by Jill Jamieson-Nichols
Landing one of the larg-
est tenants in Denver was
the latest good fortune for
Enterprise Business Center,
whose success even owner
United Properties couldn’t
have anticipated a few short
years ago.
“I don’t think anyone
could have envisioned it,”
s a i d
K e v i n
K e l l e y,
U n i t e d
Prope r-
ties vice
p r e s i -
d e n t .
“ We ’ r e
very for-
t u n a t e
that we
started when we did. We
did see the signs of a recov-
ery in 2012, but to say that
we could have predicted
that this would be the out-
come – there’s just no way.”
Beverage
Distribu-
tors, Colorado’s largest
distributor of beer, wine
and spirits, will occupy a
646,000-square-foot building
at Enterprise Business Cen-
ter at Stapleton, a Class A
industrial park at Interstate
70 and Havana Street. The
building is believed to be
the largest industrial build-
ing built in Denver since
the 1970s. Construction will
start this month.
A 157,000-sf speculative
flex building also will be
built.
The new construction will
bring the park to 100 acres
and more than 2 million
sf, most of which has been
leased prior to completion.
Preleasing success is attrib-
utable to market demand, as
well as Enterprise Business
Center’s location close to the
city’s core with easy access
to Interstate 70.
Beverage Distributors
looked at four other alterna-
tives, but all were farther out
than the company desired,
according to company
President and CEO Joseph
Marotta. Most options were
near I-70 and E-470.
“We felt the location of
the development was supe-
rior to the other available
locations,” Marotta said in
an email. “We were also
impressed with the team
assembled by United Prop-
erties and are very comfort-
able that our building will
be delivered on time and as
promised.”
Beverage Distributors, a
subsidiary of Charmer Sun-
belt that employs more than
600 people, will consolidate
by John Rebchook
Dallas-based Mill Creek Resi-
dential plans to break ground
this month on the $90 million,
362-unit MCRT Brighton apart-
ment community.
The luxury community on a
2.92-acre site at 2890 Brighton
Blvd. is the latest apartment
community coming to RiNo.
And its location at Brighton
Boulevard and 29th Street is
considered the “gateway”
to RiNo, according to Chris
Cowan of ARA Newmark.
Cowan, and his ARA New-
mark partner Steve O’Dell, sold
the property to Mill Creek.
Previously, ARA Newmark
sold a nearby 301-unit apart-
ment community at 2767
Wewatta St. for $72.5 million,
or $240,869 per door.
The sales price of the land
wasn’t released, but records
show it was $14.65 million, or
$115.02 per square foot.
In addition, ARA Newmark,
including Cowan, through its
Capital Markets group, raised
an undisclosed amount of equi-
ty for MCRT on behalf of Mill
Creek. The equity was raised
from a large, unidentified pri-
vate equity fund.
Records, however, show Post
Apartment Homes is providing
$57.09 million in financing for
the development.
The Brighton Boulevard Cor-
ridor is a key strategic focus
for the city of Denver and has
benefited from more than $100
million in public and private
investments during the past
several years, according to
ARA Newmark.
In addition to a number of
new luxury apartment commu-
nities, which are less expen-
sive than the new breed of
buildings going forward in the
Union Station area of down-
town, RiNo has become a hub
of creative offices, art galleries
and other businesses and cul-
tural amenities.
The Wall Street Journal, for
example, recently focused on
RiNo in an article on Denver
being a magnet for millennials.
“For an area that was con-
sidered the wrong side of the
tracks no more than 18 months
ago, there has been incredible
institutional capital interest
for this front door location,”
Cowan said.
“RiNo hasn’t just made the
map for Denver – it is the map,”
Cowan said.
“It is impossible to articulate
all of the fluidity and activity
happening there,” he said.
by Jennifer Hayes
Jokingly referred to as the
dirt and death group, it is
exactly where Zane Dennis,
CPA, wants to be.
Dennis, tax partner and
real estate practice leader at
Richey May & Co., laughs
off the less-than-flattering
nickname for the real estate
and estate/trust tax practice
group as itʼs where he got his
start in the tax industry more
than 25 years ago and where
he is delighted to continue to
be today.
“I don’t understand the idea
of work as drudgery,” said
Dennis, who attributes his
success and longevity within
the industry to his passion for
it. “I love it. I spent the first
10 years not thinking it was
a career. I freely admit I was
and am a nerd but I’m inter-
ested in a lifetime of learning
and improving. It’s fun, not
work, finding solutions to a
problem.”
Raised on a cattle ranch in
south central Texas, Dennis
points to his first job, at age
14 at the Piggly Wiggly, as
instilling in him a work ethic
and willingness to get up and
keep going from a stumble
that still resonates today.
As well, living in a small
town, where his teachers saw
something bigger in him than
bagging groceries and so
pushed him to excel at school,
including a high school Eng-
lish teacher driving him hours
to the nearest ACT test site,
inspired him to always try his
best.
It was this foundation that
Dennis took with him to col-
lege, graduating from Sam
Houston State with a double
major in computer science
and accounting and land-
ing his first job in the dirt
and death group at KPMG’s
Houston office before join-
ing Kenneth Leventhal Real
Estate Group in Houston,
where he worked until joining
the national tax practice office
in Washington, D.C., then the
tax practice office in Miami
prior to the firm merging with
Ernst & Young.
It was then that he and his
wife took an “accountant-
like” approach to where they
wanted to next live and work.
Colorado was the first place
they visited. It was also the
only and last.
Dennis joined Shenkin
Kurtz Baker, where he
worked in the tax department
and led the formation of a real
estate services group before
joining BetaWest Ltd./DLJ
Real Estate Capital Partners,
where he was chief financial
officer for 14 years.
Last year, he joined Richey
May – a move he found stim-
ulating.
“It’s refreshing to be back
in public accounting, helping
clients of a public accounting
firm,” he said of joining the
firm. “Real estate tax planning
can literally save millions of
dollars for our clients.”
Dennis also believes his
background in both public
and private sectors of the tax
industry gives him a unique
perspective in doing business.
“It’s not just about being
good at accounting but being
good at real estate and under-
standing the industry,” said
Dennis. “I know what it’s like
to be the client and the service
provider and what disap-
pointed me on both sides.
“I relish being able to pro-
vide a service to people every
day,” he added. “My favorite
part of my job is the birth of
a creative idea, being able to
look at a situation and see
it differently than others, to
solve a conundrum no one
else could solve and the joy
when it works.”
The challenge of the conun-
drum also keeps Dennis com-
ing back for more and puts
his emphasis on how impor-
tant numbers – basic account-
ing – are to the business of
real estate.
Over his career, Dennis has
participated in the disposition,
acquisition and financing of
billions of dollars of real estate
in the U.S. and internation-
ally as well as projects such as
the Stapleton Redevelopment
Authority and Simon Prop-
erty Trust’s real estate invest-
ment trust.
Dennis is active with the
Urban Land Institute hous-
ing committee, as he believes
that the affordable housing
industry lends itself to social
change. “There is a lack of
diversity, socioeconomic,
thoughts, not just skin color,
in our neighborhoods.”
He also is an avid outdoors-
man who enjoys backpacking,
camping, mountain climbing,
running and spending time
with his wife and two daugh-
ters.
“Enjoy it,” quipped Dennis,
noting these two words are
his guiding philosophy, be it
for work or life outside the
office.
“I’m so pleased to be here
and doing what I’m doing,”
added Dennis, who dismissed
thoughts of slowing down,
ever. “I’m having too much
fun doing what I am doing. I
don’t understand retirement.
Sitting on a porch would be
punishment: You don’t rest,
you just rust.”
s
Zane Dennis
SECTION AA
SEPTEMBER 2-SEPTEMBER 15, 2015
Shown is Modera River North, a 362-unit apartment community coming
to RiNo.
Kevin Kelley
