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COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
— December 2-December 15, 2015
Boulder County & U.S. 36 Corridor
by Jill Jamieson-Nichols
A 100,000-square-foot office/
retail development in Boulder
will break ground in more ways
than one.
“We’re the first net-zero project
in Boulder and one of the first
in the country that I know of
that hasn’t been built by either
the government or a foundation,”
said Andrew Bush of Morgan
Creek Ventures in Boulder.
Ajoint venture ofMorganCreek
Ventures and San Francisco-based
New Island Capital, Boulder
Commons will consist of two
four-story buildings to be built
just north of the transit center at
Boulder Junction. It is set to break
ground in late January.
“We believe in Boulder Junction
and the transit village,” said Bush.
“I thinkdowntownwill always be
the center of Boulder, but we feel
like this will be a second center of
activity,” he said.
Bush sees Boulder Junction
evolving into a lively, pedestrian-
oriented area that, over the next
five to 10 years, also will have a
thriving retail presence.
“It will be an alternative
to downtown for creative
companies, and it may be a little
more creative and interesting
than downtown because it’s not
all historic buildings. I think it
will be different and different in a
good way.”
People are getting a sense of
what Boulder Junction will
become given construction of
new apartments, condos, the
transit center, a hotel, etc., said
Bush. “I think the area is coming
into its own.”
An approximately $35 million
project, Boulder Commons will
combine creative office and retail/
quasi-retail space, including a
restaurant, coffee shopand“coffee
club.” The club, with high-speed
Internet, will serve as a casual
co-working space for people who
don’t come in every day.
The southernmost building,
totaling 40,000 sf, will feature a
2,000-sf lobby/lounge, which
Bush described as a “W hotel
lobby without the music.” It will
be a place for tenants to work on
laptops or hang out with friends
with core furniture that can be
moved around. There also will
be a classroom for training and
meetings.
The larger, northernmost
building will have a quiet lobby
for relaxing, and local and
regional art curated by Boulder-
basedArt Movement Colorado.
A public plaza will connect the
two buildings, which face Goose
Creek to the south, Junction Place
to the West and railroad tracks to
the east.
Solar panels will cover virtually
every roof surface and a southeast
wall, and inside, a highly efficient
heating and cooling system and
tight building envelope will
minimize energy use.
According
to
Bush,
approximately 40 percent of the
space is spoken for.
Boulder Commons’ office space
will provide open floor plans for
tenants up to 20,000 sf, with a goal
of housing eight to 10 tenants.
“We are known for creative
office space. We cater to creative
tenants, and we understand how
they like to work,” said Bush.
“Right now is a good time
in Boulder to be building a
building. Most of the new build-
ings in Boulder are almost com-
pletely leased, even if they’re not
finished,” he said, noting down-
town’s typically smaller floor
plates have become a source of
frustration for tenants that are
growing. “People tend to be very
interested in some of the new
buildings, not just ours.”
Morgan Creek Ventures’ part-
ner in the project, New Island
Capital, is one of the largest
“impact” investors in the coun-
try. It invests debt and equity in
projects that provide risk-adjust-
ed returns while also making a
positive impact with regard to
community, alternative energy
and environment, for instance.
Bush expects Boulder Com-
mons to welcome its first occu-
pants in February 2017 and be
complete by July 2017.
Coburn Development is the
architect of record for the Com-
mons, with EHDD providing
sustainability expertise and
Huntsman Architectural Group
designing the interior. Morten-
son Construction is the contrac-
tor.
Shane Bohart and Wade Wim-
mer of CBRE aremarketing Boul-
der Commons.
Other News
n
InsideAsia Tours,
headquar-
tered in Bristol, United Kingdom,
will relocate its U.S. office from
1209 Pearl St. to 4,900 square feet
of Class A space at 1738 Pearl
in Boulder to accommodate its
growing business andworkforce.
“We have outgrown the cur-
rent location and are at the state
now where we want our own
space, with our own identity,
in order to not only keep our
current workforce happy and
motivated but also to attract new
employees and clients,” U.S.
Director
Mathew Eccles
said
in a statement. The U.S. branch
has grown from one person to
13 employees since 2010 and is
expected to increase further in
the near future. Bookings have
increased from $175,000 to $5.5
million in that same time frame.
InsideAsia Tours helps people
plan vacations to Japan, Burma,
Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. It
currently occupies 1,648 sf.
InsideAsia Tours expects to
move into its new office space
in early 2016.
Unico Properties
is redeveloping the property and
is seeking LEED certification for
environmentally friendly build-
ing standards and sustainability.
Ashley Overton
and
Michael
Hastings
of
Flatiron Commercial
LLC
represented InsideAsia Tours
in the lease.
Chris Boston
and
Stacey Kerns
of
Gibbons-White
Inc.
represented the landlord.
s
Boulder Commons will be Boulder’s first net-zero development.
A plaza will join the two buildings.
without a reliable tax-increment
financing component, said John
Lehigh, president and chief oper-
ating officer of Forest City Staple-
ton.
“We never would have risked
investing in Belmar or the Uni-
versity Hospital site if we knew
our TIF packages would be
subject to voter approval,” said
Mark G. Falcone, founder and
chief operating officer of Con-
tinuum Partners.
And Steve Shoflick, princi-
pal of Miller Real Estate Invest-
ments LLC, had this to say prior
to the Nov. 3 vote: “We have
been involved in many success-
ful public-private partnerships
across the metro area. In each
instance, the use of tax-increment
financing was a critical compo-
nent required to bring the project
to life. “Without the complete
confidence that such financing
would be approved, we could
not have pursued those develop-
ments,” Shoflick said. “Requir-
ing voter approval would have
made the pursuit too risky.”
Patrick Goff, city manager
for Wheat Ridge, said a lawsuit
opposing the retroactive nature
of the ballot measure as uncon-
stitutional likely will be filed
prior to the Colorado Real Estate
Journal deadline for this article.
“It’s probably going to be filed
any day,” he said inmid-Novem-
ber.
In fact, there is also a question
as to whether the entire resolu-
tion is constitutional, Goff said.
But if it is upheld, the first
thing it likely will do is “kill” the
38th and Wadsworth project, he
said.
The developer, Quadrant
Properties, already has invested
$600,000 to $700,000 into that
development, Goff said.
Stan Kroenke, the owner of the
Pepsi Center, the Denver Nug-
gets and a Walmart heir, is one
of the partners in the proposed
project, Goff said.
A much bigger deal is also in
jeopardy.
An unnamed developer plans
to buy an 80-acre site at Interstate
70 andHighway 58, where Cabe-
la’s was planning a 1 million-
sf development a decade ago,
before backing out of the deal
when the economy softened.
“Cabela’s was looking at $30
million or $50 million” in tax-
increment financing, Goff said.
The new development would
likely have 500,000 sf to 600,000
sf of space, but still would call for
many millions of dollars in tax-
increment financing, resulting
in a vote by Wheat Ridge resi-
dents, if the resolution is upheld
in court.
When Resolution 300 was
adopted, the developer of the
former Cabela’s site was incred-
ulous, Goff said.
A number of other projects on
the drawing board also will like-
ly be scrapped, Goff said, if the
resolution doesn’t lose in court.
Wheat Ridge may look like
it is not “open for business” if
Resolution 300 is upheld, he said.
“That is one of my main con-
cerns,” Goff said.
“Wheat Ridge had that reputa-
tion for several decades.
“We really worked hard over
the past decade to change our
image and that we were really
open for business,” he said.
“Now, Wheat Ridge is facing a
big obstacle. Developers are not
going to want to take a chance
with us and will go elsewhere.
That is what really scares me,”
Goff said.
Max Truax, the campaignman-
ager for Forward Wheat Ridge, a
group that opposed Resolution
300, said he thinks the vote nar-
rowly passed because of a lot of
misunderstandings.
“I think part of is that a lot
of people just saw it is an anti-
Walmart vote,” not realizing the
impact would go far beyond a
relatively small grocery store at
Wadsworth and 38th, he said.
However, if the measure
stands, it sets a “dangerous”
precedent, not only for Wheat
Ridge, but also for the metro
area.
He pointed out that Littleton
voters previously approved a
similar measure.
“I could see these types of votes
spreading to bigger metropolitan
areas, even Denver,” Truax said.
Going forward, it will be
important for other communi-
ties “to get out in front of” such
citizen measures as early as pos-
sible, he said.
“You really need to address
the root causes for these types of
measures and host town meet-
ings to discuss them,” Truax said.
“If you don’t get in front of it,
is very easy to lose in the court
of public opinion and lose at the
ballot box.”
s
