Colorado Real Estate Journal - May 3, 2017
Majestic Realty Co. is going big – really big – on speculative development at Majestic Commercenter in Aurora. The company will break ground in June on a 701,500-square-foot warehouse/distribution building, the largest spec industrial building ever built in Colorado. Driving the project is the success Majestic has experienced with a three-building, 834,000-sf project to be delivered in October. It has preleased 537,000 sf, or 64 percent, of that project, which was the largest spec warehouse development undertaken in the Denver market. The new building, Building 15, breaks Majestic Realty’s previous record for the largest single spec industrial building in Colorado. Majestic developed a 500,000-sf building in 2013 that, at that time, was the largest to be built. With completion of Building 15, Majestic Realty will have developed 2.5 million sf at Majestic Commercenter in the last five years – about the same amount it built in the first 15 years of the 1,000-acre park at Interstate 70 and Tower Road. “With 450 acres of undeveloped land still available in our park, and another 500 acres available directly adjacent in our next phase that will accommodate multiple 1 million-square-foot buildings, our focus will continue to be on delivering quality product in a timely fashion to meet the needs of a diverse range of users looking for the space needed to service the Rocky Mountain region and beyond,” said Majestic Realty Co. Executive Vice President Randy Hertel. “Our decision to break ground and deliver yet another record-breaking spec warehouse/distribution facility is based on our decades of experience, belief in this market, as well as our in-depth understanding of the needs of national retailers and service providers.” The decision to go big also is based on the larger sizes of tenants that are coming to, and expanding in, Denver, Hertel said. “Our average building size for the first 15 years probably was around 200,000 square feet, and the next generation of buildings are probably closer to 500,000 square feet,” he said. “We are seeing larger tenants coming to the marketplace, and Majestic is a company that, in the markets that we are in, prides ourselves on providing the best and largest space that that particular market can accommodate.” The arrival of e-commerce companies like Amazon and Walmart, with the push to get products to consumers quickly, are among reasons for the increasing size of tenants in Denver. Amazon opened its first building, 450,000 sf, in Majestic Commercenter and is building another 1 million sf nearby. Majestic's new building “can still be divided down into the 150,000-foot size range but also can accommodate a 500,000-square-foot, or potentially a full 700,000-square foot, user group that, odds are, would be an e-commerce company,” Hertel said. Building 15 will have 36-foot ceiling clearance, 146 dock doors, 198 trailer parking spaces and 426 car parking spaces. It will bring development at Majestic Commercenter to 5 million sf in 18 buildings. Tenants for the three-building project that is nearing completion are: • Keystone Automotive Group, an LKQ company that leased 215,000 sf (Vic Oberholser of SDS Realty Inc. represented the tenant); •Electrolux, represented by Mike Camp of CBRE Inc., which leased 167,000 sf; and •Quality Custom Distribution Services, a subsidiary of Golden State Foods, which will have a 155,000-sf distribution facility with significant cooler/ freezer improvements. Steve Hager of Cushman & Wakefield represented QCD. Also, Shamrock Foods recently leased 85,000 sf at Majestic Commercenter. Jim Bolt of CBRE represented the tenant. “We’re extremely happy to both welcome and grow with these companies at Majestic Commerce Center,” said Hertel. “These lease agreements include both new tenant relationships as well as some expanding, long-term relationships and demonstrate that our calculations for the market’s needs were spoton.”