Young tech professionals aren’t the only ones coming to Denver. Real estate companies are too. Recently Lee & Associates entered the market with its acquisition of Bitzer Real Estate Partners.

Lee & Associates CEO Jeff Rinkov tells us Denver offers great real estate diversity. In addition to having some of the top retail clients that Lee reps nationwide, the "creative Class-A office market" is hot. John Bitzer, who will head Lee's new office, says metro Denver is known for having one of the youngest and most educated work forces. (It always wins when America gets together for a game of Trivial Pursuit.) This is Lee's 51st office nationwide, and it plans to build on the strengths of the specialists it's getting with the deal: John, who founded his firm nearly 20 years ago; JR Bitzer, in tenant rep; and Robert Webert, in industrial brokerage.

John adds one caveat about office: no one knows where the traditional office work environment is headed, or exactly what the “office of the future” will evolve into. Metro Denver also has a solid industrial market: industrial/warehouse leasing exploded in Denver, with the legalization of marijuana. “Rental rates inflated three-fold as available inventory has plummeted,” John says. The good news is that money is now available for spec development, which will bring more product online and ratchet inventory and rates back into equilibrium.