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COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
— November 5-November 18, 2014
by John Rebchook
Ten years ago, the Auraria
Foundation announced it was
bringing much-needed student
housing downtown to serve
the Auraria campus.
Ayear later, theAuraria Student
Lofts opened on the top floors of
what was then called the Execu-
tive Tower Inn, which soon after
was renamed as the Curtis Hotel
when it was taken over by Den-
ver-based Sage Hospitality.
Recently, the Auraria Student
Lofts, 125 units on floors 17-30 at
1405 Curtis St., sold for $36.31 mil-
lion in a distress sale.
The buyer was NBAuraria DST
Trust, based in Aliso Viejo, Cali-
fornia.
The sale equates to a quite lofty
$290,460 per unit, but that is not
the best way to value student
housing, said Terrance Hunt, who
handled the
transaction on
behalf of the
Auraria Foun-
dation with
fellow ARA
brokers Jeff
Hawks, Doug
A n d r e w s
and
Shane
Ozment.
“With stu-
dent housing, you look at a per-
bed basis,” Hunt said.
Using that metric, it sold for
$83,578.76 per bed.
Most of the prospective buy-
ers of the Auraria Student Lofts,
including the ultimate winner,
were in the student housing busi-
ness, Hunt said.
“We did have a few offers from
investors looking at a one-off deal,
but most of the people were in
the business and understood it,”
Hunt said.
It didn’t turn off any of the pro-
spective buyers that the units start-
ed on the 16th floor.
“I do not think it bothered any-
one,” Hunt said.
“It certainly doesn’t seem to
bother the students who live
there,” he said.
“They like that they have their
own entrance to the Starbucks in
the building,” he said.
“And with the first floor on the
16th floor, they have great views,”
he said. “The lowest floor (atAura-
ria Student Lofts) towers over the
top floors of almost every other
apartment building in the area.
Very few apartment buildings are
that tall.
“Auraria has a lot of nontra-
ditional students, with a lot of
commuters, so it doesn’t have as
many dorm rooms as you would
typically find on a campus of this
size,” Hunt said.
“Still, there is ample demand for
student housing at Auraria and
Greater Denver
Auraria Student Lofts start on the 17th floor at 1405 Curtis St.
Terrance Hunt
Deep roots reach higher.
Developing deals, navigating complex regulatory
hurdles, responding to disputes, growing an enterprise –
experience the difference that law elevated makes.
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