Colorado Real Estate Journal - November 19, 2014
United Properties is heading to the southeast suburban submarket for its latest big development in the Denver area. United Properties, in a joint venture with Principal Real Estate Investors, purchased 58 acres at the southeast corner of South Havana Street and East Easter Avenue to develop Dry Creek Corporate Center, a mixed-use project that will include approximately 650,000 square feet of single- and multitenant office and industrial space. Construction will start next spring with a 182,000- sf multitenant office building. Equity Office Properties Trust sold the land in a $8.2 million deal handled by Newmark Grubb Knight Frank brokers Jason Addlesperger and David Lee. Mike Wafer, also of NGKF, represented United Properties. “This is one of the largest fully entitled parcels of land in the heart of the s o u t h east subu r b a n market,” s a i d K e v i n K e l ley, vice p r e s i dent of U n i t e d P r o p erties. “With improving market conditions and low supply, we’re excited to bring this new Class A product to market.” The acquisition included multifamily and hotel sites that will be sold to outside developers. Dry Creek Corporate Center is next to the Dry Creek light-rail station, Inverness Business Park and Centennial Airport, approximately 20 minutes from downtown. With United Properties seeking LEED certification of all of the buildings, the project will include facilities for bike commuters, including dedicated building entries with showers, lockers, repair areas and bike rentals; a dedicated shuttle to transport employees to and from the light-rail station; and pads for food trucks, complete with covered dining areas. “We are offering rental rates of under $20 per square foot net, more than 5:1,000 parking ratios and lower net lease charges than other developments in the area,” said Kelley. “Also, our recent annexation into Centennial allows for a more efficient permitting process.” Wafer, who will market the property on behalf of the owner along with Lee and Addlesperger, said Dry Creek Corporate Center “feels like an infill development site in the southeast suburban market because it has immediate access to the interstate, immediate access to Arapahoe Road and numerous amenities.” “It’s closer in than a lot of the competing business parks farther south,” Wafer said, adding that factor, along with the lower lease rates and high parking ratio, should make it very appealing to users. Powers Brown Architecture is the lead architect for the vertical development. United Properties also is the developer of Enterprise Business Center, a hugely successful speculative industrial park in Denver’s Stapleton area. The park’s 700,973-sf first phase is 96 percent leased, and a second phase of 466,958 sf is underway.