State agency downsizing footprint by a third in move within downtown

The Colorado labor department currently leases nearly 185,000 square feet at 621 17th St., right, and 633 17th St. It will move when its current lease ends. (BusinessDen file)

The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment will downsize its footprint when it moves its main office within downtown Denver later this year.

The state agency has leased about 131,000 square feet in the office tower at 707 17th St., a spokesperson told BusinessDen last week.

The department will be moving from 621 and 633 17th St., two towers across the street that recently sold. The labor department leases nearly 185,000 square feet in the 633 building, and another 12,000 in the 621 building.

Denver City Center in 2020. The black building at the right is 707 17th St. (BusinessDen file/Jim Harvey)

That lease expires at the end of October.

The department is trimming its footprint by 65,000 square feet, or 33 percent, in connection with the move.

The 42-story 707 17th St. building has 22 floors of office space and 20 floors that comprise a Hilton hotel. The office space is owned by New York-based Brookfield Properties, which also owns the adjacent 29-story Johns Manville Plaza office building at 717 17th St. Together, the two buildings are known as Denver City Center.

The buildings that the labor department is exiting, meanwhile, were purchased late last year by affiliates of Denver-based E2M Ventures. Sources told BusinessDen in November the company paid $7 million for the two towers totaling nearly 1 million square feet. The deal also included nearby parking, although due to ground leases it did not include all the land underneath the office towers.

E2M Ventures founder Marc Perusse declined to comment. He has hired JLL to market the towers for sale, but not the affiliated parking.