NOVEMBER 19-DECEMBER 2, 2014
by Jill Jamieson-Nichols
ANew York private equity
firm paid $104 million for
Denver West Office Park
and will spend another
$14 million to $15 million
improving the 21-building
property.
The acquisition is High-
Brook Investment Manage-
ment LP’s largest invest-
ment to date and its first in
Colorado. Brian Carr, who
led acquisitions for Morgan
Stanley Real Estate Invest-
ing for 17 years, and David
O’Connor, who operated
hedge fund High Rise Capi-
tal Management LP and has
25 years of experience in real
estate and securities, found-
ed the company in 2010.
HighBrook retained Davis
Partnership to design exte-
rior and interior upgrades to
the 1.44 million-square-foot
Denver West Office Park
and will spend the next two
years renovating lobbies,
corridors and restrooms;
replacing roofs; painting
the buildings a lighter color;
redoing signage; upgrading
overgrown landscaping; and
adding amenities such as
fire pits and barbecue areas
that encourage employees to
gather. It also plans to invest
in the fit-
ness facil-
ity, said
D i r e c t o r
of Asset
Ma n a g e -
ment Ed
Gargiulo.
“We think
we
can
b r i n g
some real
value through improv-
ing overall operations of
the park, and we intend to
invest a significant amount
of capital in order to turn it
around,” said Gargiulo.
“We know that a lot of
people have the perception
that Denver West has been
this antiquated property
that hasn’t been touched in
decades. We are going to
change that within the next
24 months,” added Gargiu-
lo, who doesn’t expect any-
one to take his word for that.
“People are going to need
to see it. They can’t just be
talked to about it,” he said.
“We are going to aggres-
sively partner with and
show the brokerage and ten-
ant communities that real
change is happening.”
Stevinson Automotive
founder Chuck Stevinson
and his son, Greg Stevinson,
started developing Denver
West Office Park, which is
situated along Cole Boule-
vard between West Colfax
Avenue and Interstate 70
in Lakewood, in the early
1970s. Most of the buildings
were completed by the early
1980s, with the last construc-
tion occurring in 1996.
Denver West Office Park
Ed Gargiulo
by John Rebchook
Bruce Rifkin first met Bobby
Smith and Jeff Jones in the early
2000s.
Now they are part of a team,
along with
A t l a n t a -
b a s e d
G a b l e s
Residential,
a private
real estate
investment
trust with
a market
value
of
more than
$3 billion, that is developing
an eight-story, 289-unit luxury
apartment tower at 360 S. Mon-
roe St.
“We are very excited to be
in partnership with the Rifkins
and Gables,” Smith said.
“And we are excited to be a
part of Cherry Creek with this
exciting new project,” Smith
added.
The building will be one of
the most expensive apartment
towers ever built in Denver,
Smith said.
It also will create 400 to 450
construction jobs at its peak,
according to the general con-
tractor, Swinerton Builders.
The relationship with Rifkin,
Smith and Jones, which ulti-
mately led to the building,
A photo of the Cherry Creek building under construction at 360 S. Monroe St.
Bobby Smith
by Jill Jamieson-Nichols
Trammell Crow Co. will
begin building new, highly
anticipated industrial product
next summer on a formerly
tainted site in central Denver.
EnviroFinance Group has
agreed to sell approximately
77 acres near Interstates 25
and 70 to Trammell Crow for
construc-
tion
of
Crossroads
Commerce
Park
at
G l o b e v -
ille. The
m a s t e r -
p l a n n e d
bu s i n e s s
park even-
tually could provide up to 1
million square feet of distribu-
tion, warehouse, manufactur-
ing and related product, and
will create a significant num-
ber of jobs on a site that once
housed the largest employer
in that part of the city.
ASARCO’s Globe Plant
operated on the property,
located at the corner of East
55st Avenue and Washington
Street in Denver and Adams
County, until 2006. EnviroFi-
nance has spent the last four
yearsworkingwith a trust cre-
ated out of ASARCO’s bank-
ruptcy to clean up the site for
redevelopment. The $15 mil-
lion effort was financed with
Bill Mosher
Inside
Reed Group just keeps growing,
necessitating a move to 65,000 square feet
next to its existing space at Westmoor
Corum Real Estate sells
a 221-unit apartment community to
Milestone Apartments for $40.5 million
United Properties buys
58 acres in the southeast suburban
submarket with plans for competitive
office space, food trucks and more
A strong retail market
creates a shortage of properties for sale,
according to Marcus & Millichap
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