Colorado Real Estate Journal - May 6, 2015
A Washington, D.C., company that acquires, develops and manages Class A, government-leased properties paid $20.25 million for the U.S. Department of Energy Western Area Power Administration headquarters in Lakewood. The acquisition was the first Easterly Government Properties Inc. has made since the close of its $207 million initial public offering in February. The company now owns approximately 2.2 million square feet of office, laboratory and specialized space in 30 properties throughout the United States. It leases more than 1.9 million sf to U.S. government agencies and derives more than 96 percent of its income from federal government tenants. The 115,650-sf WAPA headquarters is located at 12155 W. Alameda Parkway. The building is leased to the U.S. General Services Administration on behalf of DOE until 2029. Norman Wm Col LLC sold the property in an offmarket deal. “The Lakewood WAPA office plays a critical role within the Department of Energy, a n d we are pleased to add this property to our highquality portfolio of U.S. government-leased assets,” William C. Trimble III, chief executive officer of Easterly Government Properties, said in a statement. “The Lakewood WAPA’s role of marketing and delivering clean, renewable and reliable power directly aligns with our strategy of partnering with the federal government to support mission-critical government agencies and functions.” The Western Area Power Administration is one of four energy marketing administrations in the nation that are primarily responsible for wholesale power distribution from federally owned hydroelectric power plants to regional and local retail power distributors. It occupies the entire Class A building, which was built in 1999. The building contains engineering, accounting, human resources, legal and training functions that support four regional offices that operate and maintain the DOE’s Western Transmission system, which covers a 1.3 million-square-mile service area. With Lakewood representing one of the largest clusters of U.S. government-occupied buildings outside of Washington, D.C., Easterly said it would continue to consider the greater Denver area as a source for the company’s growth. Easterly also owns the U.S. Department of Transportation building at 12300 W. Dakota Ave. in Lakewood. “We continue to see strong opportunities to build our portfolio of mission-critical government-leased properties,” said Darrell Crate, Easterly Government Properties chairman. “With available capital including more than $350 million under a revolving credit facility, we believe that we are well positioned to capitalize on these opportunities with the goal of growing earnings through accretive acquisitions in the U.S. government-leased property market.” Tammy Saia of Marcus & Millichap's Chicago Oak Brook office represented the seller.