by Jill Jamieson-Nichols
A landmark office tower
on the Colorado Boule-
vard corridor sold to a
local buyer that is reposi-
tioning the asset.
An entity led by West-
side Investment Partners
purchased Mountain Tow-
ers for $25.25 million. The
19-story, 209,813-square-
foot building at 4100 E.
Mississippi Ave. in Glen-
dale, just west of Infinity
Park, has been renamed
Infinity Tower.
Westside Investment
Partners will redo the
lobby and common areas
inside and out, add a fit-
ness center and showers,
and create a large, mod-
ern conference room that’s
conducive for training and
other presentations.
“We felt like it was a
good opportunity to repo-
sition the asset,” said
Andrew Klein, Westside
Investment Partners prin-
cipal. The building was 72
percent occupied when it
sold, while office occupan-
cy along Colorado Boule-
vard – which is benefiting
from escalating prices in
Cherry Creek – is around
90 percent, he said.
“There are a lot of people
moving into that area from
the Cherry Creek area,
where the prices have
g o t t e n
s i gn i f i -
c a n t l y
higher,”
K l e i n
said.
Inves-
tor inter-
est in the
b u i l d -
ing was
“ p h e -
nomenal,” according to
James Brady of Cushman
& Wakefield.
“It’s an iconic asset with
a true value-add story
with the lease-up of the
vacancy and drafting off
increasing rents in Cherry
Creek,” said Brady. With
lease rates in Cherry Creek
skyrocketing, he said, rents
also are improving along
Colorado Boulevard.
Brady represented sell-
er Northridge Capital, a
Washington, D.C.-based
asset manager, with Cush-
man & Wakefield’s R.C.
Myles and Stockton Baker.
Infinity Tower’s largest
tenant is the U.S. Depart-
ment of Veterans Affairs,
which occupies 30 percent
of the building. The VA
has a dozen different divi-
sions in the tower, each
by John Rebchook
Denver-based BMC recently
paid $65 million to Belgarde
Enterprises of Minneapolis
for the 584-unit Liberty Creek
Apartment Home Community
in Aurora.
The sale culminated a two-
year relationship between Mat-
thew Joblon, CEO of BMC, and
officials from Belgarde.
With Liberty Creek, BMC has
paid $162 million to Belgarde
for a total of 1,933 apartment
units in the Denver area.
In its first deal with Belgarde,
in 2013, BMC paid $25 million
for the 384-unit Four Seasons
apartment community in West-
minster.
“From that time on, we just
had a great relationship with
them,” said Joblon, whose com-
pany has bought 4,500 units in
the Denver area since 2010 as
well as developing the 218-unit
Steele Creek at 3222 E. First Ave.,
the most expensive apartment
tower ever built in Denver.
by Jill Jamieson-Nichols
Mike Kboudi has turned a
passion for helping people
into the business of selling
land.
“When I was study-
ing psychology, at first I
thought, ‘Boy, I can help
a lot of people.’ I do that
now, but I also get to have
a career that I really enjoy,”
said Kboudi, a managing
director at Cushman &
Wakefield in Denver.
“There’s a creativity to
land that you don’t get from
other areas,” he said. “I like
the idea of turning nothing
into something.”
Kboudi learned the land
business under veteran Stew
Mosko and partnered with
Jim Capecelatro 14 years ago
to create one of Denver’s
foremost land brokerage
teams.
The partnership came
about because Kboudi and
Capecelatro were represent-
ing the same client on dif-
ferent deals and wanted to
make sure they provided
consistent representation.
“We worked really well
together. It was kind of a
seamless transition. Nothing
changed between how the
two of us were working, but
all of the sudden, each of us
was able to do better work
because the other one was
there,” said Kboudi.
“I’m a macro guy … Jim
is very detailed … It’s a per-
fect relationship. We have
100 percent trust in each
other,” Kboudi said.
“He is top-shelf and a
solid partner,” said Capece-
latro.
Kboudi and Capecelatro
frequently are recognized
for their success – they are
six-time winners of NAIOP
Colorado’s Land Broker of
the Year award, for instance.
Kboudi doesn’t keep tabs
on how much land they’ve
sold, however. He’s focused
on current deals, includ-
ing entitlements for the
41-acre Broadway Station
(the “Gates site”), selling
the 72-acre Karl’s Dairy
property in Northglenn and
representing U.S. Bank on
a 8½-acre listing next to the
Renaissance Boulder Flat-
iron Hotel in Interlocken.
The goal is to add value,
something the team was
able to do successfully
even through the recession.
“We were representing a
lot of banks, which are not
used to being landowners.
That’s not what they do
for a living,” said Kboudi.
Furnishing them with infor-
mation and trying to create
competition among buyers
helped preserve as much
value as possible and avoid
“the deals that were 15 cents
on the dollar that they may
have taken if we weren’t
there,” he said.
“During the down times
we actually got more thank-
yous from clients than
we do during up times
because during the up times
everybody
expects
to make
money.”
A San Antonio native,
Kboudi studied psychology,
but changed his mind about
a counseling career while
working on his master’s
degree at the University of
Houston. After graduating,
“I had a U-Haul full of stuff
and was leaving Houston
to go back to Austin for an
interview with an industrial
developer. My interview
was at 9 o’clock. I got into
Austin about 7:30 in the
morning, and I was having
a great drive. I called the
guy I was going to interview
with and told him, ‘Thanks
for the opportunity. I appre-
ciate it, but I’m going to
keep going,’ and I drove to
Denver.”
He didn’t know a soul
but three weeks later had a
job with what, at that time,
was Fuller and Co. (not to
be confused with Fuller
Real Estate, another com-
pany that still exists). He
remained with the company
through its transitions to
DTZ and, more recently,
Cushman & Wakefield.
“The energy around here
is amazing,” he said.
Kboudi organizes the
company’s annual Day of
Giving, which helps local
nonprofits; coaches youth
basketball and baseball;
serves on the board of the
Jewish Community Center;
and volunteers with Junior
Achievement.
He and his wife, Toni, an
administrator with Aurora
Public Schools, are raising
three children: Aiden, 13, Jil-
lian, 9, and Grayson, 8.
“My family is awesome. It
is so fun. I love getting out
of the office and going home
and spending time with
them.”
“Mike has an uncanny
ability of juggling a lot of
balls at work while also pur-
suing a very active schedule
outside the office,” said
Capecelatro, adding he does
that with great energy and
instincts, as well as some-
times-irreverent humor.
Although Kboudi visits
Mike Kboudi
SECTION AA
BMC paid $65 million for Liberty Creek.
James Brady
