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COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
— June 1-June 14, 2016
Office
that submarket,” said Winn.
Located a block north of the
Colorado Capitol and two blocks
east of Broadway, the Capitol
Center provides tenants with
access to downtown amenities in
a less congested, low- to midrise
setting. The largest of the two
buildings is 12 stories.
“What we’re seeing is there is
a strong demand from a large
group of tenants that don’t want
to be in high-rise buildings,” said
Winn. Also, uptown rents are
lower than those in the Denver
Union Station and Lower Down-
town areas.
According to Empire Square
Group’s website, The Colorado
Trust’s lease extends through
2028. That building is two stories.
The Capitol Center also includes
a 234-space parking structure.
The property was being mar-
keted either for sale or as a joint
venture opportunity, said Winn,
who represented Empire Square
Group with CBRE’s Tim Richey
and Chad Flynn.
“We got a wide, diverse
amount of activity, which to be
quite frank, surprised us,” said
Winn. “It’s an older property
in a market location that some
investors weren’t quite sure they
understood,” he said. Once out-
side investors became acquaint-
ed with the vibrancy in the area,
“People really started to under-
stand it.”
The buildings were built in
1958.
Winn said SteelWave, which
has a Denver office, is proficient
at identifying well-located, good
physical structures that present
an opportunity to create value.
“The value creation is the loca-
tion, which is quickly emerging.
Tenant demand in that area is
very robust,” he said.
California-based SteelWave
sources, develops, renovates,
leases and manages real estate
investments for institutional cli-
ents. Empire Square Group is
a private equity company that
invests in real estate and high-
growth companies in the United
States.
Neither SteelWave nor Empire
Square Group could be reached
for comment.
s
said Ned Carner, senior vice
president of acquisitions and
development.
“Unico’s vision at the center
of Platte Street is to create a
place for creativity and innova-
tion and enhance the live/work
nature of the neighborhood. We
are striving to create new office
and retail spaces to complement
the charm of the existing build-
ings and to enhance the vibran-
cy of these neighborhoods for
generations to come.”
The new building – the sec-
ond project recently announced
for the Platte Street neighbor-
hood –will provide tenants with
amenities including a large,
flexible co-working and confer-
ence space, spa-quality shower
facilities, a state-of-the-art bike
room, indoor and outdoor
auditoriums, outdoor work
and social space, and nearly
200 parking spaces. Designed
by Open Studio Architecture, it
is precertified LEED Gold and
will include a sizable rooftop
solar array.
“Platte Street is the only
neighborhood that offers a
neighborhood feel with all the
access, benefits and amenities
of a downtown location,” said
Carner. “We continue to see
Denver as a great place to live.
It offers a great quality of life
and it is attracting bright peo-
ple. We believe Denver will con-
tinue to grow for a long period
of time, and we like to invest in
places that will be desirable for
decades to come.”
Unico Properties, which owns
3.4 million sf of commercial real
estate in Colorado, bought the
historic Root and Zang build-
ings on Platte Street in 2014.
The $2 million acquisition of
1615 Platte and the Big Chief
Bottling Co. building at 1537
Platte, which, according to pub-
lic records, sold for $5 million in
May, completed its assemblage
in the neighborhood.
“The unique benefit of Unico’s
development is that we’re truly
on the 50-yard line of Platte
Street,” said
Austin Kane,
Unico Prop-
erties
vice
p r e s i d e n t
and region-
al director.
“Being own-
ers of a his-
toric assem-
blage
on
Platte Street
as well as being developers of
a new site just to the north
enables us to preserve the past
while building – in a literal
sense – for the future.”
Kane said there is a wide
variety of tenants interested in
locating in the neighborhood,
ranging from institutional
headquarters users to small
tech companies. “One common
thread among the tenants look-
ing at Platte Street is they all
value innovative built environ-
ments and a location that is
accessible, amenity rich and has
a high ‘cool factor’ to it,” he
said.
“We believe very strongly in
Platte Street and we look for-
ward to talking with a broad
cross-section of Denver com-
panies that might be well suit-
ed for this opportunity. Platte
Street has clearly attracted some
very innovative companies, and
we look forward to working
with more of the same.”
Trammell Crow Co. also is
developing a new speculative
building on Platte Street, the
210,732-sf Riverview at 1700
Platte.
“Platte Street is fortunate to
have the caliber of developers
working on the street that it
does,” said Kane. “Each devel-
oper will put their own stamp
on their own project. Unico will
demonstrate its commitment to
sustainability and dedication to
workplace efficiency. We will
also create common spaces that
allow our tenants to have the
maximum flexibility in how
they work and play.”
The building is targeted for
completion in September 2018.
A full-service real estate com-
pany, Unico Properties began as
a partnership with the Univer-
sity of Washington to design,
finance, build and lease high-
rise office buildings in down-
town Seattle, including Ranier
Tower and the IBM Building. It
later developed One and Two
Union Square and more recent-
ly has acquired land to design,
finance, build and manage mul-
tifamily and mixed-use build-
ings in Portland and Seattle.
s
SteelWave
Unico
Austin Kane
Boulder
Denver
Northern Colorado Laramie
303.440.0399 303.830.1120 970.352.1700 307.755.1040
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