CREJ - Journal

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JUNE 17-JUNE 30, 2015
by Jill Jamieson-Nichols
An approximately $75 mil-
lion hotel is scheduled to
arrive in the Union Station
neighborhood, meeting up
with a piece of Denver history.
Combining an interna-
tional brand with a boutique-
like product, Focus Property
Group will break ground this
summer on the Hilton Garden
Inn – Denver Union Station,
which will incorporate Hose
House No. 1. Denver’s oldest
standing fire station, built in
1883, the hose house will be
restored and become the heart
of a restaurant to serve hotel
guests and the neighborhood.
The 12-story, 222-room
hotel, at the corner of 20th and
Chestnut streets, is scheduled
for completion in first-quarter
2017.
Denver-based Focus Prop-
erty Group selected the Hil-
ton Garden Inn brand because
it was looking for a strong,
upscale select-service product
with a robust distribution sys-
tem, according to Josh Fine,
Focus vice president and gen-
eral counsel.
“We really like Hilton Gar-
den Inn because the brand
allows us to be creative with
the hotel,” he added. “We are
able to have quite a bit of
freedom and flexibility with
the design of the hotel … to
utilize the uniqueness of the
location and site for a hotel
that’s special.”
Designed by JG Johnson
Architects, the Hilton Garden
Inn will feature a rooftop deck
with a bar. “It will have really
dramatic views of downtown
Denver, the mountains and
Coors Field – you’ll actually
be able to see into the field and
The Hilton Garden Inn – Denver Union Station will incorporate Denver’s oldest standing fire station.
by John Rebchook
Denver-based RedPeak
developed the 302-unit One
City Block apartment commu-
nity in Denver.
It also has acquired apart-
ment buildings with as few as
15 units in Capitol Hill.
Institutional apartment
developers and investors like
RedPeak aren’t supposed to be
buying the small, one-off infill
buildings.
Historically, that has been
the role of small, nimble entre-
preneurs, who know neigh-
borhoods well and are willing
to risk their own money in a
sketchy neighborhood that has
promise as an investment.
Plus, the small buildings in
different neighborhoods don’t
provide the big players the
critical mass to manage them
efficiently.
“I think that is right,” said
Bobby Hutchinson, RedPeak’s
investment director.
“We are fairly unique in
that,” Hutchinson said.
He said he thinks a lot of
big organizations find it “chal-
lenging” to find, buy andman-
age small properties.
“A lot of big companies
just aren’t
structured
to do the
s m a l l
d e a l s , ”
Hut chin-
son said.
“ T h e s e
o n e - o f f s
tend to be
harder to
m a n a g e
and these scattered portfolios
have always been challeng-
ing,” he said.
Recently, however, RedPeak
is starting to come across other
institutional investors seeking
the small properties, he said.
“When we first started
doing this five years ago, we
were truly pioneers,” Hutchin-
son said.
Today, RedPeak has 17
buildings with 730 units in its
“urban living portfolio” that
account for about a third of the
2,455 units RedPeak owns in
Colorado.
Andy Hellman, a broker
with ARA Newmark, said he
still doesn’t see many insti-
tutional investors other than
RedPeak with a big appetite
for the small, urban infill prop-
erties.
“The one company that does
come to mind is the Laramar
Group from Chicago,” Hell-
man said.
Last year, Laramar bought
much of the urban apartment
buildings from Denver-based
Boutique Apartments.
“Laramar has had great suc-
cess with that strategy in Chi-
RedPeak is building this eight-story apartment community at Seventh Avenue and Sherman Street in
Denver. However, it is focusing on buying infill buildings and not new construction.
Bobby Hutchinson
Inside
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