Colorado Real Estate Journal - January 6, 2016
Jackson Square Properties paid $63.3 million to the Lynde Co. for the Bluffs at Castle Rock and the Aurora-based Centre Pointe East apartment communities. The properties were marketed separately and unpriced. Prospective buyers had an option to buy them as a portfolio. They were listed by Terrance Hunt, Shane Ozment, Jeff Hawks and Doug Andrews of ARA Newmark. The sales price equates to $147,897 per unit. Together, the two communities have a total of 428 units. The Bluffs at Castle Rock was 99 percent occupied at the time of sale, while Center Pointe East was 96 percent occupied. Lynd, based in San Antonio, is a family of real estate companies, which individually and through different ownership structures engages in the business of management, ownership and development of multi-housing assets. Jackson Square, based in San Francisco, owns more than 3,000 units in the metro Denver area. The Bluffs at Castle Rock, a Class B asset, was constructed in 1998 and is located at 483 Scott Blvd. in Castle Rock. Eighty-eight of the 220 units have been “lightly” renovated and are achieving rent premiums. “We had a tremendous amount of interest and competition for The Bluffs at Castle Rock,” Ozment said. “We received over 20 offers and took almost half of those to a best and final, due to pricing being extremely crowded at the top,” he continued. “This was a true value-add opportunity that has seen minimal renovations to select units. The buyer believes in the strong underlying fundamentals of the Castle Rock market and the lack of new supply being built,” according to Ozment. Center Pointe East also is a value-add opportunity. It is a Class B asset, according to Ozment. Center Pointe East is at 15490 E. Center Ave. in Aurora. The 208-unit, 1999-constructed property sold for $31.1 million and the 75 units the seller partially renovated are also achieving rent premiums. Jackson Square has the opportunity to continue the renovation program and capitalize on the proximity of Center Pointe East to the massive Fitzsimons Life Sciences medical campus, according to Ozment. The community is only 10 minutes from Fitzsimons Innovation Campus, an integrated, state-of-the-art bioscience development. The 578-acre campus is undergoing a $4.3 billion transformation and at build-out will comprise over 18 million square feet and have 43,000 high-paying jobs. Many of the workers are expected to rent, rather than buy a home, especially when they are first hired. Other News A Denver-based limited liability company, 3120 W. Iliff Ave., paid $4.8 million to Williamsberg Apartments of Denver LLC for the 56-unit Williamsberg apartment community at 3120 W. Iliff Ave. in Denver. The building, constructed in 1983, sold for a 7.5 cap rate. The sales price equates to $84,251 per unit and $127 per square foot. John Laratta of Berkadia brokered the deal. Laratta called the sale a “classic value-add opportunity” for a building that needed a moderate renovation. The buyer expects to spend $3,000 to $5,000 to upgrade each unit, which is projected to result in a double-digit return, Laratta said. An unidentified buyer paid $1.71 million, or $114,00 per unit and $155.55 per sf, for a 15-unit apartment building at 1900-1960 Upham St. in Lakewood. The all-brick property, constructed in 1963, has slightly less than 30,000 sf of land with two separate apartment buildings in a quiet area. “The out-of-state buyer had been looking very seriously for a few months at much larger assets in more urban locations; however, the lack of inventory and compressed returns made him re-evaluate markets and price points,” said Robert Lawson, senior adviser at Pinnacle Real Estate Advisors, who represented the buyer in the transaction. “As soon as this opportunity came up, we submitted a quick, 45-day close with an above-asking-price offer and a nonrefundable earnest money contingency to make sure the seller knew we were serious,” Lawson said. An unidentified buyer paid $810,000 for a seven-unit apartment building at 5791 S. Pearl St. in Centennial. The sales price equates to $115,714 per unit and $109.58 per sf. The property was constructed in 1965. Josh Newell, a senior adviser at Pinnacle Real Estate Advisors LLC, represented the local buyer in the transaction. An unidentified buyer paid $550,000, or $68,700 per unit, for an eight-unit apartment building at 12014 E. 14th Ave. in Aurora. The property was built in 1959. The building is a block southwest of the Fitzsimmons bioscience campus. Joe Hornstein and Scott Fetter of Pinnacle Real Estate Advisors represented both sides of the transaction. “This was a deal driven by two factors – the continued value the Anschutz medical campus is adding to the area and also the continued push of rents in the north Aurora submarket,” Fetter said. “Looking at the prices that similar properties trade for in areas like Littleton, Lakewood and Northglenn, I think paying less than $70,000 per unit to be a block from Anschutz is really attractive.” Allied Orion Group, based in Houston, has been selected by Arel Capital to manage its 114-unit Cambridge Apartment building at 1260 S. Bellaire St. in Denver. Cambridge is the sixth apartment community managed by Allied and owned by Arel’s “Collective Glendale” portfolio, which has a total of 651 units. Other communities in Collective Glendale include Vantage Point, the Birch, Four Mile Flats, Infinity Flats and Park Point.