The building at 555 Zang St. in Lakewood has sold for 83 percent less than it did in 2019. (Google Maps)
A largely vacant Lakewood office building just got schooled.
Augustine Classical Academy, which offers preschool through high school, purchased the nearly 124,000-square-foot building at 555 Zang St. in late June. The firm paid $3 million, or about $24 a square foot, according to public records.
The school bought it at a deep discount.
The buildings were sold by a joint venture between Goldman Sachs and Seattle-based Unico Properties. Unico initially purchased the property for $12.25 million in July 2014, according to public records. In January 2019, the firm sold an unspecified stake in 555 Zang St. — as well as a host of other properties — to Goldman Sachs. The latter deal valued the building at $16.75 million.
The sale to Augustine amounts to an 83 percent discount compared to the 2019 valuation.
The $24-per-square-foot figure appears to be the lowest paid for a major Denver-area office building since the pandemic altered the industry. The previous low was $30 a square foot for a 164,000-square-foot building in Greenwood Village last year.
Billy Woodward, the top local executive for Seattle-based Unico, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
CBRE had been marketing 555 Zang St. for sale. The building just south of 6th Avenue is 31 percent occupied, according to marketing materials prepared by the firm. It was built in 1978 and renovated in 2022. CBRE said the building “presents an exciting value-add opportunity at a significant discount to replacement cost.”
Augustine Classical has a four-day school week and bills itself as a “classical Christian school.” Students begin learning Latin vocabulary in kindergarten, according to the school’s website, with “formal study” of the language running from third through ninth grades.
The school was founded in 2010 and currently operates in about 37,000 square feet at 480 S. Kipling St. in Lakewood, about three miles from the office building. It had 215 students in the most recent school year. Tuition for high school grades this upcoming year is $10,850, according to the school’s website.
David Leedy, the school’s executive director, told BusinessDen in an email that ACA’s board had “been searching for a new facility to accommodate our steadily growing enrollment” and identified 555 Zang St. as an option earlier this year.
“The school is running out of space at our current facility,” Leedy said. “555 Zang Street will enable us to accommodate our increasing enrollment numbers by providing more than double the physical space.”
The school plans to renovate 555 Zang St. to suit its needs, Leedy said, so ACA will remain at its current location for this upcoming school year. It hasn’t determined exactly how much of 555 Zang St. it will move into initially.
“We are in the process of evaluating an occupancy strategy for the school and for current tenants,” he said. “We are eager to have space for the school to grow into for the foreseeable future, while also preserving a healthy and mutually beneficial relationship with our commercial tenants.”
The building at 555 Zang St. in Lakewood has sold for 83 percent less than it did in 2019. (Google Maps)
A largely vacant Lakewood office building just got schooled.
Augustine Classical Academy, which offers preschool through high school, purchased the nearly 124,000-square-foot building at 555 Zang St. in late June. The firm paid $3 million, or about $24 a square foot, according to public records.
The school bought it at a deep discount.
The buildings were sold by a joint venture between Goldman Sachs and Seattle-based Unico Properties. Unico initially purchased the property for $12.25 million in July 2014, according to public records. In January 2019, the firm sold an unspecified stake in 555 Zang St. — as well as a host of other properties — to Goldman Sachs. The latter deal valued the building at $16.75 million.
The sale to Augustine amounts to an 83 percent discount compared to the 2019 valuation.
The $24-per-square-foot figure appears to be the lowest paid for a major Denver-area office building since the pandemic altered the industry. The previous low was $30 a square foot for a 164,000-square-foot building in Greenwood Village last year.
Billy Woodward, the top local executive for Seattle-based Unico, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
CBRE had been marketing 555 Zang St. for sale. The building just south of 6th Avenue is 31 percent occupied, according to marketing materials prepared by the firm. It was built in 1978 and renovated in 2022. CBRE said the building “presents an exciting value-add opportunity at a significant discount to replacement cost.”
Augustine Classical has a four-day school week and bills itself as a “classical Christian school.” Students begin learning Latin vocabulary in kindergarten, according to the school’s website, with “formal study” of the language running from third through ninth grades.
The school was founded in 2010 and currently operates in about 37,000 square feet at 480 S. Kipling St. in Lakewood, about three miles from the office building. It had 215 students in the most recent school year. Tuition for high school grades this upcoming year is $10,850, according to the school’s website.
David Leedy, the school’s executive director, told BusinessDen in an email that ACA’s board had “been searching for a new facility to accommodate our steadily growing enrollment” and identified 555 Zang St. as an option earlier this year.
“The school is running out of space at our current facility,” Leedy said. “555 Zang Street will enable us to accommodate our increasing enrollment numbers by providing more than double the physical space.”
The school plans to renovate 555 Zang St. to suit its needs, Leedy said, so ACA will remain at its current location for this upcoming school year. It hasn’t determined exactly how much of 555 Zang St. it will move into initially.
“We are in the process of evaluating an occupancy strategy for the school and for current tenants,” he said. “We are eager to have space for the school to grow into for the foreseeable future, while also preserving a healthy and mutually beneficial relationship with our commercial tenants.”
