CREJ - Journal

41 / 88

by Jill Jamieson-Nichols
A downtown Denver law
firm has signed a lease for
the top 2½ floors of 1601
Wewatta, Hines’ new Class
A office building in the
Union Station neighbor-
hood.
Hogan Lovells LP signed
a 15-year lease for 70,000
square feet in the building,
which will be completed in
early July. It will join Colo-
rado Athletic Club, which
will operate a 38,000-sf flag-
ship health club on the entire
second floor.
Hogan Lovells currently is
located in the Tabor Center at
1200 17th St.
“We have enjoyed being in
one of downtown’s premier
buildings and now we look
forward to being an anchor
tenant in 1601 Wewatta,”
partner Craig Umbaugh said
in a statement. “The redevel-
opment of the Union Station
area has created a great vibe
and energy in the city.”
“Hines has a 30-plus-year
relationship with Hogan
Lovells in Washington, D.C.,
and we are very proud that
they have
c h o s e n
to build
on that
relation-
ship with
us here
in Den-
ver,” said
H i n e s
Director
G o r d y
Stofer. “Additionally, with
Colorado Athletic Club as
the premier health club oper-
ator in the Denver area, they
will provide an unmatched
amenity to both our building
and the Union Station neigh-
borhood.”
“It is exciting to finally see
the Union Station area fully
come to life,” added Jay Perl-
mutter, principal with Jordon
Perlmutter &Co., a joint ven-
ture partner in development
of 1601 Wewatta.
Doug Wulf of DTZ repre-
sented Hogan Lovells in the
transaction. Neil Macey of
Denver Equities represented
the athletic club, and Chris
Phenicie of CBRE repre-
sented the ownership in
both transactions.
An iconic 10-story build-
ing, 1601 Wewatta was
designed by the Washing-
ton, D.C., office of HOK.
Whiting-Turner is the con-
tractor.
The LEED Gold-precerti-
fied building will contain
283,000 sf of office space,
17,000 sf of first-floor retail
space and four levels of
by John Rebchook
When an apartment commu-
nity sells in the Denver area for
$60 million, it would be easy to
assume it was purchased by an
institutional investor.
However, when the 332-unit
Monterey in Denver was recently
purchased for $60 million, the
buyer was Littleton doctor W.L.
Asher.
“Dr. Asher is an institution in
Denver,” said David Potarf, a
senior vice president at CBRE
who listed the property at 4601
S. Balsam Way with fellow team
member Dan Woodward and
Matt Barett.
Asher has been buying apart-
ment communities in the Denver
area for more than 30 years.
”He has another property only
a couple of miles away and really
understands this market,” Potarf
said.
Asher paid $180,723 per unit
and $192.90 per square foot.
The seller, Holland Partner
Group, paid $47.5 million, or
$143,072 per unit and $152.71 per
sf, according to records.
Holland was motivated to sell
the Monterey after Potarf and his
fellow team members sold the
M2 apartment community across
fromMonterey for $65.5 million.
“The owner saw the M2 sale
and decided it should capitalize
on this strong market,” Potarf
said.
The Monterey, however, had a
$38 million loan that needed to
be assumed.
Some institutions, he said, do
not buy properties that have loan
assumptions.
“The loan was about 3.7 per-
cent, so it was actually slightly
below where rates are today,”
Potarf said.
However, Asher, in addition to
assuming the $38 million loan,
had to get another loan to bring
the financing to 75 percent loan
to value, Potarf said.
Potarf thinks that Asher pur-
chased the community for below
replacement cost.
“I would think that the replace-
ment cost would be a bit north of
by Jill Jamieson-Nichols
Learning from the best has
paid dividends for Tyler Carn-
er, a driven 35-year-old who’s
made a name for himself in
Denver industrial real estate
brokerage.
Carner says starting his
career at CBRE under top-
notch industrial brokers Jim
Bolt, Mike Camp and Bill
Thompson was “one of the
big, lucky breaks of my life.”
“They all have really good
skills. They are all really dif-
ferent,” said Carner, who took
the next step in his career
three years ago when he part-
nered with CBRE’s Jeremy
Ballenger.
Carner has combined a
strong foundation, creativ-
ity and a sense of loyalty to
clients to complete more than
12.3 million square feet of
transactions worth in excess of
$354 million in his first decade
in commercial real estate. He
recently achieved CBRE senior
vice president status. “That
was a goal of mine, to achieve
that by the time I was 35 years
old,” he said.
Carner comes from a real
estate family. His dad worked
with Ballenger’s dad at CBRE
years ago, and his brother,
Ned, leads acquisitions for
Seattle-based Unico Proper-
ties. But he chose a career in
real estate vs. advertising, his
field of study at the University
of Colorado, because of its
entrepreneurial nature rather
than familial ties.
While, “I really liked the
creativity” associated with
advertising, “I wanted some-
thing where what you put
into it is what you get out of
it,” said Carner, who employs
his creativity to build relation-
ships and work through chal-
lenging real estate deals.
Carner graduated from CU
having traveled the world and
having made a big impact on
his own life and that of oth-
ers. In Nepal, he and a partner
once helped refugees coming
out of Tibet make their way
to political and religious sanc-
tuary. “It’s something that’s
always stuck with me, that
in committing yourself to a
cause like that, you can make
a really strong difference in a
really big world.”
Carner spent a year away
from college traipsing through
some 25 different countries
and, after graduating, worked
on a luxury yacht, sailing
the Atlantic, Caribbean and
Mediterranean. He also lived
in Rome for a while. “When
it was time to get a real job, I
came back to Colorado,” he
said.
He considered the various
commercial real estate disci-
plines, settling on industrial. “I
really liked the down-to-earth
nature of the industrial world.
I thought I would be able to
connect in that world really
well.
“I really enjoy seeing all the
different types of businesses
that help people make, in a lot
of cases, a very good living.
You’re dealing with the root
of all business. You’re dealing
with people who are creat-
ing things, making things,
but oftentimes in an unflashy
way.”
According to Bolt, Carner
came off the yacht with “no
business experience whatso-
ever.”
Yet, “I was really struck by
his personality and his genu-
ineness, his empathy for dif-
ferent situations, his thought-
fulness and his charisma,” Bolt
said. “He had some amazing
personality traits, and it
seemed like he would be a
fantastic fit for our business.
“Bringing him into our
group and working closely
with him today – he makes
me better. He brings a whole
different aspect and ability to
the team.”
Bolt said Carner’s future
in the industry is “incredibly,
incredibly bright.”
“He’s really focused on
being the best possible service
provider for every one of his
clients and giving careful per-
sonal attention to everybody
he works with,” Bolt said.
Carner said it’s critical in
brokerage to “always know
where true north is” – in other
words, to make decisions
based on what is right, “even
if it’s a hard thing to say or a
tough piece of advice or even
not to your advantage.”
“We try to treat every client
as a relationship and not a
deal,” he said, adding he and
Ballenger “work really hard
to understand where both
groups are coming from in a
deal.”
Among Carner’s memorable
deals was the $20.25 million
sale of Midtown Industrial
Center in the rapidly changing
River North neighborhood.
“That was a very challenging
deal with a lot of moving parts
and complicated idiosyncra-
sies to it and that had a lot of
interest from a lot of buyers,”
he said.
Carner’s travels have kept
him “culturally curious,” and
he said, “I feel like life is not
totally complete if I don’t have
some adventure or exciting
thing on the horizon.” A cou-
ple of years ago, he climbed
Tyler Carner
SECTION AA
JUNE 17-JUNE 30, 2015
The Monterey recently sold for $60 million.
Gordy Stofer
Another view of the Monterey