Despite 2020’s Curveballs, Team Innovates to Knock it Out of the Park

November 12, 2020 – Lakewood, Colo. – As the Rockies’ abbreviated season ends, nearly 90 Encore electricians and Technology Solutions professionals are hard at work in the bottom of the 9th inning to get McGregor Square complete.

“This project is essentially the Rockies Entertainment District,” said Ken Cogan, Project Manager for Encore Electric on the project. “It extends the Union Station vibe all the way to Coors Field and merges those two downtown landmarks.”  When complete, the project will boast a 176-room hotel, 104 residences, mixed-use commercial and retail as well as the Colorado Rockies Hall of Fame.

Denver’s Lower Downtown neighborhood will be transformed by the McGregor Square Development, a mixed-use space scheduled to open in early 2021. Baseball fans eagerly await the evolution of the area southwest of Coors Field along with Denver residents who are simply looking forward to new restaurants, shopping, and a revitalized community atmosphere. Teammates from Encore Electric helped to complete the project design and are managing the electrical construction, life safety systems, and technology solutions including security, access control, networking and audio-visual infrastructure.

“This was a great example of the ‘One Encore’ internal mantra and the value that such an approach brings to our clients,” said Brandon Fleury, manager of preconstruction services for Technology Solutions at Encore Electric. “This was also displayed throughout an extensive preconstruction process where all parties at Encore worked together across the board.”

“From our Construction Management team to our Audio-Visual team, this project requires us to be firing on all cylinders, with synergy between all Encore departments,” said Hunter Lasko, Technology Solutions Project Manager for Encore Electric. “I could not be more proud of our Technology Solutions team and what we have been able to accomplish thus far, and I cannot wait until we can stand back and say, ‘We helped build McGregor Square.’”

As the project rounds third and heads for home, the site work has moved into full swing. Where Rockies fans once dodged a dimly lit parking lot, they will one day parade down Wynkoop Walkway under theater-quality festoon lighting, amid massive, twenty-four-foot tall interactive monoliths honoring their favorite Rockies stars.

It isn’t only about baseball, as residents of McGregor Square will benefit from a “WELL-certified” lifestyle – a program that defines quality living conditions for factors such as ambient noise, traffic, light color/intensity, humidity and pollution. An array of sensors constantly measures nineteen environmental conditions and feeds those to university researchers who are pioneering new ground for green city planning.

All those environmental controls require a lot of infrastructure and the Encore team had to pull off more than one squeeze play to make it happen.  For instance, feeding a double-ended unit substation located on the roof of the office required some creativity and preplanning, as the equipment manufacturer wanted nothing to do with penetrating the roof.

“The eleven, four-inch elbows which would have been required at each point was impractical in the space between floors, so an uncommon solution was required” said Cogan. “Using cable bus, technically cable tray engineered for optimum current-carrying capacity, combined with some custom “shepherd’s hook” ninety-degree elbows, Chad Reece’s one-line team managed to push that elephant through the eye of the needle.”

“The key to success on this project has been teamwork and the team’s flexibility and openness to change,” Cogan continued. “Hensel Phelps has done a fantastic job of putting together the right group, not just Encore, but all the parts and pieces.”

The residences are slated to be opened in the first week of January 2021, and the hotel should be open in March.

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