Lockheed Martin’s expansion beyond its Waterton Campus, which started last year, seems to be nearing completion as Denver South announced it leased around 650,000 square feet of office space on a 25-acre campus near Lucent Boulevard and C-470.

The aerospace company last year logged the biggest lease of the fourth quarter in metro Denver by leasing the entire 200,000-square-foot Building 1 at Campus 470, 8740 Lucent Blvd., Highlands Ranch.

Denver South, an economic development and transportation management organization representing businesses along the I-25 corridor south of Belleview Avenue, issued a release Monday stating the company continued that leasing activity through 2021 and now has 650,000 square feet.

Company officials confirmed Monday but would not elaborate on how many employees would be located there, and what work would be done at the new location.

“Lockheed Martin Space has recently leased a building in Highlands Ranch, CO to co-locate portions of its business operations and functional teams,” a spokesperson wrote in an email. “We have been a proud member of the Colorado community more than 65 years, and will continue our focus on driving innovation and excellence in the aerospace industry.”

Lockheed’s Waterton campus, in the hills of Waterton Canyon near southwest metro Denver, is home base for about 8,000 of the company’s 11,000 Colorado employees.

“The number of Aviation and Aerospace companies in Denver South has increased every year over the last 10 years, nearly doubling since 2011, with a highly educated workforce and significant assets in and around the region supporting both industries,” Christine Shapard, vice president of economic development for Denver South, said in a statement. “As private companies continue to develop new space technologies and the U.S. military is increasingly focused on space, companies in the Denver South region contin

ue to hire and grow here to advance critical national security and defense missions across the U.S.”

Centennial-based United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V has been used by commercial clients and NASA for years, including recently carrying the “Lucy” spacecraft to its 12-year mission to study the ancient Trojan asteroids near Jupiter.

Lucy is a joint effort by NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center, NASA’s Launch Services Program and Boulder-based Southwest Research Institute. Lockheed Martin designed, built, tested and will operate the spacecraft from its Waterton Canyon campus.

“The Denver South region is home to nearly 19 percent of the nine-county region’s Aerospace subcluster’s total employment,” according to the release. “The nine-county region ranked first in the nation for its high concentration of private aerospace jobs and ranked first out of the 50 largest metro areas in total private-sector employment. The Aerospace subcluster had a record year in 2020, with blockbuster employment growth of 7.4 percent over-the-year.”

“Denver South’s robust educational system and access to major research centers help prepare the future Aviation and Aerospace workforce with vital skills and nearly 6,810 workers in the Denver South region support the Aviation and Aerospace cluster, with a large number of rocket scientists, pilots, engineers, and other high-tech, highly skilled workers,” Tom Brook, president and CEO of Denver South, said in a statement.