by Jill Jamieson-Nichols
A Class A office building
in Meridian International
Business Center hit the
right note for a California
investor.
Mark IV Capital paid
$15.5 million for Maroon
V, an 88,633-square-foot
office building at 9540 S.
Maroon Circle in Engle-
wood. The building is the
company’s second acqui-
sition in the neighbor-
hood – it has owned Three
Maroon Circle since 2013.
“Maroon V was a great
opportunity to grow our
Denver portfolio and spe-
cifically our southeast
suburban portfolio. It fits
well within our long-term
strategy of acquiring high-
quality assets in excellent
locations, below replace-
m e n t
c o s t , ”
s a i d
Mark IV
A s s e t
Manager
E v a n
Slavik.
Slavik
said the
acquisi-
tion also
provides economies of
scale in terms of leasing,
property management and
building engineering, for
instance.
Maroon V, anchored by
Baxter International, was
100 percent leased at the
time of the sale. Baxter, an
A credit tenant that has
been in the building since
Shea Properties devel-
oped it in 2008, occupies
nearly three-quarters of
the square footage and
recently recommitted to
the building.
“You’ve got great ten-
ancy with some term – in
Meridian, a business park
that is outperforming
the rest of the southeast
submarket,” said Geoff
Baukol ,
s e n i o r
v i c e
p r e s i -
dent in
CBRE ’ s
P r i v a t e
Cap i t a l
G r o u p .
Bes ides
h a v i n g
a strong
international company as
its main tenant, “It is a
phenomenally constructed
and developed building
– very, very high quality.
It’s a great combination of
attractive traits,” Baukol
said.
By John Rebchook
With a prime location at the
foot of the 18th Street pedestrian
bridge and 100 feet from the new
rail station west of Union Station
that next year will provide train
service to the Denver Internation-
al Airport, the five-story, 280-unit
Alta City House is hard to miss.
Renters, with a growing choice
of Class Aapartment buildings in
the Union Station area, certainly
have taken notice.
Several months after having
been completed by Wood Part-
ners, the 280-unitAlta CityHouse
is 78 percent leased. The com-
munity opened in May, although
preleasing started earlier.
Rental rates at Alta City House,
according to Apartment Insights,
an apartment community data-
base by appraiser Cary Bruteig,
range from $2.18 to $2.98 per
square foot. The building is still
classified as being in the lease-up
stage.
Monthly rents range from
$1,320 to $3,000 per month,
according to AI.
Alta City House, at 1801
Chestnut Place, was developed
by Wood Partners and Denver-
based East West Partners.
East West is the developer of
Riverfront Park and, along with
Continuum Partners, is a devel-
oper of Union Station Neighbor-
hood. USAA Real Estate Co. also
is part of the development ven-
ture for Alta City House.
Wood Residential Services,
Wood Partners’ property man-
agement division, is mana-
by Jill Jamieson-Nichols
Creating a great building
is a developer’s reward.
Creating a great place is his
dream.
“I love the tangibility of
what we do. At the end of
the day, I’ve got space, I’ve
got volume, I’ve got art,”
said McWhinney’s Dean
Barber, who, having studied
architecture, appreciates
how difficult it is to create
beautiful buildings.
“I love how McWhinney
has taken that a step further.
It’s beyond just building a
great building. It’s creat-
ing a great place. Chad
(McWhinney) has always
had this really strong vision
of bringing people together
– and the power of bringing
people together through real
estate. That’s what really
excites me day in and day
out,” he said.
As senior vice president of
development management,
Barber assembles and leads
the teams that carry out all
McWhinney developments.
Those include places such
as Centerra in Loveland, the
Crawford Hotel at Denver
Union Station and, now,
Denver’s historic Dairy
Block.
"Dean is a very important
member of our team, and I
often believe he makes the
clocks run on time and our
projects on budget," said
Chad McWhinney, CEO and
co-founder of McWhinney.
"With his vast experience
and knowledge of construc-
tion and development, we
feel lucky to have the oppor-
tunity to work with him. He
is best in class."
Before joining McWhinney
13 years ago, Barber worked
as an architect with RNL
and spent eight years with
The Neenan Co., where his
development work included
a number of medical proj-
ects. He loved working with
physicians, understanding
how they work and the com-
plexity of putting projects
together.
Barber also has developed
office and industrial build-
ings, as well as build-to-suits
for companies including
Fiberspar, CSG Systems Inc.,
Crop Production Services
and others. He currently
is working on a 600-room
Great Wolf Resort with a
100,000-square-foot water
park in Garden Grove, Cali-
fornia.
Of all of his projects, one
stands out. “I would have
to say the Crawford Hotel
at Union Station is still one
of the most memorable I’ve
ever worked on, probably
ever will. We had the where-
withal to build what we
dreamed, and that’s pretty
rare. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime
project.”
An Aurora native, Barber
earned a Bachelor of Archi-
tecture degree from Califor-
nia Polytechnic State Uni-
versity and interned at RNL
during the summer. He was
fortunate to land a job with
the company, and fortunate
too to learn about effective
leadership by seeing how
founder John Rogers ran
the company. However, “I
became very frustrated with
the profession,” said Barber,
explaining college course-
work tends to focus more on
theory and history than how
to build buildings.
Barber took graduate-
level construction manage-
ment classes at Colorado
State University and joined
Neenan, working on projects
in Colorado and Arizona.
Company Chairman David
Neenan taught him design-
build, and also taught him
the importance of taking
personal responsibility for
one’s work.
“I’ve been fortunate. I’ve
worked with great people,”
said Barber, who counts
among them Chad McWhin-
ney, and local developers
Marshall Burton and John
Shaw.
Not every deal has been
perfect, and Barber has
learned a lesson or two
along the way. He recalled
a project in which a general
contractor, who happened
to be a good friend, “redi-
rected” funds from a project.
Rather than leaving it to
the subcontractors to try to
collect, Chad McWhinney
chose to make them whole
at the expense of his own
company’s profits, Barber
said, “That’s the way Chad
approaches things,” he said.
“In development you
have a lot of challenges to
maintain your core values
and integrity,” said Barber,
who believes staying true to
one’s values and surround-
ing yourself with people
who share those values are
critical.
“My main job is to build
teams,” he said. “We are
very thoughtful in our part-
nerships with our architects
and our contractors. It’s
finding people who have
the same core values, who
are aligned on where we’re
going and are capable of
performing,” he said, add-
Dean Barber
SECTION AA
SEPTEMBER 16-OCTOBER 6, 2015
Alta City House is near Union Station.
Evan Slavik
Geoff Baukol
