Colorado Real Estate Journal - August 19, 2015
Trammell Crow Co. just started construction at Crossroads Commerce Park and already has a build-to-suit user for 61,870 square feet. Empire Staple Co., a longtime Denver family owned company, will have a new showroom/ warehouse/distribution building in the park, where 640,000 sf of speculative industrial construction also is underway. Empire Staple, which makes fastening systems and supplies used to manufacture, package and ship products, will acquire the building when it’s completed in the first quarter, said Bill Mosher, senior managing director of Trammell Crow Co. in Denver. It initially will occupy about two-thirds of the building and lease out the remaining third. Crossroads Commerce Park, located on 77 acres near the intersection of Interstates 25 and 70, is a redevelopment of the formerly contaminated ASARCO Globe Plant. It offers a variety of industrial product type. First-phase spec buildings include a 376,598- sf, 32-foot-clear warehouse/distribution building; a 169,210-sf office/warehouse/showroom building with 24-foot clear height; and a 96,973-sf warehouse with 28-foot ceilings. “Every building is a different product type” in order to respond to the diversity of the marketplace and maximize the infill site, Mosher said recently. “We have activity on every one of them, and we have six additional buildings available for build-to-suits that total about 300,000 square feet, and we’ve got activity on those also. This central market is a very tight market.” Principal Real Estate Investors is Trammell Crow’s capital partner on the first phase. “We are excited to partner with Trammell Crow Co. on this rare, institutionally sized central Denver industrial site. The central Denver market continues to be tight, with around a 2 percent vacancy rate, and we expect leasing velocity to be strong,” said Kevin Anderegg, Principal Real Estate assistant managing director in asset management. Buildings in the approximately $55 million first phase of development front East 55th Avenue on the side of Washington Street it unincorporated Adams County. Contractor Murray & Stafford is scheduled to complete construction in the first quarter. Ware Malcomb is the architect. Along with the future build-to-suit sites designed for sale or lease to users from 17,600 to 69,350 sf, Crossroads Commerce Park will total approximately 1 million sf. The site is being purchased from Globeville I LLC, an EnviroFinance Group company that oversaw horizontal land development over the course of several years. EFG Executive Vice President Cameron Bertron recently called the redevelopment “a huge accomplishment for Adams County and Denver.” The site, which was “a source of anguish and worry for that area and neighborhood for decades and generations is now clean” and now will create jobs that will greatly benefit that part of Denver and Adams County, he said. “It’s really the proverbial winwin.” Mike Wafer and Tim D’Angelo of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank brokered the land sales for Phase 1 and are marketing the site for Trammell Crow. Len McBroom of McBroom Co. represented Empire Staple in its build-to-suit transaction. Empire Staple will relocate to Crossroads Commerce Park from 1710 Platte St. in Denver. “The company has been looking for a new location from our current location on Platte street for about five to eight years,” said Empire Staple Co. owner Bill Spicer. “This location of 58th Avenue and I-25 has always been, in my mind’s eye, the right place to be.”