Granite Place at Village Center set a new high-water mark for southeast suburban office product at a sales price of $423.78 per square foot.
Arapahoe County records show Crestone Partners and an institutional partner paid $126.95 million for the newly completed Class AA building, a speculative project that was fully leased prior to delivery.
Granite Properties and Confluent Development, which developed the 299,568-sf Granite Place, now are looking at the possibility of developing a twin building, which would be about the same size.
Granite Place at Village Center is a 10-story, LEED certified building at 6175 S. Willow Drive in Greenwood Village. It’s a five-minute walk from the Arapahoe at Village Center light-rail station and was 100 percent preleased to Charter Communications and CSG International.
The previous record sales price for suburban Denver office building was $414 per sf, set with the sale of CoBank Center, also in Greenwood Village, in late 2015.
Stephanie Lawrence
Although Granite Place at Village Center is a sizeable asset for the southeast suburban office submarket, there was “strong” interest from investors, including foreign capital, according to Stephanie Lawrence, senior managing director of Granite Denver.
CBRE brokers Tim Richey, Mike Winn, Jeff Shell, Chad Flynn and Jenny Knowlton handled the sale.
A Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP team led by Senior Managing Director Eric Tupler arranged $70.68 million in financing for the acquisition. Principal Real Estate Investors provided the six-year, fixed-rate, interest-only loan.
Designed by Open Studio Architecture, Granite Place at Village Center has a large community area on the ground floor where employees can work and socialize, and showcases art by local artists. It also has full-height glass, providing plentiful natural light and mountain views. There also are conference facilities with a boardroom, large training room and prefunction staging area, a gym-quality fitness center with showers and locker rooms, a full-service café, an acre of outdoor common space and an adjacent parking garage, shared with the Regional Transportation District, that accommodates more than 1,000 cars.
“That Granite Place was 100 percent leased six months before completion speaks to the high-quality workplace environment that Granite and Confluent are known for developing as well as how active and desirable the Denver southeast market is,” said Lawrence.
“Companies are drawn to the Village Center area for its diverse workforce and its proximity to light rail and retail amenities, driving the demand for premier office space. We look forward to turning our attention to developing Phase II, which will be adjacent to Granite Place and similar in quality and size,” she added.
Granite Properties is heavily invested in Greenwood Village as owner of Plaza Tower One, High Pointe Tower and Prentice Plaza.
“We totally believe in the location,” said Lawrence. Granite and Confluent are evaluating the second building and haven’t announced plans to begin construction.
“We’re thrilled to build on our success of identifying prime locations to develop high-quality, amenity-rich office space in metro Denver and look forward to continuing our relationship with Granite for additional development,” said Marshall Burton, president and CEO of Confluent Development.
Granite Properties is a privately held commercial real estate investment, development and management company with offices in Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Denver and Southern California. It has completed more than $6.1 billion in real estate transactions and more than 26 million sf of real estate development and acquisitions.
Denver-based Confluent Development is a full-service real estate investment and development company that owns and develops ground-up commercial real estate throughout the United States.
