Page 18 —
COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
— December 16, 2015-January 5, 2016
by Jennifer Hayes
Radford Investment Prop-
erties added to its Colorado
Springs portfolio with its
acquisition of Verde Meadows.
The buyer paid $3.85 million
for the 100-unit community at
1430 S. Chelton Road – a sis-
ter property to Alvarado Place,
which Radford Investment
Properties acquired earlier this
year.
“We are very familiar with
this type of property as three
of our Colorado Springs prop-
erties, including Verde Mead-
ows, were built by the same
developer,” explained Greg
Morris, principal with Radford
Investment Properties.
“We plan to implement a
renovation program very simi-
lar to the one we are using
at Alvarado Place,” added
Michael Foester, principal with
Radford Investment Proper-
ties.
A private seller out of Colo-
rado Springs sold the commu-
nity, built in 1983, in an off-
market transaction.
“Timing is very important in
real estate and we were fortu-
nate to have been able to inter-
est two separate groups in the
acquisition of
Verde Mead-
ows at the
same time,
even though
we weren’t
a c t i v e l y
m a r k e t i n g
the
prop-
erty,” said
Bill Morkes
of Colliers
International Denver Multi-
family Advisory Group.
“We had a good understand-
ing of what the seller was look-
ing for and what type of buyer
would be suitable for the acqui-
sition. After selling Alvarado
Place to Radford Investment
Properties earlier in the year,
we knew they would be a like-
ly candidate for Verde,” noted
Craig Stack, also of Colliers
International Denver Multi-
family Advisory Group.
Morkes and Stack represent-
ed the seller in the transaction.
“The second buyer was com-
ing out of an exchange and had
proactively reached out to us in
hopes of helping them find a
suitable replacement property.
Though their offer ultimately
didn’t win, we think they are
a great buyer for similar prop-
erties in the market,” added
Morkes.
The community features a
mix of junior one-bedroom,
one-bedroom and two-bed-
room apartments that were
around 95 percent occupied at
the time of sale. The property
includes a swimming pool, spa
and laundry room.
When originally built, Verde
Meadows and Alvarado Place
were sister properties, owned
and operated by the same com-
pany. With this latest acquisi-
tion, Radford hopes to achieve
many of the same operational
efficiencies originally envi-
sioned by the developer, added
Morkes.
With the acquisition, Rad-
ford Investment Properties
owns 410 units in Colorado
Springs.
s
Colorado Springs/So. Front Range
by Jennifer Hayes
A newly completed Colorado
Springs apartment asset sold to
an undisclosed buyer for $9.06
million, or $150,917 per unit.
An undisclosed buyer pur-
chased the Alturas at Bell Tower,
a 60-unit community at 1130 Bell
Tower Heights.
Constructed in 2013, the prop-
erty received a significant amount
of attention due to its notable
upside in rents, condominium-
quality finishes, proximity to
multiple employment develop-
ments in Colorado Springs and
its unique place in the market,
noted Kevin McKenna and Saul
Levy of ARA Newmark. There
have been no conventional mul-
tihousing properties built within
a five-mile radius of the property
in the last 10 years and, as such,
Alturas at Bell Tower is one of the
very few Class A communities in
the entire submarket.
“This was the only market-rate
apartment community built in
the last 20 years under 100 units
in Colorado Springs,” explained
McKenna, who, with Levy, repre-
sented the seller, All Pro Capital.
“Typically, the only option is to
buy an asset under $10 million
with buildings over 40 years old.
In addition, it is not often you find
new construction available for a
significant discount-to-replace-
ment cost. As a result, we had
a number of aggressive buyers
jumping at the opportunity.”
Alturas at Bell Tower garnered
double-digit offers with the win-
ning bidder exceeding list price.
“The seller did a fantastic job
developing the property and their
timing could not have been better.
Costs have increased significantly
since the time of construction and
the market continues to be very
strong,” added McKenna.
At the time of sale, the com-
munity was 97 percent occupied.
Other News
n
Catholic Health Initiatives
Foundation
recently leased
12,274 square feet of office space
at 1150 Kelly Johnson Blvd. in
Colorado Springs.
It leased the space from
FN
LLC.
Mary Frances Cowan
and
Russell Stroud
of
Quantum
Commercial Group Inc.
along
with
Gary Hollenbeck
of
Palm-
er McAllister
were the listing
brokers.
Thomas Powell
of
Equity Colorado Real Estate
was the cooperating broker.
n
Walter Kidde Portable
Equipment LLC
expanded its
lease at the Centennial Technol-
ogy Center in Colorado Springs.
The firm, which specializes in
the research and development
of consumer safety products,
expanded and extended its lease
at the property at 4820 Centen-
nial Blvd., which brought the
two-building, 110,000-sf tech
center to 100 percent occupancy.
The transaction size was
17,076 sf.
NAI Highland LLC’s Paul W.
Engel
represented the landlord,
NetREIT Centennial LLC. Peter
Scoville
and
Greg Phaneuf
of
Colorado Springs Commercial,
a Cushman & Wakefield Alli-
ance
represented the lessee.
s
The 60-unit community is one of the few conventional, multihousing
Class A communities built in the entire submarket.
Radford Investment Properties plans to implement a renovation program at the 100-unit Verde Meadows.
Bill Morkes
‘Timing is very
important in real
estate and we
were fortunate to
have been able
to interest two
separate groups in
the acquisition of
Verde Meadows
at the same time,
even though we
weren’t actively
marketing the
property.’
– Bill Morkes, Colliers
International Denver
Multifamily Advisory Group
