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Page 14 — COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL — February 18-March 3, 2015
biking distance of downtown
Boulder via the Boulder Creek
Path.
• Flatirons North, a 90 percent-
leased office campus in Flatiron
Park with 168,619 sf in four build-
ings that cater to tech tenants.
• Highpoint Business Park,
which consists of 186,220 sf. The
park’s six buildings offer unob-
structed views of the city and
mountains, and upper-level suites
have patios. The property is 90
percent leased.
Along with 14 buildings Unico
Properties already owned on and
around the Pearl Street Mall, its
Boulder portfolio now spans near-
ly 1.4 million sf.
“Boulder offers a unique blend
of strong economic drivers and
incredible quality of life. Whenwe
uncovered the off-market oppor-
tunity to buy a significant institu-
tional-quality portfolio in amarket
like Boulder with very real supply
limitations, a growing dynamic
tenant base and ultra-low vacancy
numbers, we couldn’t pass it up,”
said Austin Kane, vice president
and regional director of Unico’s
Colorado portfolio.
CBRE Capital Markets arranged
financing for the Boulder acquisi-
tion.
“This was a complicated debt
assignment that required the
potential lenders to offer a high
level of flexibility,” said Brady
O’Donnell, executive vice presi-
dent in the firm’s Debt & Struc-
tured Finance group. “It is rare
that larger suburban office port-
folios like this trade in the Boul-
der market, so we were thrilled
with the opportunity to represent
Unico Properties and ultimately
secured a great life company port-
folio loan.”
Seattle-based Unico Properties
acquired its first Colorado prop-
erty – the Centerpoint II office
building at Interstate 25 and Colo-
rado Boulevard – in 2006 and has
amassed a Denver office portfolio
of 2 million sf. Its assets include
Writer Square on downtown’s
16th Street Mall. The real estate
investment and operating compa-
ny focuses on office andmultifam-
ily assets in the Western United
States.s
Flatirons North, a four-building office/research-and-development com-
plex at the corner of 55th Street and Flatiron Parkway, was among
1.01 million sf in Boulder assets that Unico Properties and AEW Capital
Management purchased from W.W. Reynolds Cos.
represented Unico in the transac-
tion.
“Atargetedmarketingcampaign
was formulated focused on buyers
that could work with the provi-
sions and timeframes of the larger
transaction, provide a certainty of
close, act quickly and recognize
the opportunity to immediately be
one of the largest property owners
in the fast-growing Fort Collins
market,” Carner commented.
“We saw significant interest
from several buyers, but Prospect
Development Partners LLC quick-
ly emerged as the most capable
buyer for this opportunity,” added
Ballenger.
Peter Kelly, vice president in
CBRE’s Fort Collins office, who
assisted with the transaction and
localmarket underwriting, said the
transaction demonstrated strong
interest in the Northern Colorado
market from larger investment
groups.
The buildings were approxi-
mately 95 percent occupied at the
time of the sale.
Steve Kawulok of Sperry Van
Ness/The Group Commercial in
FortCollins,whowas not involved
in the transaction, said theFortCol-
lins portfolio, like Boulder’s, was a
chance to acquire well-maintained
assets below replacement cost in a
citywith a growing university and
technology sector, and recovering
rental rates. To replace themwould
cost around $200 per sf, he said.
“Reynolds Cos. takes very good
care of their properties, so they’re
getting well-cared-for proper-
ties at below replacement cost,”
Kawulok said, adding the new
owners will have a big influence
on the Fort Collins and Boulder
office markets. s