Emory School Adaptive Reuse
The Action Center
100,000
K12, Mixed-Use, Non-Profit, Office, Renovation, Tenant Interior/Build Out, Commercial Kitchen
This large renovation converts the onetime home of Jeffco’s Emory Elementary School, which closed its doors in 2022, into a new community campus offering workforce training, community college classes, behavioral health, gymnasium programming and family support services.
The campus is owned and anchored by The Action Center, which has served Jefferson County and Denver Metro Area families in need for more than 50 years with services and resources that include a market filled with groceries, hygiene items and clothing, financial assistance, education opportunities, and connections to other important community resources. In addition to relocating and expanding The Action Center’s complete operations, the campus will also be home to other community-serving partner organizations such as Jefferson County Public Health.
Designed by Davis Partnership Architects, the current renovation footprint covers 82,000 square feet of the 100,000+ SF building. This will expand as additional partners are brought in to occupy the remaining 20,000 SF.
Much of the building will be gutted and reconfigured to fit the various needs of the new tenants, which includes office space, a combined free food and free clothing market, health clinics, a café, and an education center. Scope includes modifications to MEP systems, upgraded access controls, and new skylights, windows, ceiling grids, floors, doors, frames, and hardware. Exterior work includes considerable excavation, stormwater utilities, parking lot upgrades, community garden, and a detention pond.
The project also includes the new construction of a freestanding, 7,000 SF, structural steel building that will function as storage and distribution for The Action Center’s food hub, featuring a loading dock, large refrigeration/freezer space, and pallet-sized racking system.
In addition to the above scope for The Action Center, valuing $13.2 M in construction, Pinkard is conducting $1.9 M in tenant improvements for a health clinic run by Jefferson County Public Health. Construction is currently scheduled to take 12 months, with the possibility of added scope as The Action Center brings in additional campus partners.
