Colorado Real Estate Journal -

ULA building trades for $32.5 million

A southeast suburban Denver office building occupied by United Launch Alliance sold to an institutional investor for $32.5 million.

ULA’s Newton Engineering Building, a Class A building also known as Waterview IV, sold to Cole Real Estate Investments in a deal handled by Jones Lang LaSalle brokers John Jugl and Mary Sullivan.

The six-story, 167,917-squarefoot building at 7958 S. Chester St. in Centennial is a strategic part of ULA’s approximately 453,000-sf campus in Centennial.

“What we’re seeing in the southeast market is the very, very good buildings, and the best buildings, are getting a lot of activity. This was a strong asset,” said Jugl. There was vigorous activity for the listing, almost exclusively from institutional investors, he said.

United Launch Alliance, a 50-50 partnership between Lockheed Martin and Boeing Corp., signed a long-term lease for the building, and three neighboring buildings at Panorama Corporate Center, two years ago.

“It’s a very, very strong, quality asset, and the adjacency to its other occupancies at Panorama really creates a great environment for United Launch Alliance,” Jugl commented.

Completed in 2000, the building is LEED Gold certified and has an Energy Star rating of 100. Travelers Insurance was the original tenant.

The property has a good parking ratio for a Class A building in the southeast suburban submarket at 5.3 spaces per 1,000 sf, including 136 covered spaces. It also has a cafeteria for ULA employees.“The interior finishes are fantastic. It really is an attractive building,” said Jugl.

Cole Real Estate Investments sponsors nontraded real estate investment trusts and other investment programs. It invests primarily in single-tenant income-producing commercial real estate leased to high-quality, creditworthy tenants under long-term, net leases – exactly the kind of asset the ULA building represents.

The United Launch Alliance leased the Waterview and Panorama buildings in 2010 in lieu of doing a build-to-suit, which would have been the only other way to acquire that much square footage in the southeast suburban office submarket.

“When they elected not to do a build-to-suit, that really went a long way to helping stabilize that submarket because it delivered new occupancy to the submarket,” Jugl noted.