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DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. — The Douglas County Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved a crucial land exchange Tuesday that brings Zebulon, a mega sports complex planned for northwest Douglas County, one step closer to reality.

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The approval allows the county to acquire 46.5 acres from Sterling Ranch developers. In the swap, Sterling Ranch will receive 23.8 acres of land owned by the county for commercial development. The project’s first phase will transform empty land near Moore and Waterton roads into a regional sports facility featuring hockey rinks, gyms, soccer fields and baseball fields.

The site previously housed a DuPont dynamite factory. In 2022, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) approved prior remediation and said the site posed no environmental risks.

The county is currently in discussions with more than 50 private entities interested in participating in the project.

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Mark Falcone’s next office building would have only one-half of the space dedicated to that purpose.

“We’ve been concerned that conventional office models were not going to capture or meet the needs of office workers,” he said.

The founder and CEO of Denver-based developer Continuum Partners submitted plans to the city Monday proposing to turn a 4-story, century-old nurses dormitory just east of Colorado Boulevard into “a new kind of workplace ecology,” with fitness, retail, medical and office space all under one roof.

“It’s not an inexpensive building to redevelop,” Falcone said of keeping the structure built in 1927. “It wasn’t because it made economic sense.”

The planned $20 million project is part of Continuum’s 26-acre 9+CO development on the former University of Colorado Health Sciences Center campus. The dorm is the only component of the former campus that Continuum didn’t demolish.

Continuum is gunning for state and federal tax credits, which are capped at 20% of eligible development costs. Construction is anticipated to begin next fall on the long and narrow 25,000-square-foot building.

The plans call for converting the basement of the building into fitness and recovery facilities. A 1,400-square-foot gym is anticipated, along with sauna, cold plunge and therapy rooms.

Upstairs, on the ground level, is slated for a lobby coffee shop and small grab-and-go food and beverage operation. One wing is dedicated for coworking space. The other would hold small conference rooms and event spaces.

The second level is for wellness and medical uses, and the third story is for more traditional office tenants. Falcone said the floors could hold up to 30 suites apiece.

“We’re assembling together a set of wellness providers whose presence in somebody’s workplace makes it very easy to access those needs in their life,” he said. “Going to the office becomes a place they can meet several different needs in their life at the same time.”

The coworking space, meanwhile, would pull from his experience running a similar operation, Tarra, which has two locations at 9+CO. Since opening three years ago, Falcone has experimented with different membership structures, staff ratios and programming to find a model that works. The leases expire around the time when the redevelopment of the nurses dorm is expected to wrap up.

“If our demand for the building is so significant that we want to keep those spaces operating, then we will explore that at that time. … Anyone that’s a member at Tarra now would be converted to a member of this new facility,” Falcone said.

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Falcone is tapping Jay Galluzzo, the former CEO and co-founder of Flywheel Sports, a chain of indoor cycling studios, to run the whole operation. Flywheel filed for bankruptcy and closed its 42 locations in 2020, including one near Union Station.

“He is building an operating company to run this existing location as well as other ones we’re going to add,” Falcone said, noting that he thinks the same concept would do well in Boulder and Los Angeles.

Elsewhere at 9+CO, Falcone is exploring what to do with an empty lot north of an AMC movie theater in the 12 city-block development. Much of the project’s property was recapitalized earlier this year as part of a $93 million deal.

“We’re trying to add more retail to that long term and we’re actively talking to prospective tenants about that right now,” Falcone said of the vacant block.

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