Colorado Real Estate Journal - November 4, 2015
Coal Creek Business Park in Louisville sold to a Boston-based real estate investment and management firm that entered the Denver metro market earlier this year. Tritower Financial Group paid $38 million, or $186.97 per square foot, for the 100 percent-occupied, 203,243- sf office campus at 826, 858 and 867 Coal Creek Circle. The three Class A buildings sit alongside U.S. Highway 36. They are leased almost entirely to Medtronic and CableLabs. “The reason we like metro Denver is because of the macro g r o w t h story. We like this location in particular b e c a u s e we believe it sits s q u a re l y on the path of where hightech tenants want to locate,” said Tod Brainard, Tritower Financial partner and director of acquisitions. Medtronic, one of the world’s largest medical technology and services companies, is an original tenant of the business park, which was developed in 1999- 2001. CableLabs, a nonprofit research-and-development consortium of cable operators, also is a longtime tenant. While each tenant has specific locational needs and reasons they chose to be at the location, “Being accessible to that really educated workforce that you find in the Boulder area is very important to both of these businesses,” said CBRE Vice Chairman Mike Winn. The property drew interest from investors that typically buy one- or two-tenant buildings. “The interest level was very solid from people who like those kinds of secure, cash-flowing properties,” said Winn, who handled the transaction with CBRE’s Tim Richey and Chad Flynn. CableLabs occupies the building at 858 Coal Creek. Medtronic occupies 826 and most of 867 Coal Creek, where a smaller tenant, Nexant, has about 8,000 sf. “We want to continue to own buildings that are occupied by tenants like Medtronic and CableLabs that represent the best tech tenants that metro Denver has to offer,” said Brainard. Tritower Financial Group bought the property from FFI CO Coal Creek LLC, which is affiliated with Founders Properties. Founders bought Coal Creek Business Park in late 2011 for $32 million. The park sits alongside Coal Creek Golf Course. It also is close to restaurants, hotels and other amenities. The brick and stone buildings have two-story lobbies, dual entries, 9-foot ceilings and a parking ratio of 4.2:1,000. “The buildings are fairly new but well maintained as well,” said Brainard. Tritower Financial Group’s leadership team includes Scott MacPhee and William Gribbell, who co-founded Franklin Street Properties Corp. Tritower owns assets in the Boston, Washington, D.C., and Denver metro areas. It bought the Raytheon buildings at 16430 and 16470 E. Hughes Drive in Aurora in February and Brainard said, “We plan to continue to buy some additional properties going forward.”