CREJ

Page 4 — Office Properties Quarterly — March 2019 www.crej.com Market Update BIG OPPORTUNITIES ARE AVAILABLE IN DOWNTOWN SUPERIOR. Just outside Boulder and a short commute from Denver, a vibrant, new Downtown Superior is taking shape. This urban hub offers land for office and mixed-use residential/ retail, plus new office and retail space built to suit. The area offers competitive economics, easy access to Denver International Airport, an educated employment pool and a sought-after location. It will be an energetic, eclectic mix of retail, shopping, dining, entertainment and living— walkable, sustainable and surrounded by acres of gorgeous Colorado open space. Fully entitled for up to 817,600 square feet of office, retail and restaurant space; 1,400 residential units; and 500 hotel rooms. Visit DowntownSuperior.com FRESH OPPORTUNITIES FOR BUSINESS, RESTAURANTS, RETAIL AND MORE. That’s a Superior idea. I n 2018, metro Denver contin- ued to experience strong eco- nomic growth trends, as the increasingly diverse business climate and highly educated workforce encouraged an influx of new businesses to relocate to the area. Denver saw a number of top technology and software companies such as Apple, Facebook, Slack and Xero, in addition to Fortune 250 VF Corp., announce their commitment to establish and expand their pres- ence throughout the metro area. Additionally, Denver held one of the nation’s lowest unemployment rates and was ranked fourth nationally on the 2018 Forbes list of The Best Plac- es for Business and Careers, which is based on factors related to business, cost of living and employment. Given the state of the metro Denver area’s economic environment and reputation as a regional economic center, Denver will continue to experience incremen- tal growth into 2019, relying on its skilled and educated workforce and high quality of life to retain a competi- tive advantage for attracting, recruit- ing and retaining new companies and individuals. This boom in employment and attraction of talent is exemplified by metro Denver’s technology sec- tor, which has grown considerably in recent years, boosting the number of tech companies located in downtown Denver from 384 in 2010 to 626 in 2017, a 63 percent increase that will con- tinue to rise. Drawn to the area given Denver’s young and highly educated workforce, desirable quality of life and its low cost of living relative to San Francisco and the SiliconValley, com- panies have contin- ued their migration to the Mile High City, contributing to a successful tech- nology ecosystem that has benefited Denver’s local start- up scene and its increasingly diverse economy. The State of Colo- rado’s Demographic office is forecasting that Colorado could be home to 8.5 million people by 2050 – an increase of 54 percent in a little more than three decades – with most of the growth occurring along the Front Range. Qual- ity of life in the Front Range depends greatly on mobility and reliable access to jobs, services, education and recre- ation. With increasing traffic comes the growing importance of micromarkets that are near population centers.Ten years ago, driving from Broomfield, in the Northwest, to the Denver Tech Center, in the southeast suburban sub- market, was a manageable commute. Today the growing traffic has all but made this same commute unrea- sonable with limited convenient multimodal mass transit options. We believe that the irreversible traf- fic congestion will reward investors who buy the very best assets in a micromarket that has commuting distance accessibility to an attrac- tive employee base. Given metro Denver’s reliance on commuting by automobile, especially in an era of low unemployment, we believe that investors seeking late-cycle opportunities that provide attractive risk-adjusted returns should consider a micromarket’s potential employee base as measured by vehicular commut- ing times. In addition, a micromarket’s strength is enhanced by the existence of transit options that provide access to a larger employment base, which sits outside of its vehicular commuting zone.The U.S. 36 corridor is an excel- lent example. Uniquely located at the midpoint between two regional economic cen- ters in Denver and Boulder, the U.S. 36 corridor provides access to more than 197,000 commuters within a 20-minute commuting area and is serviced by regional express buses offering 25-min- ute transportation to Union Station and downtown Boulder. With Boulder essentially full (the city currently reports an astonishing 0.86 jobs per capita, one of the high- est concentrations of employment among peer cities and throughout the nation) and in-bound commut- ing difficult, the communities that make up the U.S. 36 corridor have become home to some of the Front Range’s top-growth fundamentals, including metro Denver’s fastest- growing labor force. These halo mar- kets, which offer myriad housing options from affordable to luxury, continue to mature, with thoughtful community development resulting in new recreation centers, schools, regional mall and a number of the same restaurants that can be found in Denver and Boulder. Growth drive opportunity in emerging micromarkets Chris Hart Financial and research analyst, investment sales team, capital markets, western region, Newmark Knight Frank Please see Hart, Page 15 Newmark Knight Frank Boulder reported 0.86 jobs per capita, which is one of the highest concentrations of employement in the nation.