Case Study: How Design-Build Has Fostered Our Long-Term Partnership with Charter Communications

The Project

When Charter Communications came to us in 2013 in search of a new research and development facility in the Denver area, they needed more than a place to house engineers and equipment. They needed a partner who could help them design, build and evolve their space to support innovation for years to come.

After touring several existing buildings together, Charter chose to build new. With an 85,000-square-foot speculative flex industrial building already approved, they saw the opportunity to adapt our concept to meet their needs.

That project marked the beginning of a trusted partnership that’s continued for more than a decade.

The Challenge

Charter’s vision was to create a facility that could support research, product development and innovation for their growing engineering and technology teams, but our previously approved plan would require significant modifications. In addition, as often happens with large-scale, high-tech facilities, priorities shifted quickly and budgets required a phased approach.

To manage costs, Charter opted to complete only a portion of the facility in the first phase of construction, relying on flexible design to stay ahead of future growth without disrupting their operations.

Our challenge was twofold: quickly and cost effectively deliver a complex, mission-critical facility while ensuring it could easily expand to accommodate future growth and technology upgrades.

The Solution

From the outset, we leveraged our integrated design-build approach, managing design and construction simultaneously, and we collaborated with EUA on interiors and Cator Ruma & Associates on mechanical, electrical and technology systems.

This collaboration gave Charter a single point of contact while still benefitting from the expertise of multiple partners – an advantage that became even more important as that initial project evolved into numerous subsequent ones over the next decade.

“Charter recognized the value we brought to the original project – our transparency, clear communications, quality and our ability to deliver results,” said Ryan Zink, Senior Project Manager.

Our collaborative design-build approach allowed us to deliver for Charter phase after phase.

• During the initial build, we raised the clear height to 26 feet and delivered an 85,000-square-foot facility with 50,000 square feet of finished office space, a 25,000-square-foot climate-controlled data lab and 10,000 square feet of unfinished space reserved for future expansion. We also added windows and replaced loading docks with equipment yards.
• As Charter’s growth quickly outpaced projections, we immediately began a second phase. With no room to expand outward, we built upward – adding an 8,000-square-foot mezzanine, installing footings, staircases and an elevator shaft and using dust mitigation to keep operations running uninterrupted.
• Over two additional phases, we doubled the data center’s capacity, added new electrical and mechanical systems for redundancy and reconfigured specialized labs and workspaces to support evolving technology. We also upgraded site infrastructure, adding generators, UPS systems, cooling equipment and additional parking.
• In the most recent phase, completed in mid-2025, we reconfigured the data center for additional racks, added a third 4,000-amp electrical service and new backup power and built a large mechanical room addition for future infrastructure needs.

The Result

Over the course of more than a decade, we’ve helped Charter expand its Englewood, CO, facility into a high-performance research and innovation hub – doubling its data capacity, increasing operational resilience and accommodating hundreds of additional employees. Every phase has been delivered on time and on budget, with construction carefully sequenced to keep their operations running without disruption.

Said Ryan, “We’ve taken this facility to a place none of us imagined 11 or 12 years ago. It’s been challenging for sure, but more so, it’s been incredibly rewarding.”

Just as rewarding has been the partnership itself – one built on transparency, communication and trust, the same principles that guided the first build in 2013.

• More about Charter Communications