LOTS OF WORK ON THE INSIDE

August 2, 2012 | 8:00 am ET Staff Reporter

General contractor HITT is the new kid on the block in Denver (despite having done projects here for more than a decade). And while new to the Mile-High City (it opened here in February), the firm's Kevin Ott (who has lived here for more than 20 years) says he’s seeing a lot of demand for interiors work as tenants still enjoy strong TI allowances, especially with renewals: "The market is better than it has been, but it’s still not anywhere near where it was in 2005 and 2006," Kevin says. “A lot of it is people threatening to move, and then they get a concession."

HITT just completed design and construction management on an $80M data centerfor the Department of State at the Federal Center. Its current list of projects includes interior design on a T-Mobile switch center and interior renovations for the SEC offices. The activity is enough to give Kevin hope for Denver’s future, despite macroeconomic headwinds (like the gale-force European debt ones). “I’m always concerned. But everybody I talk to seems to think that 2013 and 2014 are going to be great years for the commercial interiors space,” he says.