Colorado Real Estate Journal -
A Denver-based company has been busy assembling redevelopment sites in Boulder, including five acres sandwiched between Whole Foods Market, the transit village and the Twenty Ninth Street shopping and entertainment center. Brickstone Partners, which has been active in the Boulder student housing/apartment market, plans to begin the entitlement process for the property within the next 90 days. It is exploring 400,000 to 500,000 square feet of development, including office or hospitality fronting Pearl Street along with approximately 225 units of senior housing on the opposite side of Boulder Creek. “It’s phenomenal real estate in Boulder,” said Daniel Otis, Brickstone Partners principal. “It’s going to be a big project. We want to do it right and be conscious of the location, which is what we’ve done with all of our projects in Boulder, to try to create legacy real estate.” David Tryba of Tryba Architects is part of the development team. Tryba Architects designed several notable Front Range buildings, including History Center Colorado, Clayton Lane and the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, and isinvolved with the Denver Union Station redevelopment. Brickstone Partners is looking at its assemblage as two development sites because Boulder Creek dissects it. “It creates kind of a natural barrier and gives us the opportunity to do some unique things to embrace the creek,” Otis said. The existing buildings on site all are early 1960s construction. D&K Printing and HB Woodsongs Music Store occupy the Pearl Street portion, which comprises just under half of the five acres. Brickstone sees that as great site for office space catering to technology companies or a single office user that wants its own identity. Despite new hotel construction planned and under way in Boulder, he also thinks there is pent-up demand for limited-service product like a Hilton Garden Inn or Courtyard by Marriott. “Boulder has been underutilized from a hospitality standpoint for a lot of years,” he said. The other piece, which has frontage on 30th Street, houses a retail strip center and is being considered for age-restricted housing. Between the transit village and neighboring retail and entertainment uses, “You have all of these amazing amenities,” said Otis. “There are no other opportunities for seniors to live in the core of Boulder. This is a unique opportunity for that segment to really thrive.” The transit village, now called Boulder Junction, is directly across the street, as is Whole Foods. A Target store neighbors the property on the west, and the Two Nine North apartments and Twenty Ninth Street are on the south. ‘Condo conversion’ Brickstone Partners also purchased a 2½-acre, 40-unit office condo property at 2885 E. Aurora Ave. in Boulder, which is just across 28th Street from the University of Colorado campus. In the short term, it plans to convert the one- and two-story condo buildings into 120 student housing beds. The company’s long-term plan is to raze the buildings and construct an approximately $30 million high-end student housing project with 250 beds. The deal involved acquisition of the land and the individually owned condos. The development was on a ground lease, and the landowner was involved in litigation with the condo association. Brickstone’s purchase cleared that litigation, and it is in the process of closing on the last of the office condos. “A 2½-acre development site near CU is hard to come by,” said Otis, adding the condos are large, at 1,000 sf each, creating the opportunity to add kitchens and offer three-bed, two-bath units at approximately $700 per bed. “On a net basis, that’s about 60 percent of the average rent of the projects we own up there,” Otis said. “We felt there was a huge need for a moderately priced rentals around campus.” Brickstone Partners’ Boulder luxury housing developments include The Lux, located at 855 Broadway, along with 910 28th St. and 1005 12th St. It also is completing 1101 University, a redevelopment of a former sorority house. The conversion from office to residential condos requires administrative approval from the city. Brickstone expects to start construction within 60 days. “It’s going to move very quickly,” said Otis, adding the project also will involve some sprucing up of the property’s exterior. The developer won’t seek entitlements for its future plans until it is well into the process for 30th and Pearl. A real estate investment and development company, Brickstone Partners has offices in Denver and New York. It likes the demographics and barriers to entry in Boulder, where development sites are difficult to come by. “There is no other available development ground, so we felt we needed to get out and create new development opportunities like this,” said Otis.