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Page 24 — Multifamily Properties Quarterly — February 2017
Construction Market
JAKE HALLAUER, CCIM, ANDY SMITH & RYAN SCHAEFER
970-663-3150
CURRENT LISTINGS
1) 18.25± ac. site at the NWC of Highway 392 & County Road 5, Windsor.
2) 9.64± ac. site west of U.S. 287 & the Wal-Mart Supercenter, Loveland.
SITES & INVESTMENTS BROKERED SINCE 2012
3) 17.6± ac. site west of U.S. 287 & adjacent to a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Loveland.
4) 16.1± ac. site at the NWC of Timberline Road & Drake Road in Fort Collins.
5) 2.61± ac. site just SE of Harmony Road & Lemay Ave in Fort Collins.
(Mixed-use apartments & commercial)
6) 16.9± ac. site fronting Timberline Road, approx. 1.25 miles south of Harmony
Road in Fort Collins.
7) 10.5± ac. site SE of I-25 & US 34, within the 2534 mixed-use, master
planned, community in Johnstown.
8) 8.5± ac. site SE of I-25 & US 34, within the 2534 mixed-use, master
planned, community in Johnstown.
9) 220 Unit investment sale - The Preserve at the Meadows, along Horsetooth
Road just west of College Ave in Fort Collins.
TIMNATH
HARMONY ROAD
HORSETOOTH ROAD
DRAKE ROAD
FORT COLLINS
LOVELAND
JOHNSTOWN
WINDSOR
COUNTY ROAD 5
TIMBERLINE ROAD
W 57TH STREET
6
Under Const.
310± units
Planned
110± units
5
Investment
Sale
220± units
9
Complete
314± units
4
Available
1
Available 2
Complete
224± units
3
Complete
254± units 7
Planned
236± units 8
BROKERED TRANSACTIONS FOR
OVER 1,650 UNITS SINCE 2012
NORTHERN COLORADO MULTI-FAMILY EXPERTS
With Colorado’s population
growth rate far exceed-
ing the national average,
according to the U.S. Census
Bureau, limited housing will
continue to be an issue statewide.
The multifamily market is trying to
meet the demand from an increase
in population, but the ability to get
multifamily projects completed
remains as complicated as ever.
Additionally, the architecture, engi-
neering and construction industry
is witnessing a shift toward green
building aimed at sustainability,
adding to the complexity of these
projects. Fortunately, advances in
technology within the AEC industry
have allowed for an evolution in
building materials and are creating
numerous advantages for companies
on the cutting edge.
As the demand for environmen-
tally sensitive construction gains
popularity, traditional practices, sys-
tems and building materials need
to be altered in order to eliminate
waste that can account for about
one-half of a project’s total cost. As
a result, innovative companies have
begun to develop building materials
that are both sustainable and deliver
a performance equal or superior to
traditional materials like wood and
concrete.
This building materials evolu-
tion is being witnessed across the
entire multiunit market, including in
student housing, multifamily apart-
ment communities and senior living
projects.
• Student housing. Student housing
projects typically
feature compact
schedules as stu-
dents need to move
in on a specific date
by the beginning of
the school year. As
a result, time is a
crucial factor in the
student housing
sector and utiliz-
ing materials that
reduce a project’s
duration without
sacrificing quality is ideal.
Technological progress has allowed
building materials like light-gauge
and cold-formed steel to become
optimal for commercial projects
crunched for time. Cold-formed steel
is not a new building material, but
advances in technology have pro-
vided speed of assembly previously
unmatched in multiunit projects.
Standardization of materials is key
to simplifying and compressing the
time period from design to project
completion.
However, it’s important to remem-
ber that standardization refers to the
product process and not to the proj-
ects themselves. Standardized pro-
cesses still yield diverse and unique
final products, but the process cuts
both time and budget.
Steel framing is dimensionally
stable and can be manufactured and
installed to very tight tolerances.
Investing in advanced design and
planning software enables more
precise overall planning and execu-
tion early in the design process,
which reduces the time it takes to
complete a project before ground is
broken.
Colorado Christian University just
used this technology in its four-sto-
ry, 90,000-square-foot residence hall
in Lakewood. The student housing
structure exhibits the advantages
that standardized materials bring to
the multifamily building sector by
delivering an institutional quality
structure in one-third the expected
install time.
We worked on this project and
were able to provide real-time esti-
mates of cost-savings for imple-
menting this technology. Standard-
ized light-gauge steel structural
systems lend themselves well to
off-site prefabrication and paneliza-
tion, which further reduces project
durations. This technique does not
require as many skilled laborers
and drastically reduces the need for
rework – one of the main reasons for
delayed schedules.
Additionally, aggressively phasing
in trade engineers can further short-
en overall construction durations
by months and this framing system
doesn’t need time to cure, allowing
finishing crews to begin work on a
newly completed level right away
instead of waiting for the entire
structure to be finished.
• Apartment communities. Another
multifamily building sector witness-
ing the building materials evolution
is market-rate apartments. Apart-
ment projects are responsible for a
great deal of energy use, resource
waste and greenhouse gas emis-
sions. In fact, according to a study
released by the Environmental Pro-
tection Agency, construction and
demolition debris accounted for
more than 66 percent of the United
States’ total waste generated in 2014.
As the demand for more sustain-
able building options increases,
green construction is becoming
more desirable and, ultimately, more
profitable than ever before. Industry
records show that upfront invest-
ment in green construction practices
makes properties more valuable in
the long run.
Additionally, green building proj-
ects typically decrease operation
Satyen Patel
CEO, Prescient Co.
Inc., Arvada
Prescient Co.
Alexan Uptown Apartments in Denver