Lee leadership class tours developers Denver operations

COURTESY PHOTO The Palazzo Verdi, which features a five-story lobby, is one of John Madden Company's developments in Colorado. It will host receptions for the Democratic National Convention in August. Madden is developing a research center near Southwest Florida International Airport. The John Madden Company, which is developing the Madden Research Loop at Southwest Florida International Airport, hosted 33 members of Leadership Lee County's 2008 spring class, who were in Denver attending the Community Leadership Association's annual conference. Class participants and members of the leadership steering committee met with company namesake, John Madden, and toured his Greenwood Plaza project in Denver, which includes several Class A office buildings, the 18,000-seat public Coors Amphitheater at Fiddlers Green, public art and the under-construction Palazzo Verdi, a 15-story office building that is expected to be certified by the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership Energy and Environmental Design program.

The Palazzo Verdi, which features a fivestory lobby, will host receptions for the Democratic National Convention in August.

Steve Scott, executive director of Leadership Lee County, requested the Denver tour with the John Madden Company after learning about the company's plans in Southwest Florida. The company's Lee County-based development director, Kevin Taylor, is a graduate of Leadership Lee County.

"This was a great opportunity for our group to see the work the John Madden Company has done in Denver and the quality we can expect to see in Lee County," said Scott. "It was a great value for the class to hear personally from John Madden about his vision for Southwest Florida."

John Madden Company has secured the rights to develop the first phase of the research complex, which is expected to supply 800 high-paying jobs in research and the medical industries. The Madden Research Loop is being developed as a bioscience and technology research complex that will attract researchers and business entrepreneurs.

Phase 1 includes 25 acres of land, 275,000 square feet of Class A office and lab space in multiple buildings, and a three-story parking structure. The research complex is the first of several properties that will be developed in public/private partnership on a 750-acre site called the Skyplex Commercial Center, located on the north side of airport property on Chamberlin Parkway, off Daniels Parkway.

Madden and Steve Brown Jr., vice president of project development, described the Madden Research Loop to Leadership Lee members.

"It will be a phenomenal success right from the start," Madden said. "Southwest Florida has always had an innovative spirit. Thomas Edison came here to think, not to get away."

Brown said the research loop will have wide-sweeping ramifications. "This is not a Lee County or Fort Myers project," he said. "This is a regional project."

They hope to break ground Oct. 1, and will pursue LEED certification for all buildings in the office park.

The John Madden Company, which was founded in the mid-1960s in Omaha, Neb., has developed nearly 10,000,000 square feet of office and related space in Colorado, Nebraska, Arizona, California, Michigan, Wyoming and Iowa. Past clients include Prudential, Information Handling Services, Chevron USA, Rockwell Automotive, Allstate Insurance, Equitable Real Estate and Eastdil Advisors. The company offers integrated real estate development services including land acquisition, construction management, brokerage and leasing, asset management and property management.

The company has been headquartered in Denver's Greenwood Plaza since 1970, and has received national attention for the pla- za's innovative approach to master planning and development and its mix of art, architecture and landscaping. Other award-winning projects developed by John Madden Company include the Harlequin Plaza in Denver, which is included in the architectural book "Plazas of the 20th Century;" Plaza Tower One, the tallest building in Southeast Denver and the winner of the Building Owners and Managers Association's Building of the Year Award; and the 150 West Jefferson building in Detroit, which has won several awards for its distinctive architectural character.