CREJ - Journal

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MAY 6-MAY 19, 2015
by John Rebchook
To say that Bell Partners’ first
apartment community pur-
chase in the Denver area was
a big one would be an under-
statement.
Bell Partners, based in
Greensboro, North Carolina,
paid a record $255 million for
a Denver-area apartment com-
munity with its recent acquisi-
tion of Horizons at Rock Creek
in Superior, according to public
records.
It is not only the most ever
paid for an apartment commu-
nity in theDenver area, but also
apparently is the fourth-most
expensive property ever pur-
chased in the metro area.
According to research by
ARA Newmark, which han-
dled the sale on behalf of Den-
ver-based Simpson Housing,
only three properties have ever
sold for more.
They are:
• The Wells Fargo Center,
known as the “Cash Register”
building at 1700 Lincoln St.,
which in 2012 sold for $387
million;
• The FlatIron Crossing mall
in Broomfield, which in 2012
sold for $323 million; and
• The Park Meadows Mall
in Lone Tree, which in 1998
sold for $270 million. (The Park
Meadows Mall was sold again
in 2004 as part of a $12.6 billion
portfolio purchase by General
Growth Properties, but a new
deed wasn’t recorded.)
The $255 million price tag
for the 1,206-unit Horizons at
Rock Creek, which has been
renamed as Bell Flatirons,
despite its size, is not the big-
gest apartment sale in U.S. so
far this year, however.
The apartment building in
New York City, for example,
earlier this year sold for $575
million, or $1,000 per square
foot.
“New York, San Francisco
and possiblyChicago are about
the only cities where you are
likely to find apartment sales
that are bigger than this one,”
Hunt said.
And while, according to one
report, the most expensive
building to sell in the first quar-
ter of this year in San Francisco
was amere $22.38million, mul-
tifamily buildings there com-
mand a much higher price per
sf.
Apartment buildings sell for
far more than the $211,442 per
unit that Bell paid for the Supe-
rior community.
One 12-unit apartment build-
ing in San Francisco, for exam-
ple, sold earlier this year for
$666,667 per unit.
Last year, anapartment tower
inManhattan sold for $395mil-
lion, or $556,384 per unit.
“When buildings are selling
for $550,000 per unit, it doesn’t
take long to hit some pretty
big numbers,” said Hunt, who
handled the sale to Bell Part-
ners along with fellow ARA
Newmark brokers Jeff Hawks,
Doug Andrews and Shane
Ozment.
However, it is quite the
feather in Denver’s cap that a
company is willing to spend
a quarter-billion dollars on a
single asset, according to Hunt.
“It shows a great deal of con-
fidence in Denver’s growth
potential that a company
would make such a big finan-
cial investment here,” Hunt
said.
The former Horizons at Rock Creek is loaded with amenities, including four pools and a beach.
by Jill Jamieson-Nichols
IBC Holdings’ bet on an
empty office building in Pan-
orama Business Park paid off
with a $24.26 million sale to
Centura Health.
Centura paid about $151 per
square foot for the 160,572-
sf Class A building at 9100
E. Mineral Circle. The health
care provider will consoli-
date corporate functions from
multiple locations, bringing
approximately 500 employees
to the building.
“We were pleased with the
outcome. We appreciated
working with Centura over
several months,” said IBC
Managing Director Marty
Farnsworth. “It’s an active,
good real estate market that
seems to be firming up, so it
was a good transaction.”
IBC bought the building
from a lender for $11.25 mil-
lion, or $70 per sf, in late 2013.
It was among only a handful
of available blocks of Class A
office space over 150,000 sf in
the southeast suburban office
submarket.
Built in 1989 and formerly
occupied by United Launch
Alliance, the building offers
40,000-sf floor plates, uninter-
rupted glass lines, a 99-seat
auditorium, lunchroom, and
showers and lockers. It has
power feeds to two different
Xcel power stations.
IBCHoldings spent approx-
imately $1 million renovating
the building and was nego-
tiating a lease with Centura
Health when Centura opted
to acquire the property. Cen-
tura did not purchase two
acres of adjacent land that
would have increased park-
ing from about 3:1,000 to
4.5:1,000.
“I think users in southeast
Denver continue to value
sites that have as good acces-
sibility to light rail as they
can. Certainly with this loca-
tion, you’re a five-minute
walk to light rail, if not less,”
said DTZ Executive Manag-
ing Director Doug Wulf, who
represented IBC Holdings
with DTZ’s Dan Miller.
Besides proximity to the
Dry Creek Station, the prop-
erty is immediately accessible
to “some of the best ame-
nities in southeast Denver,”
said Wulf, citing numerous
restaurants at Park Meadows
shopping center and along
County Line Road. “It’s a
tough location to beat.”
The building also is distinc-
tive architecturally. Plus, “The
site has incredible mountain
views that will be unobstruct-
ed forever. It always has been
a corporate headquarters
building and will continue to
be,” Wulf commented.
Ty Ritchie of CBRE repre-
sented Centura Health in the
transaction.s
Centura Health will consolidate corporate functions into the building at 9100 E. Mineral Circle.
CONTENTS
A high-profile corner in Boulder
begins its transformation as
construction of two hotels and
an office building gets underway
Blair Madden Bui employs
her own style to carry
on her grandfather’s legacy
A Glendale retail center
trades for $7.05 million in
a double 1031 exchange
An apartment community
hit by a fast and fierce
hailstorm garners 20 offers
Inside
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