Anyone who’s witnessed the energy surrounding Denver Startup Week the last couple of years knows what an amazing community we have for small businesses and startups.  Even Forbes magazine has an eye on the pulse of Denver, ranking the city #2 for opening a business earlier this year.  And soon it will be even better.   

Born from the spirit of Denver Startup Week, the building at 1245 Champa will be transformed into an entrepreneurial resource center that will be the first of its kind in the United States.  Described as a “public park for entrepreneurs,” the space will have a 300-person area for events, several conference rooms with cutting edge technology and a permanent home for many valuable resources for the small business and entrepreneurial community. 

The visionaries behind the project are the Downtown Denver Partnership, and The Colorado Technology Association, under the leadership of Tami Door, President and CEO of the Downtown Denver Partnership and Erik Mitisek, CEO of the Colorado Technology Association. The project has been made possible by public partners like the Office of Economic Development and International Trade and private partners like Comcast, JP Morgan Chase, PCL Construction and many more.  The project aims to create a permanent space for the Basecamp environment of Startup Week after the building located at 1245 Champa, recieves a full interior makeover.

Want to learn about the space before it opens? Keep reading to learn more! 

When guests enter the space, a reception area featuring a concierge-like service will greet them.  A full time staff member will welcome new visitors and answer potential questions.  To the right, a casual coffee shop and meeting area will feature huddle booths, free Wi-Fi access and garage doors opening to an outdoor patio. 

Along a corridor to the left, three large conference rooms with modular furniture will make the rooms multifunctional.  But the most exciting part of this area will be the state of the art Oblong technology. A truly interactive technology, the Oblong screens allow users to move documents and navigate through presentations with the wave of an arm.  Think Minority Report.  Denver will be the first city after San Francisco and New York to get the technology. 

Past the conference rooms will be a large event space able to accommodate up to 300 guests.  There will be several large wall-mounted TV monitors with the ability to display anything from info-graphics to digital art.  A full catering kitchen will be adjacent to the event space along with restrooms. The design and feel of the space will make it a truly collaborative resource for entrepreneurs and business-builders in Denver. 

The tenants, organizations or entities with a focus on entrepreneurial support, will reside on the second floor.  Colorado Technology Association will have space, in addition to other yet-to-be-named organizations.  Small business owners will be able to meet with partners to help them navigate tax services, city resources and incentives to facilitate their growth. 

Tami Door, Erik Mitisek and other visionaries of the project see the space as a complement to existing services offered by other collaborative spaces like Galvanize and Shift Workspaces. They see entrepreneurs coming to 1245 Champa (an official name should be announced soon) and being guided to the variety of excellent offerings in the community while also taking advantage of the robust programming that will occur within the space.

They aim to complete the project in the spring, but will launch a website in the next couple of months.  On the website, visitors can explore programming tailored to meet the unique demands of the Denver’s entrepreneurial community.  See more photos of this exciting new addition to Denver’s innovative ecosystem here.

by Emily Przekwas