Colorado Real Estate Journal - July 15, 2015
Before Adam Sands, a senior vice president at FirstBank, approved the $30 million loan for the five-story, 203-unit Decatur Point apartment community, he checked out what else is happening in the Jefferson Park neighborhood where the $47 million project was planned. “We looked at (Decatur Point’s) site and at the other projects coming on line,” Sands said. His team also checked out the leasing activity and rates at the two other big apartment communities in Jefferson Park, the 332-unit 2875 Speer Boulevard development developed by Amstar and Allied Orion Holdings, and the 268-unit Element 47 by Windsor. “They are getting very strong lease rates,” Sands said. “We know what is going on in the current market in Jefferson Park and we are not concerned about overbuilding,” Sands said. “Everything being built is getting absorbed very quickly. Demand seems to be outstripping the supply.” Jefferson Park is considered by many to be a hidden, or not so hidden, gem of a neighborhood in northwest Denver. West Colfax Avenue, Speer Boulevard, the Platte River and Federal Boulevard border it. The developer of Decatur Point is Riverpoint Partners, headed by Reid Davis. “This is his first project in Denver,” Sands said. “Obviously, this is FirstBank’s first transaction with him. We were very impressed by him. He comes from a real estate family in North Carolina. This will be a very high-quality development. His family has a lot of experience in development back East.” Indeed, Davis’s father, Craig, is an investor in Decatur Point. “My dad has been a mentor of mine,” Reid Davis said. “He has many, many years’ experience in real estate back East. I’ve learned a lot from him. I’m very fortunate to have a great mentor with my father.” Davis came to Denver seven years ago to get his real estate degree from the University of Denver. Because the real estate market was soft when he graduated, he stayed to earn his MBA. Before launching his own company, he worked for CBRE as a financial analyst for the capital markets group’s health care division. “I didn’t want to spend all of my time behind a desk,” looking at a computer screen, so he launched his development company almost three years ago. He found the Jefferson Park land about two years ago and expanded the site by purchasing an adjoining parcel with an old warehouse, which he razed. A portion of the 1.33-acre site extends to West 28th Avenue. Davis, with his wife and two small children, knows Jefferson Park very well. “We live in Jefferson Park,” Davis said. He understand that a number of residents in his neighborhood are alarmed by the rate of development in Jefferson Park and other infill neighborhoods of Denver. In fact, Rafael Espinoza won a landside victory against incumbent City Councilperson Susan Shepherd on a campaign centered on what he and others considered out-of-control growth. “I have lived in District 1’s Jefferson Park neighborhood for over a decade and have seen it rapidly expand with and without regard for the character that makes our neighborhoods so highly sought after,” Espinoza said on his website, when running for City Council. Davis, however, said he believes Decatur Point, at West 27th Avenue and Decatur Street, will fit well into Jefferson Park and will prove to be an asset and a good neighbor. “It’s really a great location,” Davis said. “We’re two blocks off Speer, so you don’t get the noise you would have if you were right on Speer.” Craine Architecture is designing Decatur Point. “It will be built to LEED standards, but we will not be LEED certified,” Davis said. He said the deal is being underwritten “very conservatively” at $2 per square foot, which is about the market rate for new apartment units in Jefferson Park. “Hopefully, when we open, we will be able to get $2.30 per square foot,” he said. The average unit size will be 770 sf. He plans to open the first week of July 2016, with the possibility that some of the units will open even earlier. “We will have a pretty decent mix of studios, one-bedrooms, one-bedrooms plus a den and two-bedroom, two-bathroom units,” Davis said. “We also will have 11 walkup/townhome-style units,” he said. Decatur Point, he believes, will appeal to young professionals who work downtown, but don’t want to pay, or can’t afford to pay, downtown rents. Many new apartments in areas around Union Station and in LoHi are charging, and getting, rents north of $3 per sf. “It might take some education” about just how close Jefferson Park is to downtown, Davis said. He noted that he and his wife, on weekends, often will put their two children in strollers and walk to LoDo in about 15 minutes. Davis said he reached out to Sands at FirstBank, the largest locally and privately owned bank in Colorado, when he first learned of the Jefferson Park property two years ago. “Luckily, Adam has been very patient and has stuck with us the entire time,” Davis said. “I’m glad he did. We are very excited about Decatur Point.”