Projects range from build-to-suits, such as the 600,000-sf Lucent Technologies campus in Highlands Ranch, to the proposed Opus@Bandimere project on the site of a current drag strip that hopes to move to the metropolitan area's northeast quadrant.

Watson says companies increasingly are choosing to build along a loop road called C-470 because congestion is far less than the Interstate 25 corridor, where most of the office parks are located. The I-25 corridor will only get worse starting next year, when an eight-year, multi-billion-dollar road-widening program begins. The transportation project also will bring light-rail service to the I-25 corridor.

The southwest area already is served by a light-rail line. One project by Denver-based Pinnacle Development Co. is only a half-mile from the end of the southwest line and is the first bus stop from the line. "It's no wonder the business community is taking up office and R&D space as soon as it is made available in this emerging hot market," says Bill Conway, a broker with Trammell Crow Co.