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Page 10 — COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL — March 18-March 31, 2015
Coa l C r e e k Canyon Re s t au r an t
Tristan Sedbrook &
Andrew Dodgen
(303) 534-4822
7921 Southpark Plaza, #108, Littleton, CO 80120
This restaurant property is located nine miles NW of Golden
on Hwy 72. Charming, 2,990± SF turnkey operation can seat
50 inside and 30 on the patio. Value-add live/work arrange-
ment with additional 1,360±SF 3BD/2BA living quarters. Res-
taurant parcel being sold with two adjacent parcels for a total
of 2.73± acres. $895,000.
Greater Denver
through its purchase of Mack-Cali
Realty Corp.’s Denver portfolio
in 2006.
“We’re certainly excited to
continue owning the assets
that we stayed involved with
because we see additional
upside in those assets by leas-
ing them up and taking advan-
tage of the robust Denver and
Colorado economy,” said Fefley.
The company also is looking
for additional opportunities.
“We are on the hunt for addi-
tional office and industrial
properties that we feel either fit
our existing portfolio or where
we can add value,” he said.
Westcore owns approximate-
ly 1.1 million sf of office and
industrial property in the Den-
ver region.s
“The question is broader than
that,” said Norman J. Radow,
CEO of the RADCO Cos.
He said the apartment mar-
ket in the Denver area, and
across the country, is undergo-
ing a sea change.
“There is a fundamental
demographic shift occurring in
America,” Radow said.
He said when veterans
returned from World War II,
they did three things: They got
married, bought a house and
started having kids.
That’s not the case today, he
said.
In fact, his office is a micro-
cosm of what is happening
nationally, he said.
“I have 20 millennials work-
ing in my office and only one
owns a home,” Radow said.
And the 19 renters are in no
hurry to buy, he said.
“I know this in anecdotal,”
he said.
But it is important to consider
that a typical law school gradu-
ate leaves school with $180,000
in student debt. The first job he
takes likely pays about $40,000
a year.
Huge student debt and low
pay is a recipe for a long-term
renter, he said.
Meanwhile, none of the
panel members, who together
have developed many billions
of dollars of apartments over
the past three decades and
have weathered many differ-
ent cycles, think that this year
will match 2014.
“Of course, we thought it
was going to slow down last
year and it really didn’t. We
projected 5 percent rent growth
and it hit 10 percent,” said
Luke Simpson, CEO of Denver-
based Grand Peaks Properties
Inc.
While he said he is “relative-
ly optimistic” about this year,
he is not expecting anywhere
near 10 percent rent growth in
2015.
Bill Stoll, senior vice presi-
dent of Steadfast Cos., which
only recently entered the Den-
ver market, also is cautiously
optimistic.
“We are a little late to the
game here,” Stoll said. “We
might have been too conser-
vative … As Norm (Radow)
said, there is still tremendous
demand out there. Millennials
are unable to buy.”
Also, seniors increasingly are
looking to rent, as opposed to
buying, when they sell their
big, single-family homes.
“They don’t want to take care
of their homes and large yards
anymore,” Stoll said.
Seniors, he said, will provide
sort of a “shadow market” for
apartment demand, he said.
Tom Barta, chief operat-
ing officer of Denver-based
Griffis Residential, agreed that
demand will continue to be
strong.
“But as Cary’s data shows,
there is an unprecedented new
supply coming on the mar-
ket. I’m also a little concerned
about affordability,” as rents
continue to skyrocket, he said.
He said he wouldn’t be sur-
prised if rents rise a modest 3
percent this year and “vacan-
cy rates bump up 1 percent a
year.”
Following the conference,
Hunt said the biggest take-
away from the conference “was
just how resilient the Denver
apartment market is. I’m also
impressed by how many new
players are entering the Den-
ver market, who never consid-
ered us before.”
He noted that for the past
three years, only the San Fran-
cisco and San Jose markets
have been showing greater per-
centage gains than Denver.
“But it’s important to remem-
ber that our market is still
much more affordable than
those markets,” Hunt said.
“In San Francisco, the aver-
age unit rents for north of $4
per square foot. Their rents are
twice our rents,” Hunt said.
The members of CREJ’s con-
ference development panel
noted that they would rather
continue to own their existing
apartment product in the Den-
ver area and have only sold
reluctantly.
Because there are fewer sell-
ers on the market and more
buyers, prices will likely con-
tinue to rise this year, while
the number of units sold will
decline, Hunt said.
Can rents rise by 10 percent
this year?
“It’s really hard to say out
loud that you think rents will
go up another 10 percent this
year,” Hunt said.
“On the other hand, no one
a year ago was predicting a
10 percent increase for 2014,”
Hunt said.s
Members of the investment panel, from left: Tom Barta, chief operating officer of Griffis Residential; Luke
Simpson, CEO of Grand Peak Properties; Bill Stoll, senior vice president of acquisitions for Steadfast Cos.; and
Norman J. Radow, CEO of the RADCO Cos.
Development panel, from left: Tim Walsh, owner/project director, Confluence Builders; Steve O’Dell, principal
and land broker at ARA; Jeff Wikstrom, vice president of multifamily, Evergreen Development; Erik Hagevik,
COO, Holland Partner Group; and Andy Clay, managing director, Rocky Mountain division, Alliance Residential
Co. Not shown, but also on the panel was, Scott Johnson, division president of Lennar Multifamily Communities
– Mountain State/Southwest.