14,000 employees across 200 offices worldwide.

HDR’s lease at 1670 Broadway expires in October. Martin said there’s nothing wrong with the space; the upcoming expiration date prompted the search for the new home.

“Lease goes up, so you go shopping,” he said.

The firm wanted to stay downtown and toured eight buildings, Martin said. Block 162 was chosen because of its central location within the city’s urban core. It’ll also be easier to get to the hotels and restaurants elsewhere downtown, he said. Right now, getting there requires crossing the heavily trafficked Broadway.

The new space will also allow for greater connectivity. HDR’s existing space is spread out across 3 1/2 noncontiguous floors. Floors at Block 162 are bigger, and the company’s space will be contiguous.

“We are a fundamentally collaborative company, with expertise across sectors and disciplines, and the new office space will support this collaboration among our teams and with our clients and partners,” Jocelyn Hittle, managing principal for HDR’s architecture practice, said in a statement.

Martin said HDR in Denver has an “ad hoc” in-office policy. It encourages employees to come in five days a week but doesn’t want to mandate it and hurt worker morale.

“We are flexible with an encouraged ‘please come,’” he said.

The company has had a role in a number of high-profile Colorado projects, like the new bridge on Interstate 70 at Floyd Hill, recently completed Intermountain Health Lutheran Hospital in Wheat Ridge and studying a potential rerouting for Speer Boulevard.

The deal is a tough break for 1670 Broadway, which is also losing anchor tenant TIAA to Texas.