CREJ - Journal

1 / 96

APRIL 1-APRIL 14, 2015
by Jill Jamieson-Nichols
Eastpark 70 is opening a
door for industrial tenants
struggling to find Class A
space along the Interstate 70
corridor.
The first of three state-of-
the-art speculative buildings
will break ground this sum-
mer at the 105-acre park near
I-70 and Tower Road. Build-
ing 1, a 354,900-square-foot
cross-dock building divisible
to 45,000 sf, is targeted for
delivery in March 2016.
“We are very excited to
bring this Class AA distribu-
tion space to Denver’s tight
industrial
market in
p a r t n e r -
ship with
such a cre-
ative and
f l e x i b l e
ownership
g r o u p , ”
said CBRE
First Vice
President
Doug Viseur, who is market-
ing Eastpark with CBRE’s
Todd Witty. “We are building
Eastpark 70 plans to break ground in summer on the first of three Class A speculative buildings.
Doug Viseur
by John Rebchook
Littleton Capital Part-
ners recently sold the Elitch
Lanes bowling alley site in an
increasingly popular north-
west Denver neighborhood
to a developer that will build
a Natural Grocers on the 1.2-
acre site at West 38th Avenue
and Tennyson Street.
While many residents in the
Berkeley neighborhood and
the nearby West Highland
neighborhood are sorry to see
one of the last family oper-
ated bowling alleys in Den-
ver leave, a Natural Grocers
did not usher in the protests
and objections that are now
commonplace for apartment
developments.
In fact, some real estate
observers were surprised that
the relatively large infill site
was sold to a real estate bro-
ker, and not a multifamily
developer.
Some even believe that this
may be one of the first signs
that the frenzied apartment
construction pace will begin
to slow in Denver.
Others, including Jonathan
Bush, the founder andmanag-
ing partner of Littleton Capi-
tal, caution not to read too
much into one transaction as
far as signaling a bigger trend.
Still, no one disagrees that
the site is one of the largest in
the area.
“Although there are smaller
sites available in the market,
there are few opportunities to
acquire a development great-
er than one acre,” according
to Littleton Capital’s website
on the land that it purchased
in March 2009.
The site is not only relative-
ly large, but also it is zoned
U-MS-5, which would have
allowed a five-story building
to be constructed on it.
The buyer, Equity Ventures
Commercial Development,
paid $87.22 per square foot
for the land. Equity Ventures
will build the Natural Gro-
cers store on the parcel.
By contrast, Allied Residen-
tial paid about $156 per sf
for three nearby sites near
West 32nd Avenue and Low-
ell Boulevard, where it is con-
structing three luxury apart-
ment buildings.
Also, last year, Richman
Ascension Hilo LLC paid
almost $149 per sf for a par-
cel at West 28th Avenue and
Wyandot and Vallejo streets,
for a new apartment commu-
nity, which is just a few min-
utes’ drive from West 38th
Avenue and Tennyson Street.
Given those comparables,
and others, John Winslow,
owner of Winslow Property
Consultants, was surprised
that Littleton Capital did not
sell to a multifamily develop-
er, as apartment developers
typically pay more for land
than retail users.
The sale to a retail devel-
oper instead of a multifamily
Natural Grocers, not an apartment building, will replace Elitch
Lanes in northwest Denver.
CONTENTS
An outdoor gear company signs
one of the largest leases for industrial
space in Boulder County in years, helping
fill Etkin Johnson’s CTC portfolio
High Pointe Tower adds a
new dimension to Granite
Properties’ Denver office portfolio
Walnut & Main Real Estate
outbids institutional investors to acquire
the Stone Mountain apartments
A Littleton retail center sells
within a two-week period
Inside