The North Ridge at Park Center eventually could have as much as 1.5 million sf. North Ridge Investment LLC, based in Palm Desert, recently paid slightly more than $3.8 million for 105 acres at W.12th Ave. and Pecos St., just across the street from the 1.3 million-sf former Lucent complex now the Avaya Communication R&D facility. Meanwhile, Avaya too has the building bug, expanding its site by 480,000 sf. pSituated five miles to the northwest is Interlocken Business Park in Broomfield.

North Ridge is sure to benefit from companies that want to be close to Interlocken and Level 3 Communications and Sun Microsystems, both of which have massive campuses in the region, says Peter Wycoff, a broker with the Frederick Ross Co. of Denver. "They should be getting activity from (Avaya), which is absolutely huge, as well as from Interlocken, where there's not much more space available," Wycoff told GlobeSt.com. He says more and more people are moving to the north to avoid heavy daily congestion on the Boulder Turnpike.

He estimates the new park will have 950,000 sf to 1.5 million sf when it is completed. North Ridge Investment is paying 70 cents per sf for the land, which is earmarked for resale to other developers as well as office users, says Wycoff, who believes the project will be more geared to offices than light industrial. He bases his conclusion on Westminster's penchant for R&D space, adding the park could be sold out in two to four years at the current absorption rate for those types of space.