CU Interlocken Center ready to go in January

BROOMFIELD – The University of Colorado Interlocken Center will be ready to go in January with high-tech educational offerings based out of a spot formerly occupied by maintenance equipment on the ground floor of the business park’s management headquarters.

Offerings will include high-tech interactive “distance learning” graduate programs in business, engineering, health care and professional development, as well as career services and internship programs. Students will be able to participate in classes in “real time” at any of the four university campuses across the state from the center onsite at the business park.

Only a portion of the space will be used as traditional classrooms.

Jim Long, Interlocken owner’s representative, said officials from the two entities, CU and Interlocken, signed a lease early last month. The university will occupy 5,100 square feet on a year-to-year lease renewable annually for up to five years. The first year will be free and then the cost to the university will be reevaluated at the end of the year, Long said. Interlocken could provide up to two years of free rent, with the university paying operating expenses.

Long declined to specify market-rate rent at Interlocken.

The rent-free time will be an expense to Interlocken but is looked at as investment in employee recruitment and retention, which goes a long way as amenities for the companies located at the park.

Long said he expects the center will be heavily used by employees of businesses in the park; programs are tailored to what the companies need for their people.

The university announced in June the agreement with Interlocken as the exclusive provider of educational resources to the business park, which will house an estimated 24,000 to 28,000 employees at build-out in 10 to 12 years. Currently about 6,500 to 7,000 employees work at the park; about 11,000 people will be at the park when all facilities currently under construction or committed to be built are finished and occupied.

The CU Interlocken Center formerly was used by Vargas Property Services, which maintains the landscaping. Vargas will move out of the space in December.

Long said it will cost $125,000 to $140,000 to convert the space.

The CU Interlocken Center is seen as part of the Total Learning Environment initiative, a universitywide policy supported by the regents that encourages university interaction with the private sector as a way to better serve the needs of present and future students entering the job market.

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