Buyer acquires newly upgraded Castle Rock day care

A new owner-user purchased a retail property in Castle Rock for $1.13 million and will bring its early learning center to the space.

Buyer 1354 Park St LLC purchased the 5,797-square-foot retail property at 1354 Park St. from seller Project Nehemiah LLC. Jackson Hill of Fischer Co. represented the buyer, while Ryan Bengford, Troy Meyer and Kevin Matthews of SVN Denver Commercial represented the seller. The property will continue to serve as an early childhood education facility, with the buyer bringing Ivy Brook Academy to the space.

According to Bengford, the property was listed in May 2019 and garnered significant interest from a wide variety of buyers.

“We had a strong buyer pool with a total of three offers,” Bengford said. “We had interested parties across the board with some owner-users looking to keep the building as a day care facility but others looking to use it as office space and in the case of one buyer, a mortuary.”

Matthews attributed the property’s well-maintained structure to the amount of prospective buyer interest. He said the seller completed multiple improvements in recent years, including putting in a new outdoor playground and upgrading indoor features such as the cabinetry. However, aside from cosmetic changes, the property, which was built in 2000, never underwent any major renovations.

It traded for $25,000 above its original asking price, which was negotiated pre-COVID-19. Matthews said the final sales price was especially unique because of the nature of the closing process due to the pandemic.

“The sale was under contract pre-COVID and was delayed due to lender issues. Since the Small Business Administration was so focused on paycheck protection program loans, everything that was in the process of closing got put on hold. We were delayed by a couple of months, but the price didn’t change. This property was one of the few that ended up closing at its initial price,” Matthews said.

The new owner-user will be operational in October, and shouldn’t face any complications due to COVID-19, Matthews said.

“A lot of early childhood education centers are open with safety restrictions in place, including having a lower capacity of students, mandatory temperature checks and social distancing practices,” he added.

Featured in the September 2-15, 2020, issue of CREJ