Colorado Real Estate Journal -
About 90 real estate investors, owners, managers and others took a bus tour of eight Denver area apartment communities on a picture-perfect day in Colorado. “It is absolutely brilliant,” said William Thode, a Denver attorney who is just starting to dip his toe into possibly putting together multifamily syndications with other investors. “It was very informative and well worth the time to be able to see all of these places one after another,” Thode said. The Oct. 3 bus tour – the same day that President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney debated for the first time at the University of Denver – was the first for Thode. It was the ninth tour created by Jon Stern, publisher of the Colorado Real Estate Journal, and Cary Bruteig, owner of Apartment Appraisers & Consultants and ApartmentInsights.com. The tour featured a wide variety of attendees, “from the largest apartment owner in the country to small developers,” Bruteig said. “Several developers of properties on the tour shared their vision and their experiences in getting the communities approved, financed and built. Architects were on hand to explain design concepts and answer questions.” Some people, including Jeff Hawks and Doug Andrews, of ARA (formerly known as Apartment Realty Advisors), had been on every tour. Hawks led the tour on one of the two buses that ferried people around. Bruteig chose all of the apartment communities on the tour and arranged with the developers and owners of them to present highlights of their clubhouses and units. Hawks noted that some of the communities being toured were the second or third phases. “This provides us with the unique opportunity to see what managers and owners do to complement or enhance the first phase in order to provide an ideal unit mix,” Hawks said. “In these cases, the developer has the chance for a ‘do-over,’ based on the performance of the first phase.” In addition to the Colorado Real Estate Journal and Apartment Appraisers & Consultants, sponsors of the tour included NorthMarq, Shaw Construction, Career Options, Stewart Title and KTGY. Communities on the tour included: • The second phase of 21 Fitzsimons, a 188-unit development that the Pauls Corp. built in a “very quick” 12 months and opened in August. The average unit size in the second phase is 746 square feet, compared with 1,037 sf in the first phase. Paul Powers, an executive with the Pauls Corp., addressed the group. • Botanica Eastbridge, a 118- unit development in Stapleton that was owned and built by Forest City, the developer of Stapleton. It was designed by KTGY. Lee Ferguson from Forest City talked about the company’s Stapleton properties. • Aster Town Center, Forest City’s most recent apartment community in Stapleton. It has 85 units and also was designed by KTGY. Hawks noted that Forest City has never sold an apartment community at Stapleton. However, if Forest City ever wanted to convert Botanica and Aster into condos, they would be huge hits, Hawks said. • The second phase of the Manhattan Lofts in downtown. Greystar developed the first phase in 2003 and the second phase, nine years later, was developed by GID, also known as Windsor Communities. The five-story building at 1851 Basset St. has 134 units with an average size of 1,008 sf, but is still getting rents north of $2 per sf, shows Bruteig’s research. • Arvada Station, a 17-building, garden-style apartment with 378 units owned by Embrey Partners Ltd. of San Antonio. The development, near the Gold Line of FasTracks, sits on about 16 acres at 10128 W. 52nd Place in Arvada. The design and features impressed a number of urban developers on the tour. • The 168-unit Savoy at Dayton Station at 3645 S. Dallas St., which follows the earlier phase called the LaSalle or Row Homes that featured townhome-style units and a three-story walk-up phase called the Metropolitan or Brownstones. Kephart designed the third phase. It is owned by Equity Residential, the nation’s largest apartment real estate investment trust and the largest apartment owner in the Denver area. Hawks noted that he and Andrews were recently in Equity Residential’s Chicago headquarters and they were told that Denver is the second strongest performing market in its portfolio. Brett Richards of Equity also talked about the development’s history and current status. • Zenith Meridian, the first apartment community in the Denver area developed by Shea Properties, which manages and owns land in the Meridian International Business Center, where the 288-unit apartment community is located, as well as the Denver Technological Center, Highlands Ranch and Reunion in Commerce City. The features and finishes at Zenith wowed many on the bus tour. One person said the finishes in the units were almost identical to the upscale improvements he recently completed in his home near the University of Denver. • The final stop on the tour was the 280-unit Alta Aspen Grove, developed by Atlanta-based Wood Partners next to the upscale Aspen Grove shopping center. The firm’s local partner is veteran apartment developer Tim McEntee. The Silver LEED-certified community is the first market rate, stick-frame construction in Colorado to be certified under the LEED for Homes program. The development at 7317 S. Platte River Parkway in Littleton is considered a transit-oriented development, or TOD, as it is walking distance to a light-rail station. Hawks said it has a lot going for it. “It’s a TOD site, next to a lifestyle retail center, has open space along the Platte River and is a couple of blocks from the end of the Santa Fe light-rail line. I just love this kind of property. It has everything going for it. You can make it downtown quickly and you can get to the mountains very easily.” During the tour, Hawks also went over apartment sales figures in the first half of the year, passing out a map showing where they occurred. He also provided forecasts on the apartment market for the short term, medium term and long term. Hawks said he is often asked whether now is the time to invest in real estate. He provided this pearl: “Don’t wait to buy real estate. Buy real estate and wait.”