Colorado Real Estate Journal - September 16, 2015
W.W. Reynolds Cos. has purchased four properties in Boulder for more than $40 million within the last few months. The $16 million acquisition of a 105,000-square-foot office/flex building at 4775 Walnut St. was among the most recent deals. “Real estate in Boulder is still a pretty solid investment, and we looked at it as an opportunity,” said Jeff Wingert, a partner in the company. “There is some vacancy, so there is upside potential,” said Wingert, who added that a recent change to the zoning code opens the door to medical uses, in addition to uses already allowed. The two-story building houses several large, local office tenants, including Renewable Choice Energy, Knowledge Factor and Microsemi. CRE 4775 Walnut Street LLC, an entity managed by Crestone Real Estate LLC, sold the property, which it acquired for $7.3 million in 2008. Geoffrey Keys and Ronan Truesdale of Keys Commercial Real Estate represented the seller in the transaction. W.W. Reynolds also acquired a pair of flex buildings at 5330 and 5360 Sterling Drive in a $9.1 million off-market transaction. AWR Sterling Properties LLC sold the buildings, which comprise 77,080 sf, for just under $118 per sf. MKS Instruments, a global technology company, will consolidate its offices into the 39,077-sf building at 5330 Sterling. That makes the second, 38,000-sf building available to another tenant and enables Reynolds to “hopefully see some rent upside at that location going forward,” said Wingert, who said the property represents a “solid investment in Boulder.” Gary Aboussie of The Colorado Group represented AWR Sterling in the transaction. “This was an excellent purchase by W.W. Reynolds,” said Aboussie, who called Reynolds “an astute” Colorado investor that knows the Boulder market well. Other assets recently added to W.W. Reynolds’ Boulder portfolio included the Cartwright Building on the Pearl Street Mall and a 37,500-sf retail building at Table Mesa Shopping Center that it leased to Lucky’s Market. The Cartwright Building is an approximately 27,500-sf office building with ground-floor retail at 1320 Pearl St. Reynolds paid $10.47 million for the property. A longtime Boulder-based commercial real estate firm, W.W. Reynolds is reinvesting in assets following the sale of 1.5 million sf of properties in Boulder and Fort Collins for more than $200 million earlier this year.