The project
In April, the Denver Broncos put out an RFP for the physical move into Broncos Park Powered by CommonSpirit, the organization's new headquarters and training facility in Dove Valley. The move was the tail end of a much larger construction program, and it had a specific goal behind it: get the entire organization into one building.
Until then, the Broncos were split. Football operations and most of the team's day-to-day staff worked out of the existing Dove Valley facility. Business operations groups, ticketing among them, were housed at Empower Field at Mile High. Ownership wanted everyone in one place, working out of the same building, and the new facility was built to make that possible.
The RFP was detailed, and it was written by people who had clearly done this before. It separated the work into distinct scopes: the stadium move, the training facility move, and IT disconnect, transport, and reconnect. It set a clean, uniform baseline for employee contents, two boxes and two totes per person plus their IT equipment, which is a sensible way to keep a move of this size from turning into an unbounded packing project. It went out to a competitive field and it came with a vetting process that Bailey's had no visibility into and no influence over.
Bailey's responded with a full line-item bid against each scope, walked the training facility with the Broncos' experience manager to see the contents in person, and was awarded the work.
What the RFP covered, and what got added later
The walkthrough was where the real shape of the project started to show up.
In the business operations areas, the contents were about what you would expect from any corporate office. Someone in accounting has a desk, a couple of monitors, and personal effects. Two boxes and two totes covers it.
Football operations is a different environment entirely. Walk into a position coach's office and you may find ten or eleven monitors plus wall-mounted televisions, because that coach spends his day breaking down film. No two setups were built the same way. Every one of them had been assembled around how that individual works, which meant every one of them had to come apart and go back together on its own terms.
That is the kind of detail a walkthrough surfaces and a floor plan never will.
It is worth being straight about the sequence, though, because it explains how the rest of the project ran. The Broncos issued a defined scope. Bailey's priced against that scope and was awarded the work on those numbers. The scope then grew during the project, which is normal on a relocation tied to a construction schedule and a season calendar, and the two largest additions came after the award. Those additions ended up being the parts of the job that mattered most.
- RFP
- Stadium move
- Training facility move
- IT disconnect, transport, and reconnect
- Added
- Equipment room
- IT infrastructure
Neither addition moved the completion date.
Challenge 1
The equipment room
The equipment room was not in the original scope. It became the largest single piece of the move.
It surfaced during scheduling. As Bailey's worked through walkthroughs with football operations and equipment staff to build the sequence, it became clear there was far more on that side of the building than two boxes, two totes, and a computer per person. Rather than hold the line on the awarded scope, Bailey's built a plan for it.
An NFL equipment room is not storage. It is an operating inventory system. The Broncos' equipment director runs his room on rolling compactor shelving, the kind on tracks where you turn a wheel and the whole bank slides, and every square foot of it was full. Helmets, shoulder pads, cleats, game-day sets, backup sets, practice gear, and a full size run for every player on the roster.
The organizing principle is size and category, and it has to survive the move intact. Size 10 cleats come off the shelf as size 10, travel as size 10, and go back onto the new shelving as size 10. Mix the sizes in transit and you haven't just made the move harder, you have handed the equipment staff a sorting project during the exact week they can least afford one.
There were also beds in the building, for the staff who stay overnight during camp, and a long list of items that had nothing to do with anyone's two boxes and two totes.
So Bailey's went back to the equipment director and built the plan around how his room actually works. That meant more material than a standard move calls for: speed packs, the team's own lockers, and cartons packed and labeled to preserve category and size order. His staff, six or seven people, handled the organizing and categorizing on their end because nobody knows that inventory better than they do.
Bailey's also brought in Garth Wilson, a Bailey's employee who has worked with the Broncos organization and with the equipment staff directly for years. That was a deliberate choice. Garth and the equipment director understand each other's thinking, particularly the categorization logic that makes the room work, and putting the two of them together on the planning removed a whole category of misunderstanding before it could happen. New shelving was going into the new building, and everything had to land in it correctly the first time.
Challenge 2
Moving a live IT infrastructure
Once the equipment plan came together, the Broncos' IT group asked whether the same approach could be applied to their environment. That became the second major addition to the scope, and the answer was yes.
Bailey's moved the organization's IT infrastructure: server cabinets, switches, blades, and drives. The Broncos had a specialist firm handle the tagging and cataloging of the hardware, which is the right call, and Bailey's stayed out of that lane. What Bailey's owned was the physical handling and the choreography around it, which is the part that determines how long the environment is down.
The method was straightforward and it was rehearsed. IT disconnected a unit and handed it off. Bailey's had carts staged to receive it, rolled it to the dock, palletized it, secured it in the truck, ran it to the new building, and brought it off the truck to a hand-off point where IT's team installed it. The equipment never sat around waiting for someone to figure out the next step, and Bailey's never touched a connection it wasn't supposed to touch.
This is not a capability most commercial movers can claim honestly. Bailey's can, because it does this work in the data center world for clients like DataBank and Oracle, and the plans it used at the Broncos came out of that experience.
Challenge 3
The ownership suite
The ownership suite was the only space in the building with a different furniture package than everyone else, and it had to be disassembled, moved, and rebuilt in the new facility. Solid wood, natural edges, custom pieces, and exactly the quality you would expect at that level.
The information Bailey's had going in was that the furniture had come up the main stairwell. On site, standing in front of the largest slabs with a tape measure, it was obvious that some of those pieces had never made those turns and never would. Nobody had bad intentions; buildings accumulate history, and the person who remembered it that way was remembering most of it correctly.
Rather than stop and escalate, the crew solved it on site. A facilities staff member had a scissor lift available. Bailey's borrowed the lift and the operator, took the conference table and several other pieces out over the exterior ledge, down onto the practice field, around the building, and in through the main entrance of the new facility, which has wide stairwells and was already planned as the route for larger furniture.
The detail worth noting: it was later confirmed the pieces had originally been rigged in through a window, which is close to exactly how Bailey's took them out. The crew reasoned its way back to the original method without knowing it existed.
Challenge 4
When the schedule changed
The move was originally scheduled for a weekend in June, and every meeting, material delivery, and crew assignment had been built around that date. The date moved. That happens on projects that depend on construction milestones, and it happens more often than not.
When the schedule reset for the week after the Fourth of July, the four-day window had become three.
Bailey's internal estimate for the scope was roughly five days for a 20-person crew. Compressing that into three days meant putting 35 people on it, which in early July meant hiring and training ahead of the date rather than hoping the labor market cooperated. Several of the crew members on that job had been with the company a matter of weeks. They were trained specifically for this project, they were placed alongside experienced leads, and by every account they were excellent.
That is a self-perform advantage, and it is worth being plain about why. A company that brokers its labor cannot decide in late June to build a 35-person crew to a specific standard for a specific client. Bailey's runs its own crews, so it could.
The project timeline
The contracted move window was three days, down from four. On the calendar the work spanned four: Thursday evening through Sunday. Thursday's stadium pickup ran the night before the main move, and Friday could only be used for staging, which meant every delivery into the new building had to happen across Saturday and Sunday.
- Thursdayevening
Empower Field at Mile High
Stadium pickup the night before the main move
Ten crew, three trucks. The stadium is a controlled environment and access has to be coordinated, so Bailey's worked alongside the Broncos' experience team and the stadium's staff to move through the building floor by floor. Seventy-nine employees' workstations were packed and loaded that evening, including all IT disconnect and packing. The loaded trucks were driven to Dove Valley, sealed, and parked overnight inside the existing facility's security perimeter, which was still fully staffed and monitored. Nothing sat unattended.
- 10 crew
- 3 trucks
- 79 workstations
- Friday7:00 a.m.
Dove Valley training facility
Staging only — the new building was not cleared for move-in
Crews started at 7:00 a.m. and began breaking down the training facility. About two hours in, the new building wasn't cleared for move-in yet. Bailey's staged the entire origin for transport, loaded three trucks, and helped with artwork prep outside the move scope. By mid-afternoon it was clear clearance would land the next day. Morgan Deering met on site with the Broncos' experience manager and VP of construction; they released the crew and reset for a 5:00 a.m. Saturday start. That decision is the reason Saturday worked.
- Saturday5:00 a.m.Delivering
Origin and new headquarters
35 people, 102 degrees, twelve hours
Saturday was a full twelve-hour day and it ran clean from the first hour, because three trucks were already loaded and the building was staged. Crews were unloading at the new facility almost immediately, which is not how the first morning of a move normally goes. By the end of it: 26 truckloads of equipment moved, plus multiple loads carrying the 460 totes the Broncos' staff had packed, plus the entire IT infrastructure delivered and handed off for reconnection. Contents were placed at the correct desk, cubicle, and office according to the floor plans, and the equipment room was delivered in category and size order so the equipment staff could start loading their new shelving. It hit 102 degrees that day.
- 35 crew
- 26 truckloads of equipment
- 460 totes
- Sunday8:00 a.m.Delivering
New headquarters
Finish equipment, football operations, and IT reconnect
Saturday went well enough that Sunday started at 8:00 a.m. instead of 5:00, which mattered to a crew that had just worked twelve hours in that heat. Sunday finished the equipment room and football operations. IT reconnection ran on both the football and business sides. By Sunday evening, business operations was complete: everything placed, everything connected, and the ownership suite furniture reassembled and set. The crew was released around 3:30. Garth Wilson and Morgan Deering stayed until roughly 6:30 to do the final walkthrough of both buildings. The final walkthrough with the Broncos' experience manager and VP of construction closed out the weekend.
Garth Wilson
Bailey's Workplace
Ran the load side at the origin, including the equipment room and every outbound truck off that dock.
Jay Nicholson
Assistant operations manager
Ran the delivery side inside the new building, placing everything to the floor plans.
Chad Tripp
Operations manager
Floated — moved people, tools, and equipment to wherever the day needed them.
Morgan Deering
Area Sales Manager – Colorado
Handled anything coming from Broncos management and personally worked the IT move.
The result
Business operations was live Monday morning. That was the number one requirement from the Broncos' side and it was never really negotiable. Every day the organization is down costs money and costs preparation time heading into a season, and the entire schedule was built around that single deadline.
The full scope moved inside the window: two buildings, 330-plus employees, the equipment room, the IT infrastructure, the ownership suite, and 460 totes. Everything that had to land in the new building landed there across two days.
The Broncos' experience manager, who ran point on the move throughout, was direct about it afterward. She hadn't expected that volume of equipment, contents, and totes to move in that window, and the organization considered the project a success.
The VP of construction, who has run large-scale moves and build-outs before and came in with a well-formed idea of what good looks like, had one measure that mattered above everything else: the timeline, and the requirement that everything be placed and done correctly when the building opened for business. The project met it.
A few IT reconnections had to wait, because some desks and furniture hadn't arrived in the new building yet and there was nothing to mount to. Bailey's placed what it could and came back for two more days during the week to finish. The kitchen came up as well. It hadn't been a real part of the scope, but the Broncos asked whether a crew could come back and work with the head nutritionist on some larger items, warmers and refrigeration among them, plus the dishes, service ware, and everything else that feeds an NFL roster. Bailey's sent a crew. Small requests kept coming for the next couple of weeks, and Bailey's kept sending small crews, because that is what a 15-year relationship looks like in practice.
Why it worked
- The relationship was 15 years old before the project started. Bailey's has handled work for the Broncos organization for a decade and a half, including game-day equipment. That history is why Garth Wilson could be placed next to the equipment director and simply work, and why the conversation on Friday afternoon about releasing the crew was a two-minute conversation instead of a negotiation.
- Scope changes got absorbed instead of fought. The equipment room and the IT infrastructure were both added after the work had been awarded and priced. Bailey's built real plans for both, brought in the right people, and neither addition moved the completion date. On a project tied to a construction schedule, a partner who treats every change as a contract argument costs the client more than the change itself does.
- Four managers, four defined lanes. On a 35-person day with two active buildings, the failure mode is not effort, it is coordination. Load, delivery, floating support, and client-facing decisions each had a name attached, and nobody had to guess who to ask.
- The crews are Bailey's own. Building a 35-person crew on short notice, training new hires to a specific standard for a specific client, and putting an operations manager on the floor to backfill wherever the day needed him are all things a company can only do with its own people.
- Improvising on site was expected, not exceptional. The stairwell, the artwork, the occupancy hold, the kitchen. Each of those was a decision made on site by someone with the authority to make it, and none of them cost the client a day.
If you are planning a consolidation, a build-out move, or a phased relocation where the schedule depends on construction and the contents don't fit a standard scope, that is the kind of project Bailey's Workplace takes ownership of. Tell us what you are up against and we will tell you honestly how we would run it.
FAQ
How long did the Denver Broncos headquarters move take?
The contracted move window was three days, reduced from four when the construction timeline shifted. On the calendar the work spanned Thursday evening through Sunday of the weekend following the Fourth of July, with a small amount of IT reconnection finishing during the following week. Friday could only be used for staging, so every delivery into the new building happened across Saturday and Sunday. Bailey's internal estimate for the same scope was about five days at a 20-person crew, so the schedule was met by putting 35 people on the project instead.
What was actually moved?
Employee contents for more than 330 people across two buildings, the complete IT infrastructure including server cabinets, switches, and drives, the team's equipment room inventory, select furniture, and the ownership suite's custom furniture, which was disassembled and reassembled in the new building. Saturday alone accounted for 26 truckloads of equipment plus 460 totes. The equipment room and the IT infrastructure were both added to the scope after the work was awarded.
How do you move an NFL equipment room without losing the organization of it?
You build the packing plan around the way the room is already organized, and you keep the equipment staff in control of the categorization. The Broncos' equipment inventory is arranged by category and size on rolling compactor shelving. Bailey's supplied additional material, including speed packs and the team's own lockers, so that every group stayed intact through packing, transport, and placement into the new shelving. Items came off the shelf, traveled, and went back on the shelf in the same order.
Can you move live IT infrastructure without extended downtime?
Yes, when the choreography is planned in advance and the hand-offs are tight. On this project the client's IT team disconnected each unit and handed it directly to Bailey's, which had carts staged to receive it and a defined route to the truck, to the new building, and to a hand-off point where IT reinstalled it. Bailey's handled transport and physical handling only; the client's specialist firm handled tagging and cataloging. Bailey's does this same work for data center clients including DataBank and Oracle.
What happens when the destination building isn't ready on move day?
You keep working on everything that doesn't depend on the destination, and you make a fast, honest call about the rest. On the Friday of this project the new facility hadn't received its final occupancy clearance. Bailey's staged the entire origin building for transport, loaded three trucks so Saturday could start with deliveries instead of pickups, and pulled a team over to help the client with artwork removal that sat outside the move scope. When it became clear the clearance would land the next day, Bailey's met with the client on site and released the crew rather than bill for waiting.
What happens when scope gets added after a project is awarded?
It gets planned properly or it goes badly. On this project two significant scopes were added after the award, the team's equipment room and the organization's IT infrastructure, neither of which was in the original RFP. Bailey's built both plans from scratch: a packing method designed around the equipment room's existing category-and-size organization, and a hand-off sequence worked out with the client's IT team. Neither addition moved the completion date.
How large a crew can Bailey's put on a single project?
This project ran 35 crew members plus four Bailey's managers at peak, on a schedule that was set roughly two weeks out. Bailey's self-performs with its own employees, trucks, and warehouses across Colorado and Utah, which is what makes a crew of that size available on that kind of notice.
Who manages a project like this day to day?
On this project, four Bailey's managers each owned a defined lane: origin loading and equipment, delivery and placement at the destination, floating operational support, and client-facing decisions plus the IT sequence. The client had one point of contact for anything requiring a decision.
Does Bailey's handle furniture disassembly and reassembly?
Yes. On this project that included the ownership suite's custom solid-wood furniture, which was disassembled, moved, and rebuilt in the new building, including several pieces that required an alternate exit route from the original building.
What kind of organizations does Bailey's Workplace do this work for?
Medium to large organizations with complex, project-based logistics that fall outside their normal operations, including the Denver Broncos, Oracle, AECOM, DataBank, Arrow Electronics, Pluralsight, Maverik, and Layton Construction. Bailey's has been in business since 1952 and operates across Colorado and Utah, with national reach through the Allied Van Lines network.
What was the single most important requirement on this project?
That business operations be running on Monday morning. Every other decision on the project was made in service of that deadline, and it was met.