Colorado Real Estate Journal -
In his final deal with Cushman & Wakefield of Colorado, Pat Stucker and his team recently sold the 336- unit Copper Flats apartment community near the Fitzsimons campus in Aurora for $41.6 million. Stucker, a 35-year veteran of commercial real estate, recently joined Mark Peppercorn at Jones Lang LaSalle. Combined Stucker and Peppercorn have sold about 100,000 apartment units. “I’ve sold more than 50,000 units in about $3 billion in deals, while Mark has sold about 48,000 units worth about $6 billion,” Stucker said. Peppercorn was previously with Archstone Communities, which focused on developing, managing and selling luxury infill apartment communities in areas with high barriers to entry. “I’ve known Mark for at least 10 years and him joining Jones Lang LaSalle was one of the big attractions for me,” said Stucker, who had been with Cushman & Wakefield for the past seven years and had been with Denver-based AIMCO Properties for 17 years. In his final deal at Cushman & Wakefield, his team sold Copper Flats at 13711 E. Richtofen Circle to Bostonbased Colony Realty Partners. Fittingly, it closed the deal the day after the Red Sox clinched the World Series. Colony, which has a total commercial real estate portfolio worth more than $4.5 billion, owns about 7,200 multifamily units across the U.S. “We had a reasonable amount of interest in Copper Flats,” from prospective buyers, Stucker, said. “Truly, what the buying public really wants right now are the value-add deals and not the improved and stabilized properties like this one,” Stucker said. Carmel Partners of San Francisco, headed by Ron Zeff, purchased the property in 2009 for $22 million. “They then did the most complete and nicest renovation of a 1980s-era project that I have ever seen,” Stucker said. “They literally rebuilt the entire thing, they put in new siding, new roofs, a new clubhouse,” he said. It is a total turnkey deal for Colony. “They don’t have to do a thing,” Stucker said. Zeff realized the investment would pay off given the development’s proximity to Fitzsimons and the Anschutz Medical Campus at Fitzsimons. “It’s 100 percent location driven,” Stucker said. “It’s a block away from Fitzsimons, which is probably the biggest economic engine and job generator in the entire Rocky Mountain region and will be a block away from a new light-rail station,” he said. Colony still bought it well below replacement cost, he said. It paid about $120,800 per unit, while the replacement cost would be $165,000 to $175,000 per unit, he said. Stucker’s team on the transaction included Jeff Haag and Ray White. Colony “struck gold” with the purchase, said John Winslow of Winslow Property Consultants. “It’s walking distance from Fitzsimons, a 576-acre, $5.2 billion district,” Winslow said. “The Anschutz Medical Campus and Fitzsimons Life Science District has metamorphosed the whole I-225/East Colfax Aurora Corridor in the last decade,” he said. The area had been one of blight before it was transformed by the developments at Fitzsimons, he said. “It was kind of like Five Points was 35 or 40 years ago,” Winslow said. “Now, the Gen-Xers love the area,” he said. “I think Copper Flats will draw a lot of medical students and employees, who could easily walk or ride their bikes to work. That area is only going to get better.” Meanwhile, Stucker already has deals in the pipeline at Jones Lang LaSalle. “Jones Lang LaSalle has a growing multifamily platform,” Stucker said. “It is a huge, global company and they are hiring exceptional multifamily agents from all across the country,” he said “They have great support and great research for their agents. And, of course, working with Mark Peppercorn was a huge draw. I look at joining Jones Lang LaSalle as a great opportunity. I’m really excited about it.”