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Landlord loosens collar, lets Chipotle have dogs in office

John Rebchook, Rocky Mountain News

Published January 23, 2007 at midnight

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Developer Opus Northwest's new $50 million office building is going to the dogs.

Local burrito maker Chipotle Mexican Grill signed on as anchor tenant in the downtown Denver office building, but a condition of the lease agreement required that dogs be allowed.

Chipotle signed a 43,000- square-foot lease for the new 1401 Wynkoop St. building under construction along Cherry Creek in lower downtown.

The energy-efficient building will include 21 luxury condominiums, as well as 100,000 square feet of office space. It will open in the fall of 2008.

While every office deal negotiates things such as lease rates and tenant-improvement packages, one thing that makes Opus "the leader of the pack" was its willingness to allow dogs in the building. Experts estimate the 10-year lease deal is worth about $15 million.

Marshall Burton, vice president and general manager of Opus, emphasized this is a perk only open to Chipotle in what he calls their "lifestyle" building.

Dogs will not be allowed in the much larger Class-A building that Opus also is developing on the site, he said. And future tenants at 1401 Wynkoop will be prohibited from bringing their pets to work.

But the dog-friendly workplace unleashed lots of good feelings at Chipotle, which last year had one of the nation's best performing initial public offerings when it spun off from McDonald's Corp.

"Our (current) office (at 1543 Wazee St.) is very dog friendly," said Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold.

"On any given day, we have at least a few dogs here, and as many as 18 or 20 on a busy one," Arnold said. "We have done things like a Halloween party where we dress the dogs in costumes. That really packs them in."

Chipotle founder Steve Ells has a Hungarian Vizsla named Bailey, which he brings to the office "from time to time," Arnold said.

All the dogs must be housebroken and well-behaved before they are allowed in the office, Arnold said.

A number of employees keep jars filled with dog treats on their desk and the "smarter dogs figure out where those desks are," Arnold said.

Todd Roebken, a commercial real estate broker with CresaPartners, wasn't involved with the deal but has represented some tenants where the landlord allowed pets.

Employees at Heska Corp., which sells specialty veterinary products, bring dogs, cats, birds and other animals to the office it leases from McWhinney Corp. in Loveland, he said.

He said a handful of LoDo buildings also allow dogs.

Paul Keilt, also a broker with Cresa, said sometimes landlords worry that the image of their building will suffer or fear potential liability, so they make the conditions to allow dogs in offices "so onerous" that tenants look elsewhere.

Tami Door, president and CEO of the Downtown Denver Partnership, said she thinks it's great that Chipotle employees can bring their dogs to work.

"I think Chipotle is a progressive, creative company, and I think they have really unique ideas of how to build a corporate culture. I think the kind of things they do is contagious," Door said.

And Roebken said Chipotle is in good company.

"Google allows its employees to bring dogs to work at its corporate campus in Mountain View, Calif.," he said.