Colorado Real Estate Journal - December 3, 2014
It’s not uncommon for a real estate transaction to please the buyer, the seller and the brokers, but a recent $13.8 million office/ warehouse deal was particularly rewarding. “It was such a satisfying transaction from beginning to end. It’s really a highlight of my career from that standpoint, on top of the fact that it was a pretty big deal,” said CBRE’s Paul Kluck, who represented the seller of Oxford/Santa Fe Business Park with Murray Platt, also of CBRE. Oxford LLC bought the 190,613-square-foot park on 12.6 acres at 1800 W. Oxford Ave. in Sheridan from Oxford/Santa Fe LLLP. The property is directly south of the River Point at Sheridan retail, entertainment and business center and west of the Oxford light-rail station. Oxford/Santa Fe Business Park consists of 2,400-sf suites with storefronts on one side and overhead doors on the other. Bays are 80 feet deep and 30 feet long, and can be combined in various configurations. The product type worked well when it was built in the mid-1980s and continues to work well today, according to the buyer. Joe Barton, and Phil Nolen and Doran Whitaker of Nolen & Co., which developed a number of buildings in that part of the metro area, developed it. Kluck was a “friendly competitor,” leasing and managing another office/warehouse property in the vicinity. Whitaker died in a bicycle accident in 2009, and Nolen passed away in 2012. Their wives, Diane Nolen and Joye Whitaker, continued to own Oxford/Santa Fe Business Park, but had little experience owning and operating real estate, Kluck said. Following the recession, he noticed Oxford/Santa Fe wasn’t leasing up like surrounding properties. He and Platt arranged a meeting with Diane Nolen, who hired them to market the business park just days before she died of cancer. Working with a longtime property team, Kluck and Platt renewed and signed 28 leases within about 12 months, bringing the park – at 97 percent occupancy – to the point that it could be marketed for sale. Joye Whitaker retained them to sell the property. “We had the ability to choose a buyer. We chose a buyer we felt was going to operate the property similarly to how the Nolens had operated the property, which was strong tenant relations,” said Kluck. “Throughout my career, I have never had a more satisfying closing. This was obviously the biggest transaction of the owners’ careers and their biggest payout, and they couldn’t be happier at the outcome,” he said. Builders Appliance Center, Aspen Leasing and multiple other tenants occupy the park’s eight buildings. The Denver office of Homkor Inc. assumed property management and moved its Denver office to Santa Fe/Oxford Business Park. The new owner may make some cosmetic improvements, but said it plans no major changes because the property continues to address the needs of local, regional and national small-business owners. “Nolen & Co. not only built a property, they also fostered a community and culture at OSFBP, and Oxford LLC has every intention of continuing Nolen & Co.’s legacy,” the company said in a statement. “Oxford LLC plans to own and operate the property for a very long time.”