Colorado Real Estate Journal -
When Jeff McClintock and his son, Matt, were seeking a buyer for Regis Square in north Denver, they knew just who to call: Regis University. “It is a piece of property that kind of goes right up into Regis University’s campus,” said Jeff McClintock, a broker at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, where his son has been working with him for more than a half-dozen years. “It is really the one piece of property the university doesn’t own” on its campus, the elder McClintock said. Regis University paid $6.9 million for the 59,694-squarefoot retail center at 5115 Federal Blvd. that was built in 1979, according to public records. The sale price equates to $115.59 per sf. Regis bought it through a limited liability corporation called Lowell Real Estate. The seller was Regis Square Associates. Regis Square Associates carried back the financing, which made it extremely attractive to the university, as it did not have to get a loan. The center was 100 percent leased at the time of the sale. Tenants include Pizza Hut, Subway and Cricket. Matt McClintock had worked with one of the partners at Regis Square Associates in the past. “They own a bunch of other retail in town and they decided now was a good time to sell,” he said. The father-and-son team pitched the center, on a 6.92- acre site, to the university. The sellers agreed it was the best buyer and so they didn’t shop it to the broader market. “Honestly, if it had gone to a third party, it would have been very bad for Regis,” Matt McClintock said, especially if a different owner had sold off part of the land as pads to other investors. “The sellers did the carry back, which really saved Regis a lot of money by not having to get a bank loan,” he said. “They will operate it as a retail center and will use the income to pay off the loan,” he said. “Sometime in the next 10 years, Regis will almost certainly close it down and use the land to improve the campus. “They plan to create a new entrance into the campus from Federal and really clean up the campus and make it look a lot prettier,” he said.