Colorado Real Estate Journal -
One of the country’s oldest real estate investment companies entered the Denver market with its acquisition of Denver City Center, the largest deal to close in the metro area this year. The nearly 1.3 millionsquare-foot property comprises a full block with two Class A office towers – 707 17th St. and Johns Manville Plaza at 717 17th St. – along with the largest outdoor plaza in Denver’s central business district. The price reportedly was $286 million. Shorenstein Properties, a San Francisco-based company that owns more than $7.5 billion worth of office properties, bought Denver City Center from Crescent Real Estate Holdings LLC. Crescent recently completed an approximately $7 million renovation that included creating a second main entry at 707 17th St., adding new retail space and storefront glass, redoing the lobbies and renovating the plaza to enhance its appeal. “The seller had put a tremendous amount of money into repositioning this asset. They had really done a phenomenal job in the lobbies,” said HFF Senior Managing Director Mary Sullivan, who handled the sale with John Jugl, also a senior managing director at HFF. The property has an inbound light-rail stop across the street and is catty-corner from an outbound stop. “There is less than a handful of assets that have this type of access to light rail outside your doorstep,” said Sullivan. In addition, there are six major bus lines that run alongside the property on 18th Street. “From a transportation standpoint, it’s phenomenal,” Sullivan said. She and Jugl showed the property to more than 40 U.S. and international investment groups. In addition to being the largest deal in terms of price to close this year, the transaction was the largest in terms of square footage since Callahan Capital Partners bought the Blackstone Group’s 2.8 million-sf Denver portfolio in 2007. Denver City Center’s largest tenants are Jacobs Engineering, Forest Oil and, of course, it also serves as the world headquarters of Johns Manville, which renewed its lease for 118,865 sf at the start of the year. Crescent secured an additional 73,341 sf of new leases at Johns Manville Plaza during the year, along with 21,284 sf in renewals and new leases at 707 17th. New retailers will include Green Fine Salad Co. The Denver Marriott City Center, which is attached to 707 17th St., is separately owned and was not part of the sale. The hotel and offices comprise a 42-story LEED Silver building with 550,000 sf of office space on the upper 22 floors. The building was constructed in 1981. Johns Manville Plaza is a 29-story, 694,000-sf building that is LEED Gold certified. It was built in 1978.