IMA currently occupies three and a half floors at 1705 17th St. next to Union Station. (Matt Geiger/BusinessDen)
Rob Cohen soon won’t have to share.
IMA Financial Group, the insurance and financial services firm that Cohen leads as CEO, is expanding into the entire five-story office building at 1705 17th St., right next to Union Station in downtown Denver.
“We’ve been consistently growing since 2020. Quintupled our company, really,” Cohen told BusinessDen.
IMA already occupies the first and upper three floors. It will take over the 23,000-square-foot second floor as well when Gary Community Ventures, a Denver-based foundation, leaves.
Cohen developed the building with Ed Haselden, of Haselden Construction, and sold it in 2014 for $65.5 million.
Cohen said his long-term vision was always for the insurance firm to occupy the entire building, and Gary Community Ventures’ lease has an option for IMA to take over the space when it ends. IMA has a staircase connecting its three floors, with the ability to extend it to the second floor.
“I can’t say I’m in the office five days a week, because a lot of times I’m in some of our other offices. But if I’m in Denver, I’m in the office,” said Cohen, who is also the controlling owner of Denver’s new women’s soccer team.
Cohen speaks during an introductory news conference for the NWSL at GALS School in Denver on March 18, 2025. (AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Gary Community Ventures, meanwhile, is moving a block away, into 24,000 square feet at 1899 Wynkoop St.
Caitlin Finn, the foundation’s vice president of finance, legal and people, said the organization limited its search for new office space to downtown, looking at a dozen different locations. It plans to begin building out its new office next month and move in by March.
“The end of our lease presented an opportunity to lease and design a new space that would enhance our ability to collaborate with partners to create impact in our community, while allowing us to remain downtown and further contribute to the growth and development of Denver,” Finn said in a statement.
Gary Community Ventures was launched in 2014 by wildcatter Sam Gary. The oilman discovered Bell Creek Field in eastern Montana in 1967, the 84th-largest oil field in the U.S. Nine years later, he founded the Piton Foundation, the predecessor of Gary Community Ventures. He died in 2020.
Between 2020 and 2022, the foundation was run by now-Mayor Mike Johnston, who resigned the post after announcing his run for office. The 45-person organization reported $201 million in assets in 2023, the most recent year its tax filings are available.
The nonprofit bills itself as an “impermanent philanthropic organization,” whose assets are to be entirely transferred to the community by 2035. A company spokesman confirmed that the new lease is expected to be the group’s last before winding down in a decade.
IMA currently occupies three and a half floors at 1705 17th St. next to Union Station. (Matt Geiger/BusinessDen)
Rob Cohen soon won’t have to share.
IMA Financial Group, the insurance and financial services firm that Cohen leads as CEO, is expanding into the entire five-story office building at 1705 17th St., right next to Union Station in downtown Denver.
“We’ve been consistently growing since 2020. Quintupled our company, really,” Cohen told BusinessDen.
IMA already occupies the first and upper three floors. It will take over the 23,000-square-foot second floor as well when Gary Community Ventures, a Denver-based foundation, leaves.
Cohen developed the building with Ed Haselden, of Haselden Construction, and sold it in 2014 for $65.5 million.
Cohen said his long-term vision was always for the insurance firm to occupy the entire building, and Gary Community Ventures’ lease has an option for IMA to take over the space when it ends. IMA has a staircase connecting its three floors, with the ability to extend it to the second floor.
“I can’t say I’m in the office five days a week, because a lot of times I’m in some of our other offices. But if I’m in Denver, I’m in the office,” said Cohen, who is also the controlling owner of Denver’s new women’s soccer team.
Cohen speaks during an introductory news conference for the NWSL at GALS School in Denver on March 18, 2025. (AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Gary Community Ventures, meanwhile, is moving a block away, into 24,000 square feet at 1899 Wynkoop St.
Caitlin Finn, the foundation’s vice president of finance, legal and people, said the organization limited its search for new office space to downtown, looking at a dozen different locations. It plans to begin building out its new office next month and move in by March.
“The end of our lease presented an opportunity to lease and design a new space that would enhance our ability to collaborate with partners to create impact in our community, while allowing us to remain downtown and further contribute to the growth and development of Denver,” Finn said in a statement.
Gary Community Ventures was launched in 2014 by wildcatter Sam Gary. The oilman discovered Bell Creek Field in eastern Montana in 1967, the 84th-largest oil field in the U.S. Nine years later, he founded the Piton Foundation, the predecessor of Gary Community Ventures. He died in 2020.
Between 2020 and 2022, the foundation was run by now-Mayor Mike Johnston, who resigned the post after announcing his run for office. The 45-person organization reported $201 million in assets in 2023, the most recent year its tax filings are available.
The nonprofit bills itself as an “impermanent philanthropic organization,” whose assets are to be entirely transferred to the community by 2035. A company spokesman confirmed that the new lease is expected to be the group’s last before winding down in a decade.
