Home Care In Lone Tree, CO

Pamela Jones has been a lot of things, including a hairdresser. Her entry into home medical equipment (HME) came in 2002, when she and her family decided to exit the restaurant supply business, move to Colorado from Washington, D.C., and open their business, which they named Home Medical Supplies.

“My brother-in-law and my sister knew somebody that was in the business, and they thought it sounded interesting,” Jones said. “And when they talked to my husband and I about it, we were fascinated by that and just felt drawn to it.”

Today, four of Jones’s children and several nieces and nephews work for the company.

Jones is driven by a desire to help people live better lives. In fact, being able to help people was one of the things that drew her to the HME industry, though the path hasn’t always been simple or easy.

“We started with diabetic testing supplies and almost went out of business when [competitive] bidding started,” Jones said. “So there’s a real commitment to this business because we didn’t give up. We just kept forging forward and started to diversify and to build the business into what it is today.”

Home Medical Supplies now supplies all manner of HME, but Jones said there’s a special place in her heart for pediatric clients. That’s partly because when the company was struggling at the onset of competitive bidding, Jones said, Children’s Hospital of Colorado helped keep the doors open.

“Children’s Hospital reached out one day for a wheelchair. … The hospital saw us [and noticed we] we could help with their Medicaid patients,” Jones said. “There was a time back when the fax machine was going, and every time I’d hear the fax machine go off, I knew it was Children’s Hospital sending us an order.”

“It has been such a privilege to work with them over the years, and I hope that we’ve been able to give back what they gave to us,” she added.

Jones’s passion for helping people hasn’t stopped with selling medical equipment. It has grown into a desire to help shape the HME industry and the policies that affect providers’ day-to-day business.

Jones is currently treasurer for the Colorado Association for Medical Equipment Services (CAMES) and sits on several committees and subcommittees for the American Association for Homecare.

At CAMES, Jones, who is on the Policy Committee, considers one of the team’s greatest victories to be building relationships with the Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) coming into the state. Each state has slightly different laws for HME providers, which was causing issues with the federal RAC program.

“They were doing audits that were causing issues for [providers in] Colorado,” Jones said. “We have been working with the Attorney General’s office and Medicaid to try to better these programs so that we’re all on the same page, so there’s a better understanding of what’s being said versus what’s being audited. … Had we not gone in as CAMES and fought this, I don’t know that we would have been able to see the progress that is being made at this time.”

Those audits are one of Jones’ and the industry’s biggest challenges, but Jones said there’s always a great reward when all the paperwork is finished, the physician education is completed and the patient gets to return home. A smoother process for everyone is a major change Jones wants to see across the health care continuum.

“When we are able to succeed and have those human experiences with our patients and find joy in their successes and their healing; when we get to go pick up the hospital bed because they’ve healed properly—there’s actually great joy that comes from that when you know that somebody has had optimal healing,” she said.

Omaha, Nebraska-based Kiewit Corp. has sold its Ridgegate campus for $205.2 million, according to Douglas County property records.

The campus is located at 10055 Trainstation Circle near Lincoln Avenue and Interstate 25 in Lone Tree’s RidgeGate community, and consists of two office buildings, a parking structure and surface parking lot.

The new owners of the campus are LLCs associated with CGA Capital and Benderson Development, a Florida-based real estate company with other offices located in Buffalo and Rochester, New York and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Kiewit executed a 20-year lease last month to remain at the campus, according to Douglas County records.

View Slideshow 21 photos

Take a look inside the first phase of Kiewit Corp.'s new regional headquarters, which sits on more than 12 acres in Lone Tree's RidgeGate development.

Benderson Development, whose headquarters are outside Tampa, Florida, is active in approximately 40 states, and also has offices in New York and North Carolina. Its portfolio spans shopping centers as well as industrial, office and hotel properties, according to its website. Maryland-based CGA Capital provides debt and equity capital for property around the country.

Benderson Development did not respond to multiple requests for comment. CGA Capital and Kiewit also did not provide comment regarding the transaction.

Kiewit celebrated the completion of its first six-story building on the 13-acre campus and welcomed its first employees in July 2021. Known as K1, that building features ample outdoor space, a cafe and fitness center.

“This building will finally create opportunities for our current and future employees across different functions of Kiewit’s engineering and construction business to truly become one cohesive team,” Kiewit Senior Vice President Chris Stolzer said at the time.

Kiewit followed with the construction of its second building, K2.

Together, the two buildings contain 400,000 square feet of office space designed for more than 1,700 employees. In addition, the campus features a parking garage for 950 vehicles.

Last month’s sale was recorded in two separate warranty deeds, one for $189.8 million and the other for $15.4 million.

In 2018, the Colorado Economic Development Commission offered tax credits worth as much as $18.65 million for Kiewit’s new regional headquarters, known as “Project Brother.” At that time, Kiewit had 160 employees in Colorado, and was considering a new headquarters in Colorado, Texas, Nebraska or Kansas, according to previous reporting. In 2019, Kiewit announced it had picked Lone Tree for its new regional offices.

Last summer, the Colorado Department of Transportation fined Kiewit after deeming the contractor responsible for an Interstate 70 flood that stranded motorists.

The Denver Business Journal ranks Kiewit as No. 1 on its 2023 list of Denver-area general contractors, with 2022 Colorado revenue of $1.65 billion.

Kiewit has offices in 29 states, according to its website, in addition to Canada and Mexico.

The 3,500-acre master-planned Ridgegate community also includes the office campus of Charles Schwab, the Sky Ridge Medical Center and other commercial and retail development.

P?hotos show cars driving through floodwaters in Lone Tree, Colorado, Thursday after a storm brought high winds, hail and heavy rain to the area.

T?he City of Lone Tree tweeted that there were several accidents reported in the town located about 20 miles southeast of Denver.

R?oads were flooded in Colorado's El Paso County Friday morning as well. Colorado State Patrol warned that several major roads were completely flooded and several cars had become stranded, according to KRDO.com. Colorado State Patrol also said that the bridge at Peyton Highway and Judge Orr was "non-existent."

A tornado touched down in the nearby town of Highlands Ranch and damage was sustained in Lone Tree as well, according to the Denver Post. The tornado, which traveled about six miles on the ground, was given a preliminary rating of EF1 by the National Weather Service.

T?raffic lights lost power, intersections flooded, trees and fences were felled and some roof damage was seen in the tornado-struck areas, however, no significant structural damage was found, South Metro Fire Rescue communications manager Eric Hurst said in a news conference Thursday evening. An elementary school and a fire station sustained some damage. There were also no injuries reported aside from minimal hail-related injuries.

T?he severe weather came just a day after nearly 100 people were injured when a hailstorm struck during a Louis Tomlinson at Red Rocks Amphitheatre west of Denver.

(?MORE FROM WEATHER.COM: Red Rocks Hail 'Felt Like Bullets')

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New parks, commercial and residential projects moving forward as people prioritize home, work and lifestyle amenities

The RidgeGate community in Lone Tree, Colorado, saw significant momentum with the completion of several major development milestones last year and expects to see progress on the east side in the year ahead. New infrastructure, public transportation, extensive parks and open space, retail space, commercial and residential offerings are taking shape to further expand this complete community where people can live, work and play.

“RidgeGate was designed with the goal of helping companies and people thrive, and each year we deliver on the promise of creating a community with lifestyle amenities, connection to work and nature, and diverse residential offerings,” said Keith Simon, Executive Vice President and Director of Development for Coventry Development Corporation, the master developer for RidgeGate. “We are excited for the next chapter at RidgeGate and believe 2023 will be a transformative year.”

Residential

The residential opportunities at RidgeGate are continuing to grow — last year Shea Homes began developing the first phase of Lyric at RidgeGate, named for its poetic approach to Colorado living. Phase 1 comprises 185 acres and 430 homes, and is well on its way to becoming a highly anticipated new neighborhood on the east side. As the master homebuilder, Shea Homes, and other select homebuilders, will build approximately 1,900 homes just east of the RTD RidgeGate Station–with their Phase 1 model homes and sales kicking off mid 2023 and first residents occupying homes before the end of 2023. This year they will also begin site work on Phase 2 – which Shea Homes acquired in late January. Shea signed an agreement with Quantum Fiber, a Lumen Technologies brand, to construct a state-of-the-art all fiber broadband network. With the Quantum Fiber network in Lyric residents will experience the benefits of high-performance, reliable connectivity, including enhanced Wi-Fi, as a standard home amenity to work from home, take online classes, or connect with friends and loved ones—all with unlimited data.

“We are grateful to have a strong partnership with RidgeGate as Lone Tree continues to grow on the east side of our City,” said Jackie Millet, Mayor, City of Lone Tree. “RidgeGate is committed to ensuring that this growth is sustainable, thoughtful, and enhances the quality of life for Lone Tree residents and visitors. We value the expertise and collaboration of RidgeGate as we work to create a vibrant and thriving community for generations to come.”

Several East Side projects have also commenced construction or are scheduled for completion this year, including:

RidgeGate West

On RidgeGate’s west side, numerous large-scale corporate campus projects recently reached completion. Charles Schwab’s mixed-use retail, conference center and parking building is now complete and Kiewit’s New Regional Campus opened last year with the completion of their second building – a 150,000-square-foot building.

Construction was completed at the end of 2022 on the Novus Sky Ridge Station Apartments, a new 240-unit apartment complex situated on the last parcel of land at the Sky Ridge Station transit-oriented development (TOD) site. The seven-story apartment complex, which includes two levels of parking, is adjacent to several large employers in the area including the Sky Ridge Medical Center, Charles Schwab and Kiewit’s regional headquarters.

Living Spaces announced their first Colorado location on the final large retail site on the West Side at RidgeGate Commons (near Cabela’s and Sierra Restaurant) and will start construction in early 2023.

“RidgeGate is a prime example of a mixed-used community that has been successfully attracting large corporate campuses looking to be embedded in a desirable walkable and diverse community in order to enhance their employee retention and recruitment,” said Simon.

About RidgeGate

RidgeGate is a mixed-use community in Lone Tree, Colorado, that is currently home to 6,000 residents. The community began taking shape in 2003 with the Sky Ridge Medical Center and is nearly fully developed on the west side of I-25 with expansion now beginning on the east side of I-25. RidgeGate encompasses a total of 3,500 acres, or six square miles, and is designed to seamlessly integrate urban amenities and residential neighborhoods with beautiful natural open spaces, parks and trails. It is home to three light rail stations, dynamic shopping, dining and wellness as well as several large employment campuses, all joined by a highly connected and walkable UrbanScape ®.

Charles Schwab (NYSE: SCHW) laid off about 2,000 employees this week in an effort to cut costs.

The layoffs impacted 5% to 6% of the company's workforce, Charles Schwab told the Denver Business Journal via email. As of Sept. 30, the financial services firm had 35,900 employees, according to a corporate fact sheet.

The company declined to comment on the number of local workers let go, but at least 24 former employees based in the Denver metro posted about the layoffs on LinkedIn. They worked in product, software, engineering, design, analytics, finance, operations, customer relations and management roles.

"In July, we shared our intent to take certain steps to remove cost and complexity from our organization," a Charles Schwab spokesperson said in an email. "These steps include some changes to our real estate footprint, streamlining our operating model and staffing reductions, largely in non-client-facing areas. ... These were hard but necessary steps to ensure Schwab remains highly competitive, with industry-leading levels of efficiency, well into the future."

Charles Schwab was named the ninth largest Denver-area private sector employer in late July, according to Denver Business Journal research. At that time, the company had 2,500 full-time equivalent employees in Colorado.

It is unclear if any local Charles Schwab locations will close. The company's website currently lists branches in Boulder, Colorado Springs, Cherry Creek, downtown Denver, Fort Collins, Summit County and Lone Tree.

Charles Schwab opened a 650,000-square-foot campus in Lone Tree in 2014. The 47-acre campus quickly grew from 2,000 employees to about 4,500 employees in 2019, surpassing the firm's expectations. Although the number of workers based in Lone Tree has fluctuated over the years, the company still lists Denver as one of its 10 major centers of operation in the U.S.

2023 Denver-Area Private Sector Employers

Number of full-time equivalent employees in Colorado

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