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COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
— March 16-April 5, 2016
by John Rebchook
ACanadian company, in its first
Denver-area purchase, recently
paid $47.88 million for the 228-
unit Carrick Bend apartment
community in Northglenn.
Carrick Bend at 1125 Commu-
nity Center Drive was developed
by Holland Partners, based in
Vancouver, Washington.
Carrick Bend opened in 2014.
“Holland built it, leased it up
and stabilized it and sold it,” said
David Potarf.
Potarf was part of the CBRE
team that included Dan Wood-
ward and Matt Barnett that sold
Carrick Bend on behalf of Hol-
land.
The buyer was Toronto-based
Starlight Investments.
The sales price equates to
$210,000 per unit for the garden-
style apartment on nine acres.
The property wasn’t marketed
to the overall market.
“Holland had a number and
Starlight hit it,” Potarf said.
“If we had shown it to the over-
all market, we would have had
a lot of offers, as we do with
all properties these days,” Potarf
said.
Not that Starlight stole it.
“Theypaidamarket-rateprice,”
Potarf said.
“Starlight has wanted to be in
the market for a while,” Potarf
said.
“They were pretty aggressive in
going after this one and kind of
made a pre-emptive offer,” which
negated the need to shop it to
competitors, he said.
CBRE had shown Starlight sev-
eral communities in the Denver
area and this was its favorite, he
said.
“They were more interested on
the north side of town than the
southeast,” Potarf said.
Evan Kirsh, president of Star-
light U.S., said the company had
been looking to enter the Den-
ver-area market for about a year,
before buying Carrick Bend.
“We really like the Denver mar-
ket,” Kirsh said.
“We find it an appealing mar-
ket because of its strong employ-
ment growth today, as well as
the employment growth in the
future,” he said.
“And with Denver’s quality of
life, it is just a great place to live,”
Kirsh said.
He said he is impressed by Car-
rick Bend.
“First, we really like its loca-
tion,” Kirsh said.
“It is maybe 20 minutes from
downtown, so it can appeal to the
resident looking to a less expen-
sive option to housing in down-
town Denver, as well as attracting
people who work in that subur-
ban corridor,” he said.
The northDenver area itself also
is growing, he noted, with a num-
ber of employment opportunities.
“We also liked the quality of
construction,” Kirsh said.
“Holland did a great job,” he
said.
The acquisition checked off a
number of boxes for Starlight, he
said.
“We only buy new product,”
Kirsh said. “We are not a value-
add investor. And we only buy in
the suburbs. We don’t buy down-
town properties.”
He also said he thinks “supply
and demand” is more in balance
in Denver’s northern corridor
than in some other parts of the
metro area.
Starlight manages assets worth
$5.5 billion in its portfolio, which
includes 32,500 apartment units in
Canada and the U.S.
In the U.S., it also owns prop-
erties in Arizona, Texas, Tennes-
see, North Carolina, Georgia and
Florida.
“Carrick Bend probably was
a bit on the small side for us,
but I would say typically we buy
somethingwith at least 200 units,”
Kirsh said.
Starlight is looking to buy more
apartment communities in the
suburban Denver market.
Multifamily
Shown is the Carrick Bend apartment community.
