Planners weigh Auraria office building options

By Rob Larimer
The Metropolitan

Auraria is debating options to buy the TerraCentre or build a new facility in its quest for more office space.

Dean Wolf, Aurariaās executive vice president of Administration, said Burcher Associates Realty, the company that is marketing the building, said the college could buy the building, which is on the corner of Stout Street and Speer Boulevard, for $4.5 million.

Auraria would then need an additional $2.4 million for renovations, Wolf said.

Money for purchasing the building would be raised with a bond issue, which could mean an increase in student bond fees. But Wolf said he favors building a new facility over buying one because it would create more office space even though itās more expensive.

Joe Arcese, Metroās vice president of Administration and Finance, said the operating cost of a new facility would be $14.63 per square foot while the TerraCentre costs only $12.55 per square foot. He added that a new facility would take 30 years to pay for.

But according to Wolfās calculations, the TerraCentreās structure wastes too much space and isnāt energy efficient. The building was constructed in 1982 at the end of the oil boom, and much of the buildingās space is taken up by a large ornamental atrium in the buildingās center.

The TerraCentre provides a total of 121,000 gross square feet, but only 79 percent of the total space (95,797 square feet) can be used. Wolf said usable square footage usually falls between 87 and 94 percent of the total square footage.

A new facility on campus would offer 90 percent efficiency and 130,000 square feet for usage, Wolf said. Construction of that building might start this spring in parking Lot E at the west end of Lawrence Street between Fifth and Sixth Streets.

Building in this area would eliminate about 160 parking spaces. But Wolf said these spaces could be replaced by developing land west of Fifth Street into a new parking facility with over 800 parking spaces.

Metro President Sheila Kaplan is rooting for the new building. The college houses several administrative offices in the TerraCentre including Personnel, Administration and Finance, Institutional Advancement, Information Technology and College Communications.

Kaplan said she took plenty of heat from people in TerraCentre over the summer because the its air conditioning unit broke down. Kaplan said she doesnāt want Metro to continue paying for the buildingās high level of maintenance.

ćThat building is a risk,ä she said. ćItās a lot more reasonable to build a new building.ä