Colorado Real Estate Journal - April 5, 2017
The last 193,000 square feet of a 323,000-sf industrial property that Real Capital Solutions bought for – believe it or not – $10 just sold for $11.2 million. That’s not the whole story, however. North Denver Industrial Park was contaminated with PCBs when RCS, then Colorado and Santa Fe Land Co., bought the property at East 38th Avenue and Steele Street from the city of Denver in 1998. The buyer agreed to, and completed, environmental remediation prior to retrofitting and retenanting the property. The property consists of two rows of interconnected buildings at 3821-3851 and 3857-3881 Steele St. that, during World War II, were part of one of the largest U.S. Army medical supply depots in the United States. Noted architect Temple Hoyne Buell worked with the Army Corps of Engineers on the design. “The buildings resonated with us. It’s incredible brick and timber of a scale that you don’t really see in a lot of spaces, so it’s not your typical industrial space,” said Ari Stutz of Downtown Property Services. Stutz, along with partners Ken Wolf and Steve Meier, bought the southernmost building on the property in 2013 and just acquired the bulk of the building to the north. “We think that over time we can change and convert uses away from storage and industrial into more creative uses, whether it’s some type of creative office, or artist galleries or artist studios where they can make art and sell it there. We like where Denver is growing. We think it’s coming in this direction, and so we thought it was a good investment now and could turn into a better project in the future,” Stutz said. The 193,000 sf that sold was 100 percent occupied. Tenant sizes range from 10,000 to 20,000 sf. According to Judy Lawson, RCS vice president of commercial, Real Capital Solutions invested more than $4.3 million into environmental remediation, and capital and tenant improvements during its first three years of ownership. It also cured deferred maintenance and retrofitted interior spaces for occupancy by a variety of local tenants. The city of Denver provided tax-increment financing to help with renovations and lease-up. Denver Storage Solutions bought a portion of the north building for $2.6 million in 2010.