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Page 12 — COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL — July 1-July 14, 2015
Two other speculative office
developments have been
announced on the Denver-Boul-
der corridor: VanTrustReal Estate
plans an approximately 190,000-
sf ClassAbuilding in Interlocken
Advanced Technology Environ-
ment, and Etkin Johnson Real
Estate Partners is building Atria
at Broomfield Corporate Center,
which will have 173,380 sf of
open-floor-plan space.
Arista Place II, located onMain
Street with retail, restaurants, a
hotel, bus rapid-transit station,
parking structure and the neigh-
boring 1stBank Center, “is going
to be the only new construction
that has walkable amenities,”
said Misner. “We think that it
has a distinct advantage over the
other locations,” he said.
With office lease rates in Boul-
der hitting historic highs, the cor-
ridor is likely to see some users
flee the city for the U.S. 36 corri-
dor, where a flurry of investment
sales activity is likely to boost
rates by $1 or $2 per sf, according
to Misner. “The delta between
existing product and new con-
struction is going to be decreased
significantly,” he said.
Arista Place II is scheduled
for completion in June 2016. As
the building is leased up, Wiens
plans to launch a third building,
Arista Place III. The company
also is making plans for an addi-
tional 45 acres of land to house
future office and retail develop-
ment.
“Construction activity at
Arista was slowed during the
recession, but since 2010, more
than 1,250 residences have
been built, a 90,000-square-foot
hospital is under construction
and a 68,000-square-foot medi-
cal office building is in plan-
ning.,” said Zepeda.
“Arista overcame the hurdle of
the recession and now the devel-
opment is quickly evolving into
everything we thought it could
be,” added Tim Wiens, WREV
principal.
Jordan Wiens of Wiens Real
Estate is responsible for retail
leasing for the new build-
ing, which was designed by
gkkworks. Pinkard Construction
is the general contractor. s
“It’s a significant expansion
for them,” said Keith Kanemo-
to of Re/Max Traditions Com-
mercial, who represented the
buyer, BFSL Holdings LLC.
The company plans to remod-
el the building and move in in
late summer or early fall.
Jason Kruse of the Colo-
rado Group represented Bea-
ver Creek Investments in the
$2.75 million sale. Beaver Creek
Investments built the building
for a beer distribution company
and rented it out after that busi-
ness sold. It recently decided to
sell the property.
“The property had two offers,
and then another offer after we
were under contract. The fact
that the sales market is robust
and it was priced below replace-
ment cost made the property
attractive,” said Kruse.
The building also offers
20-foot ceiling clearance, and
Kanemoto said there is a lack of
high-bay warehouse space for
sale in the market. Built in 1977,
it has dock-high and drive-in
loading.
Other News
n A three-building retail/office
center in Longmont recently sold
for $1.72 million.
Lashley Retail Center LLC, a
local investment group, bought
the 33,958-square-foot Lashley
Retail Center at 310, 340-380 and
390 Lashley St. from Lashley 3
LLC. The buyer plans exterior
upgrades, including signage and
landscaping, as well as roof and
HVAC improvements, said Matt
Call of NavPoint Real Estate
Group, who represented the
buyer.
“The buyer’s intention is to go
in and really clean up the center.
It was really a value-add play for
the buyer,” said Call.
The center was 85 percent
occupied at the time of the sale.
Tenants include Odyssey Yoga,
LifeBridge Christian Church,
Rainbow Laundry & Dry Clean-
ing, a chiropractor and others.
Built in 1984, it is located 10
blocks east of Main Street and
less than a quarter-mile north of
Highway 119.
Sallie Taylor of Irwin & Hen-
drick represented the seller.
n Motherlode Provisions LLC,
a food products company, leased
4,625 sf of industrial space at 950
S. Sherman St., Unit 100, in Long-
mont.
The lease included six months
of rent abatement to compensate
the tenant for installation of ten-
ant improvements.
Larry Hawe of Sperry Van
Ness/The Group Commercial
represented the landlord, Reso-
lution Fund LLC. Jeff Erickson
of LIV Sotheby’s International
Realty represented the tenant.s
type of product in the area,” said
Watson.
Chris Stecker of Cushman &
Wakefield of Colorado Inc., who
represented the seller with Cush-
man & Wakefield’s Drew McMa-
nus, agreed
that multiten-
ant industrial
space is the
highest and
best use for the
property.
Stecker said
the property
is zoned for
industrial uses,
and there is a
dearth of industrial product avail-
able. “There’s very little out there.
There are no vacancies. I think it’s
a great solution for the site, for the
city, for everybody,” said Stecker.
Lakewood-based IRG acquired
the property with the intent of
remediating contamination from
the former microprocessing opera-
tion, which it has done, and sell-
ing it, said Stecker, who repre-
sented IRG when it bought the
property. The new development
will be a boon to the industrial
market in the vicinity, he said,
adding, “I think Brian Watson
(of Northstar) is going to do
really well with this site.”
Chris Ball and Brandon Ray of
DTZ are handling preleasing for
Broomfield Commerce Center.s
Broomfield Commerce Center is proposed to include three state-of-the-art industrial buildings.
Chris Stecker
CoStarGroup
The building at 1850 Lefthand Circle in Longmont sold to a user for $2.75 million.
of American Realty Capital
Properties Inc. were just as bull-
ish and had similar takes on the
Denver area retail market.
However, that has made it
tough on local investors, who
don’t have the access to institu-
tional or shareholder dollars.
Steve Shoflick, president and
chief operating officer of locally
based Miller Real Estate Invest-
ments, noted that he has been
doing deals in the Denver area
for more than 35 years.
But all of the institutional
money pouring into the area has
made it very difficult to com-
pete, he said.
Miller Real Estate is funded by
individual investors and family
offices and it doesn’t make sense
for them to purchase Denver
area properties at today’s low
cap rates, he said.
“There are not that many
opportunities in this market,”
Shoflick said.
Increasingly, he has been
going outside of Colorado to
find investments, he said.
However, one part of the
state that is not enjoying a
retail Renaissance is Colorado
Springs.
While Colorado Springs his-
torically has lagged the Denver
market by 12 to 18 months, it
now is probably 18 to 24 months
behind Denver, said Jay P. Carl-
son, managing broker and prin-
cipal of Front Range Commer-
cial LLC.
“You are just not seeing the job
growth in the Springs,” Carlson
said. “Five to 10 years ago, we
lost some high-paying manufac-
turing jobs and they have been
replaced with (lower-paying)
call center jobs.”
Meanwhile, the specialty gro-
cery store market has showed
a lot of strength, said Brian P.
Shorter, a managing director at
SullivanHayes Brokerage.
“Since the downturn, we have
learned that their customer base
is much more diverse” than
originally anticipated, Shorter
said.
Grocers such as Sprouts Farm-
ers Market and Natural Grocers
not only do well in neighbor-
hoods with high income, but
also they do well in places like
Aurora, where the demograph-
ics are not as strong, he said
“Regardless of incomes …
they have excelled,” he said.s