DaVita is doubling down on Denver.

The Fortune 500 health care company plans to expand its headquarters operations into a new Lower Downtown office tower and add more than 800 jobs, paying an average of $89,000 annually, to its 1,000-person Denver workforce in the next 10 years.

DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc. has signed a lease for 11 floors in a 19-story building planned for the corner of Chestnut Place and 16th Street, directly across from the kidney-care giant’s global headquarters.

The company, regarded as a pivotal piece in Denver’s decades-long quest to become a headquarters city, now is playing a key role in re-energizing downtown as a corporate hub, said Tom Clark, CEO of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation.

“We couldn’t get a queen’s wave out of a headquarters in the ’80s or ’90s, except for the folks who grew up here,” he said.

DaVita’s commitment in 2009 to move its corporate office to Denver from El Segundo, Calif., signaled the shift from a “district town,” where only regional offices would locate, Clark said. Two years later, Fortune 500 companion Arrow Electronics announced plans to relocate its headquarters to Arapahoe County from Melville, N.Y., bringing with it a promise to create 1,250 jobs in five years.

“Those are global shockwaves, and all good for us,” Clark said.

“When you recruit a headquarters to your state, you do everything you can to ensure they’re successful and grow,” said Gov. John Hickenlooper. “With DaVita, we also welcomed a devoted community partner.”

Metro Denver has landed an average of six to nine corporate headquarters a year since 2003, Clark said.

He said this translates to more economic and employment stability — headquartered companies are far less likely to shed jobs and are more likely to engage philanthropically.

DaVita’s world headquarters, at 2000 16th St., was the first corporate build-to-suit project in Denver’s central business district in 35 years. The 246,000-square-foot, 14-story building was designed to accommodate 950 employees and be an anchor for the transit-oriented neighborhood.

DaVita received a $5.3 million incentive package for that project.

Since 2009, the company has added 1,600 jobs in Colorado, even exceeding the expectations of CEO Kent Thiry.

While awaiting completion of its $101 million, 270,000-square-foot global headquarters near the Millennium Bridge, DaVita set up shop in the neighboring Gates Building, 1551 Wewatta St.

DaVita has not only maintained operations at the Gates Building; it has grown to fill six of the building’s 10 floors.

The intention now is to move workers from Gates to the new building, Thiry said, but, considering recent history, those plans could change.

“The great thing is our growth is distributed across all of our business,” he said. “Right now, we’re in this wonderful and probably temporary phase where everything is growing.”

DaVita’s businesses are growing at steady clips — revenue increased in the dialysis, medical network, international and pharmacy divisions. In additional to acquisition sprees in both the areas of kidney care and medical services, the company has extended its roots internationally into places such as China and Brazil.

The company closed out 2014 with nearly $12.8 billion in revenue and generated $6.7 billion in revenue for the first six months of this year.

DaVita has weathered its share of negatives — federal subpoenas, whistle-blower suits and settlement payouts totaling nearly $1 billion. In May, DaVita officials said they would spend $25 million annually to improve compliance efforts.

In September, the Colorado Economic Development Commission approved $12.7 million in job growth incentive tax credits for Project Bronco II, a Denver-based health care company looking to add 800 jobs to either its home city or sites in California, Tennessee and Washington.

The incentive package was a necessary condition for DaVita to grow in Denver. Without the incentives, DaVita would have looked elsewhere, Thiry said.

“We’re not for sale for the highest bidder,” he said, “but our local hometown should care enough about us in the context of all of the giving that we do in the community.”

DaVita contributes to at least 40 nonprofit and community service organizations, he said.

DaVita will be the lead tenant in 16 Chestnut, taking 265,000 square feet of the 420,000-square-foot building, said Chris Frampton, managing partner of East West Partners, which is developing the $190 million project with Starwood Capital Group.

When it’s done in 2018, the building will fill the last vacant spot along 16th Street and further cement the Union Station neighborhood as a place where major companies — such as Liberty Global, Antero Resources and IMA Financial Group — want to call home, he said.

“It’s one of the last buildings in Union Station when it finishes,” Frampton said.

The Job Growth Incentive Tax Credit period begins Jan. 1, 2018, and the company has eight years to create the 800 net new jobs.

“But, of course, in life, you never know when you might hit a pothole,” Thiry said. “We wouldn’t be building this new space if we weren’t pretty confident that our growth was going to continue.”

Alicia Wallace: awallace@denverpost.com or twitter.com/aliciawallace

About DaVita’s Expanded Denver Headquarters at 16 Chestnut

Ground is expected to break on the 19-story 16 Chestnut building in July. DaVita, the anchor tenant in the building, will begin to move in by August 2018. The project is slated for completion in October 2018. Here’s how the project, backed by East West Partners and Starwood Capital Group, stacks up:

250 feet tall at the corner of 16th Street and Chestnut Place.

$190 million will be spent on the building that fronts both 16th and 17th streets.

LEED Platinum certification is expected for the project, for which Gensler is the named architect and BuildMark is the construction manager.