Colorado Real Estate Journal -
A Tennessee-based company recently paid $10 million for the longtime corporate headquarters of Mile High United Way in Lower Highland. The Southern Land Co., based in Nashville, also bought a smaller adjoining parcel for $2.05 million in one of the largest land assemblages in LoHi, one of the hottest neighborhoods in Denver. Southern Land Co. plans to build a luxury apartment community on the parcels across from Interstate 25, which will provide residents some of the best views of Denver’s skyline from LoHi. “We think this is one of the trophy sites in LoHi,” said Ken Howell, chief financial officer of Southern Land. This is Southern Land’s first purchase in Colorado, although it also has a site for another apartment community under contract in Boulder. There will be 203 units in one building and 68 units in another building, for a total of 271 units, according to the company’s website. However, those are preliminary estimates and could change by a few units. “I would say we probably will end up with about 275 units,” Howell said. Howell, who worked for Loveland-based McWhinney from 2004 to 2008, said the Mile High site has a lot going for it. “The views are unbelievable. You have this great visibility to downtown’s skyline and great views of the mountains, especially from the rooftop deck,” Howell said. “It is a very trendy neighborhood and an easy walk or bike ride to downtown and the three major sport stadiums,” Howell continued. “You are near all of the activity at Union Station, but you are not in the middle of everything, with the noise and parking problems that you have in downtown,” Howell said. “You also have all of this great neighborhood access to all of the restaurants and bars that LoHi offers,” he said. LoHi attracts a bit of a different clientele than those seeking the action of downtown, he said. “We think we will have a little different customer, who will probably trend a little older than the people looking to rent downtown,” Howell said. However, the development, which Southern Land describes as 18th and Central on its website, in a nod to its address, won’t be happening anytime soon. “We have a sale-leaseback agreement with United Way,” Howell said. “They can stay there for 18 months to 24 months,” he said. “So on the short end, we will be able to start construction in 18 months.” United Way has land under contract at Stout and Park Avenue West, where it plans to build its new headquarters, according to Ryan Arnold, a broker with Jones Lang LaSalle who represented United Way in the sale to Southern Land. Mile High United Way, the oldest United Way in the nation, occupies a 45,888-square-foot building on a 56,900-sf lot at 2505 18th St., according to public records. The building was constructed in 1977. Southern Land also bought the adjoining, 19,000-sf property with a 13,288-sf building constructed in 1964 for $2.05 million, according to public records. The land is zoned U-MX-5, which allows five-story buildings. Howell said he expects the community will be constructed to the maximum height allowed under the zoning. The community also will have about 10,000 sf of ground-floor retail space, with four stories of residential above it. It seems on almost every block of LoHi there is an apartment community either recently opened or under construction, but Howell isn’t worried about competition. First, because of the timing, the apartments under construction will have been completed and stabilized by the time Southern Land breaks ground. “When you look around LoHi, right now most of the projects under construction will have 60 to 110 units,” Howell said. “No one else is building a project of our size,” he said. “Because of our size we will be able to offer amenities like a swimming pool,” he said. “Most of the apartment projects with swimming pools will be around Union Station,” he said. He doesn’t envision any other large-scale apartment communities moving forward in LoHi. “It is very difficult to assemble enough acreage for a large-sale project,” Howell said. Amenties will include fire pits and a fitness center. It also will be an energy-efficient project. “Right now, we expecting to build it to Silver LEED standards,” Howell said. He expects the average size of a unit to be about 675 sf, excluding balconies, although it is too far out to project rental rates. It also is too early to have drawings of the buildings. “We’re so far out from starting, we haven’t gotten to that stage yet,” he said. The company is completely vertically integrated, so the design, construction, engineering and even the retail leasing will be handled in-house, he said. The unit mix is expected to be 10 percent studios, 77 percent one-bedrooms and 13 percent two-bedrooms, according to the company’s website. The development will have 332 below-grade structured parking spaces and bicycle storage.