CREJ - Journal

37 / 96

by John Rebchook
A family owned real
estate company based in
Boulder outbid a number
of institutional investors to
purchase the Stone Moun-
tain apartment communi-
ty in Northglenn.
Walnut & Main Real
Estate, headed by Chuck
Gower and Cheryl Dipan-
filo, recently acquired the
320-community built in
2001 at 11625 Community
Center Drive for $51.5 mil-
lion.
The seller, Holland Resi-
dential, paid $38 million
for the community in 2012,
according to records.
In other words, Walnut
& Main paid 35.5 percent
more than Holland had
paid.
Walnut & Main paid
the equivalent of $182 per
square foot, while Holland
had paid $134.30 per sf.
The recent sale also
equates to $160,738 per
unit, compared with the
$118,750 per unit that Hol-
land paid
Holland was represent-
ed by the CBRE team of
David Potarf, Dan Wood-
ward and Matt Barnett in
the sale.
“It was a real competi-
tive process,” Potarf said.
“We received double-
d i g i t
o f f e r s .
P e o p l e
w e r e
kind of
fighting
over it at
the end.
And, in
the end,
a local
c o m -
pany won the process,”
Potarf said.
It was a 1031 exchange
transaction for Walnut &
Main, he said.
The company had
recently sold its 460-unit
Rams apartment portfolio
in Fort Collins for $58 mil-
lion, he said.
“They had a lot of Colo-
rado State University stu-
dents renting there,” Potarf
said. The family wanted to
own a market-rate apart-
ment community in the
Denver area, rather than
apartments that primarily
served students, he said.
Their knowledge of the
Denver area made them
an excellent buyer, he said.
“They have been around
for a long time and are
really familiar with the
Denver area,” Potarf said.
Walnut & Main also
by Jill Jamieson-Nichols
Granite Properties added anoth-
er dimension to its Greenwood
Village office portfolio with High
Pointe Tower, a 119,834-square-
foot building at 6430 S. Fiddlers
Green Circle.
High Pointe is a five-story build-
ing that offers the same locational
advantages as Granite’s Plaza
Tower One, a 22-story, Class AA
tower directly across the street.
The buildings are within walking
distance of the Arapahoe light-rail
station, restaurants and shops, and
also are close to the proposed 203-
room Westin Greenwood Village,
with 10,000 sf of meeting space,
which is proposed to open in 2016.
High Pointe Tower offersmoun-
tain views from every floor, as
well as highly efficient, 24,000-sf
floor plates. It features a two-story
atrium lobby finished in wood
and oversized stone tiles.
Granite purchased the building
from Morrison Street Capital for
$22.2 million, or $185.26 per sf,
according to public records.
“We’re excited to expand our
presence in Greenwood Village
and particularly in this area,”
said Stephanie Lawrence, Gran-
ite Properties managing director.
“High Pointe will be a comple-
mentary property to Plaza Tower
by John Rebchook
After selling more than 300
apartment communities in
the Denver area, multifamily
broker Frank Farrell struck
out on his own this year.
Farrell this year launched
FarrellRes, taking office
space in Cherry Creek
North.
He started his own com-
pany after a career at Grubb
& Ellis and Hendricks &
Partners, which later was
merged into Berkadia Real
Estate Advisors.
“It’s been a good move,”
said Farrell, who already is
looking to expand.
“I am hoping to hire a cou-
ple of experienced brokers
later this year,” Farrell said.
“I think you can cover the
market more effectively with
a team,” Farrell said.
“Everyone brings different
communications and skill
sets to an office, which is
very important,” Farrell said.
Farrell has a number of
deals in the pipeline from a
long list of prominent devel-
opers and investors he has
represented over the years.
“Probably most of them
are in the middle market
of $3 million to $15 million
price range,” Farrell said.
“I have represented the
sellers in some large partner-
ship deals, but I don’t focus
on the large, institutional
deals,” Farrell said.
Since going out on his
own, he already has closed
several sales that he started
when he was still at Berka-
dia.
Berkadia is a joint venture
company between Berkshire
Hathaway, the company
controlled by legendary
investor Warren Buffett, and
Leucadia National Corp.
One of the deals he recent-
ly completed, along with
John Laratta of Berkadia,
was the sale of the Emerson
Lofts at 777 Emerson St. in
Denver for $11.5 million.
That equates to $423.84 per
square foot.
“The price per square foot
is one of the top prices paid
for this type of property,”
said John Winslow, principal
of Winslow Property Con-
sultants. Winslow was not
involved in the sale, but is
a longtime observer of the
Denver-area commercial real
estate market.
But Winslow has known
Farrell since his early days in
brokerage. In fact, they both
started in the business about
the same time.
“Frank is a great guy,”
Winslow said. He described
him as one of the most com-
petent apartment brokers in
Denver.
Farrell gave up a steady
paycheck as an executive of
a bank to work as a broker
who relies on commissions
in 1984.
His first stop was Grubb
& Ellis.
“Grubb & Ellis was a great
company,” Farrell said.
“They took a chance with
me; I was a banker, not a
salesman,” Farrell said.
He said he could have
focused on office or retail or
industrial at Grubb & Ellis,
but decided to specialize in
selling multifamily proper-
ties because he had owned
some apartment buildings as
investments when he was a
banker.
It was a true baptism by
fire.
“As soon as I got into the
market, the market started to
change,” Farrell recalled.
The Denver area had
grown rapidly on the pros-
pect of oil hitting $65 a bar-
rel.
Instead, it plunged to
around $10 a barrel and a job
exodus began.
“We also had a double
whammy in 1986 when Con-
gress changed the tax code,
so investments in apartment
tax shelters were less valu-
able,” Farrell remembered.
To make ends meets, he
took a job teaching a course
at Regis College (now
Regis University), during
the night, while selling, or
attempting to sell, apart-
ments during the day.
“I did that for three or four
years,” Farrell said.
Then, the Denver market
and the apartment market
began to recover.
From 1987 to 1996, he was
a top producer at Grubb.
In 1997, he and Chuck
Sweeney launched Hen-
Frank Farrell
SECTION AA
APRIL 1-APRIL 14, 2015
Granite Properties bought High Pointe Tower, which is across the street from its 22-story Plaza Tower One.
David Potarf
I have
represented
the sellers in
some large
partnership
deals, but I
don’t focus
on the large,
institutional
deals.