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Page 6 — COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL — February 18-March 3, 2015
Greater Denver
by Jill Jamieson-Nichols
Northstar Commercial Part-
ners has been increasingly active
in the charter school arena,
recently brokering the sale of one
school and acquiring a building
for another.
Northstar recently completed
the $10.3 million sale of Denver
Christian Schools’ main campus
on C-470 in Highlands Ranch
to the Rocky Mountain Confer-
ence of Seventh-day Adventists,
which will move an existing
school to the property. Located
at 1733 E. Dad Clark Drive, the
14.99-acre site includes a 58,398-
sf school building with 20 class-
rooms, a cafeteria, media center,
computer lab and gym, as well
as a playground, soccer field and
baseball field.
“Having a facility of that qual-
ity ready to
go was very
a t t r a c t i v e
for them,”
N o r t h s t a r
founder and
CEO Brian
Watson said
of the buyer.
“It has excel-
lent identity
right on C-470
between Broadway and Univer-
sity Boulevard. It was an excel-
lent location,” he said. “It’s in
Douglas County, which has a
lot of school options and choice
options.”
The facility was the second
of three facilities Northstar
has sold for Denver Christian
Schools, which consolidated into
a 270,000-sf campus on 20.7 acres
at 3898 S. Teller St. in Lakewood.
It also sold DCSʼ property at 2135
S. Pearl St. in Denver to Denver
Waldorf School for $7million and
has a third facility at 4200 E. War-
ren and 4201 E. Iliff Ave. in Den-
ver listed for $5.5 million.
In another deal, Northstar
Commercial Partners affiliate
12000 East 47th LLC stepped in
to buy a building, a portion of
which it subsequently leased to a
charter school.
The 56,610-sf, four-story office
building at 12000 E. 47th in Den-
ver sold for $2.55 million. It was
approximately 50 percent occu-
pied.
Academy 360 initially will fill
about 21,000 sf and grow into the
building over time.
Carole Schumacher of BRC
Real Estate had been represent-
ing the charter school in its search
for suitable classroom space for
the past 2½ years and presented
the building purchase opportu-
nity to Watson early last year.
Watson had launched an edu-
cation opportunity fund to buy
assets for charter schools and
said, “We’re very excited to
have the opportunity to make a
positive impact for education,
specifically in the Montbello
area. This is a school that has
existed there for awhile, and
we’re going to help them grow
to the next level,” he said.
The school signed a 10-year
lease and expects to relocate
into the facility in May.
It initially will occupy the
14,058-sf first floor with kin-
dergarten through third grades
and expand into 7,695 sf on the
third floor in August, when
it adds fourth-grade classes.
Academy 360 will contin-
ue to expand on an annual
basis as the school grows and
adds additional grade levels,
Schumacher said.
The seller was Northfield
Business Center LLC, which
is affiliated with DSP Builders.
DSP Builders will continue to
occupy space in the building.
“One of the challenges for
charter schools is to find land-
lords that are friendly and will
accept them as a tenant, par-
ticularly if it’s an office build-
ing that they’re a tenant in and
they can co-exist,” said Schum-
acher, adding the deal worked
well for all parties.
Alex Ringsby and Scott Pat-
terson of Ringsby Real Estate
represented the seller in the
transaction.s
Northstar Commercial Partners recently sold Denver Christian Schools’
main campus in Highlands Ranch.
An entity affiliated with Northstar Commercial Partners purchased the office building at 12000 E. 47th Ave.
in Denver, a portion of which it leased to Academy 360 charter school.
Brian Watson