Colorado Real Estate Journal - August 20, 2014
When the 10-story, 285- unit Verve, downtown Denver’s newest luxury apartment building, opened last month, Kim Sperry, managing director of Denver-based Amstar Group, had this to say: “ Verve is distinguishing itself from other apartment buildings by providing our residents with a unique sense of vitality and quality finishes. “Verve is what urban living is all about.” That’s not the only way that Verve distinguished itself. About a week after it opened, Amstar sold Verve, with 232,085 square feet at 1490 Delgany St., blocks from the Denver Union Station and across the street from the Museum of Contemporary Art. Neither the buyer nor the sales price were released by the involved parties. Public records, however, show the buyer was Dallas-based Invesco Real Estate. Invesco paid $94.75 million. That equates to a Denver record of $332,456 per unit and $408.26 per sf. This breaks the previous record also set by Invesco. In February, Invesco paid $70 million, or $319,635 and $397.61, per unit and per sf, respectively, for the Cadence Union Station apartment building at 1920 17th St. Only a recent sale in Boulder has fetched more on a per-unit basis. The brokers on the Verve, Cadence and the Boulder deal were David Martin and Pam Koster of the Denver office of Moran & Co. “Technically, we sold (the Verve) as a presale, or prerent stabilization transaction,” Sperry said. “It was shown to qualified buyers who were willing to keep 100 percent of the leasing risk,” Sperry said. “There was significant interest from that pool of buyers.” The completion and sale of Verve is a perfect example of Amstar’s multifamily development strategy, she said. “Amstar seeks to develop high-quality rental properties in irreplaceable locations in high-demand markets, and Verve is exactly that,” according to Sperry. Amstar began construction of the Verve in 2012 with the Opus Group. Opus served both as the contractor and the developer. Opus AE was the architect of record and Shears Adkins Rockmore Architects LLC was in charge of rendering and design work. “Verve exemplifies the dynamic urban Denver lifestyle and is quickly making its mark on downtown,” Pete Carlson, a senior vice president of Opus Development Co., said earlier. “Verve’s amenities and mindfulness of the Denver lifestyle is what sets it apart from other luxury apartments today,” he said. Verve includes structured underground parking, a pool deck, state-of-the-art fitness center with a yoga studio, bike workshop and a resident clubroom. Its location at Wewatta, Delgany and 15th streets provides close access to the Cherry Creek trail, as well as LoDo and Denver Union Station, Sperry noted. It also is walking distance to a number of major employers, including the world headquarters of DaVita on the other side of 15th Street. John Winslow, principal of Winslow Property Consultants, was not involved in the sale, but said Amstar and Opus did an incredible job and its sales price reflects that. “The Verve is definitely the Taj Mahal of apartments in the downtown area,” Winslow said. “It is just an unbelievable building,” Winslow said. “It has got upscale everything. Everything about it is first-class. And its location is one of the best, if not the best, location in all of downtown.” In February 2011, Invesco paid $213.2 million for the 1800 Larimer office tower, which for a brief period represented the most expensive office deal in the U.S. that year, before the commercial real estate market had bounced back from the Great Recession. Invesco’s appetite for trophy properties in downtown illustrates how bullish it is on Denver, Winslow said. “Invesco does not make mistakes,” Winslow said. “They have a lot of smart people working there who analyze properties and markets very carefully.” The sale also is another feather in the cap of brokers Martin and Koster, he said. “It was sold by Dave Martin and Pam Koster and everything they sell seems to break records on a price-per-square-foot and a price-per-unit basis,” Winslow said.