Colorado Real Estate Journal - September 3, 2014
While portions of the country are experiencing some gradual recovery from the Great Recession of 2008, Denver is a market that continues to gather momentum. MonkeySports purchased a 3.35-acre site in August 2013 for $545,000, or 3.73 per square foot. The site is located at 8215 Valley Highway (being re-addressed to 2 E. 83rd Place). MonkeySports, based out of Corona, Calif., has filed a rezoning request to allow for retail on this site for its proposed 40,000-sf retail/warehouse building. It purchased a second property located near the intersection of Interstate 25 and Arapahoe Road, referred to as 6578 S. Yosemite St., in Greenwood Village, for $1.2 million in November 2013. The building is 15,066 sf and originally was constructed for AB Dick Printing Co. in 1972; it is situated on 1.28 acres. Monkey Team Sports, specializing in sporting equipment, including hockey, baseball and lacrosse, has gutted the building and will totally retrofit the building into a retail outlet. MonkeySports has two stores in the California market, including a superstore in Irvine and in Santa Ana; a store in Norwood, Mass., (Boston); a superstore in Woodbridge, N.J.; and a superstore in Sodertalje, Sweden. The company hopes to have the Greenwood Village store open this fall and the proposed 40,000-sf superstore in Thornton open by the spring. In Douglas County, Culver Restaurants has purchased a 47,768-sf retail site for $650,000, or $13.60 per sf. The proposed 3,954-sf Culver’s restaurant will be located at the northeast corner of East Mainstreet Road and Twenty Mile Road. DHS 17 Ventures LLC, based out of Daphne, Ala., purchased a 5.5-acre site at the southwest corner of Plum Creek Parkway and Plum Creek Boulevard for $925,000, or $3.86 per sf. It subsequently borrowed $2.83 million, payable to Trustmark National Bank, a Jackson, Miss., financial institution. Hix & Snedeker, headed by Haymes Snedeker, constructed a 21,924-sf tractor supply building on the site. The property was completed Feb. 1; the building is 100 percent masonry (fractured block) exterior construction. It sold the property on a long-term investment to JRS Castle Rock LLC (John K. Lane, manager of the LLC) based out of Chicago. The purchase price was $4.4 million, or $200.69 per sf. July and August were the strongest months this year in multifamily sales in the Denver metro area. The largest multifamily deal of 2014 occurred with the sale of the 21 Fitzsimons Apartments. This 600-unit, six-building complex contains 515,956 sf and an additional 17,462 sf of first-level retail space. This property is located at 2100-2200-2201 N. Ursula St. in the Fitzsimons Business Park, near I-225 and Colfax Avenue. The purchase price was $118.5 million, or $197,500 per unit, and $222.15 per sf, which reflects one of the highest-priced suburban apartment complexes in the Denver metro area. The ARA Colorado team led by Jeff Hawks and Doug Andrews negotiated this sale. They also handled the sale of the 100-unit Sierra Vista Apartments, located at 9440 Hoffman Way in Thornton, for nearly $10.05 million, or $100,450 per unit. A California buyer headed by Todd Kaufman of Alta Community Investments acquired the 42-year-old building. Hawks believes in what he sells as he was a principal in the $17.2 million Vista Park Apartments. Hawks and his investors acquired the property for $62,807 per unit in the middle of August from another longtime broker/owner team, Marc Lippitt and Scott Shwayder of Unique Properties LLC-TCN Worldwide. The 283 units, constructed in 1973, were renovated in 2012-2013 and the listing was handled by Kevin Higgins, Ryan Floyd, Adam Riddle and Jason Koch of Unique Properties. While apartment activity remains strong, quality multitenant industrial and retail buildings have been difficult to find. The 26,672-sf warehouse located at 2601 W. Seventh Ave. sold for $2.3 million, or $80.22 per sf, while a two-tenant retail building on First and Broadway sold to restaurateur Francois Safieddine for $192.80 per sf. And quality retail and multifamily sites remain in high demand, reflected in the sale of 25,265 sf at the northeast corner of South Broadway and East Arizona Avenue for $50.27 per sf. This site is two blocks from the Broadway light-rail station and is zoned R-MU-30. And one of the key entry sites to the Denver Business Center was sold by the Rreef Corp., out of Chicago, to Houston-based Lion Gables Realty. This site commanded a price of $88.46 per sf, or $25,941 per buildable unit. The new owner plans to build 221 apartment units with this sixstory building.