The Prentice Plaza building at 8101 E. Prentice Ave. in Greenwood Village sold for $14.35 million. (Courtesy Dunton Commercial)
A Denver Tech Center office building has sold for a familiar sales price.
Last week, the 12-story, 162,000-square-foot Prentice Plaza building at 8101 E. Prentice Ave. in Greenwood Village sold to Dunton Commercial for $14.4 million, or about $88 a foot, according to public records.
In 1988, in the midst of an economic downturn in Denver, the building sold for the exact same price.
The seller was Dallas-based Granite Properties, which bought the property in 2013 for $26.6 million.
“Had it not been for COVID, we would have sold it sooner,” said Stephanie Lawrence, a Granite executive in its Denver office.
“We had an artificially low interest rate for a very long time. That’s just a reality to what’s happened to the value of all real estate.”
Despite the lower sales price, Lawrence said her firm has improved the quality of the asset, upgrading the property’s HVAC, building systems, amenities and lobby. Many of the floors have outdoor patios with west-facing views.
“The standard both front of the house and back of the house work was done during our 10-year ownership,” she said.
Granite listed the 1980s office building in the spring and had selected a buyer by midsummer, closing last week. During that process, she fielded 30 tours, 12 offers and more surprisingly, signed four new leases. The building is 73 percent occupied and has an attached parking garage.
“This is maybe the first deal I’ve done in a long time — maybe ever — where we’ve had four leases signed during the sales process,” Lawrence said.
Lawrence said that a bigger building would be more difficult to sell in today’s office market, where smaller spaces are more attractive to tenants and smaller buildings are more attractive to buyers — a big reason why downtown sales activity has slowed, she said.
Nate Melchior
Nate Melchior, principal at Dunton Commercial, which is based in Greenwood Village, said he liked the building’s incorporation of move-in ready “spec” suites that range from 1,600 to 5,000 square feet. All but two of the building’s vacancies are built out that way.
Melchior believes these buildings will continue to trade on the cheap, with new owners coming into them with fresh funds that will go towards upgrades such as spec suites. As the properties sell and are improved, competition for tenants will increase.
“To be out ahead of the rest of the competition before we see the volume of office buildings that will trade over the next couple of years, it’s important to be in front of that,” he said.
Melchior acquired Dunton Commercial in 2018. Back then, he and his partners were gearing up to launch a real estate investment arm for the firm, which had been a property management company.
Dunton’s first purchase came in Thornton, where the group purchased a 112,000 square-foot shopping center, Huron Plaza. Since that deal in March 2019, the business has bought another eight properties from Pueblo to Denver, totaling 1.1 million square feet. It currently manages 4.25 million square feet across roughly 60 properties.
“To be able to acquire a high-performing building that’s been invested in heavily is appealing, and that’s what we’re looking for right now,” he said.
The Prentice Plaza building at 8101 E. Prentice Ave. in Greenwood Village sold for $14.35 million. (Courtesy Dunton Commercial)
A Denver Tech Center office building has sold for a familiar sales price.
Last week, the 12-story, 162,000-square-foot Prentice Plaza building at 8101 E. Prentice Ave. in Greenwood Village sold to Dunton Commercial for $14.4 million, or about $88 a foot, according to public records.
In 1988, in the midst of an economic downturn in Denver, the building sold for the exact same price.
The seller was Dallas-based Granite Properties, which bought the property in 2013 for $26.6 million.
“Had it not been for COVID, we would have sold it sooner,” said Stephanie Lawrence, a Granite executive in its Denver office.
“We had an artificially low interest rate for a very long time. That’s just a reality to what’s happened to the value of all real estate.”
Despite the lower sales price, Lawrence said her firm has improved the quality of the asset, upgrading the property’s HVAC, building systems, amenities and lobby. Many of the floors have outdoor patios with west-facing views.
“The standard both front of the house and back of the house work was done during our 10-year ownership,” she said.
Granite listed the 1980s office building in the spring and had selected a buyer by midsummer, closing last week. During that process, she fielded 30 tours, 12 offers and more surprisingly, signed four new leases. The building is 73 percent occupied and has an attached parking garage.
“This is maybe the first deal I’ve done in a long time — maybe ever — where we’ve had four leases signed during the sales process,” Lawrence said.
Lawrence said that a bigger building would be more difficult to sell in today’s office market, where smaller spaces are more attractive to tenants and smaller buildings are more attractive to buyers — a big reason why downtown sales activity has slowed, she said.
Nate Melchior
Nate Melchior, principal at Dunton Commercial, which is based in Greenwood Village, said he liked the building’s incorporation of move-in ready “spec” suites that range from 1,600 to 5,000 square feet. All but two of the building’s vacancies are built out that way.
Melchior believes these buildings will continue to trade on the cheap, with new owners coming into them with fresh funds that will go towards upgrades such as spec suites. As the properties sell and are improved, competition for tenants will increase.
“To be out ahead of the rest of the competition before we see the volume of office buildings that will trade over the next couple of years, it’s important to be in front of that,” he said.
Melchior acquired Dunton Commercial in 2018. Back then, he and his partners were gearing up to launch a real estate investment arm for the firm, which had been a property management company.
Dunton’s first purchase came in Thornton, where the group purchased a 112,000 square-foot shopping center, Huron Plaza. Since that deal in March 2019, the business has bought another eight properties from Pueblo to Denver, totaling 1.1 million square feet. It currently manages 4.25 million square feet across roughly 60 properties.
“To be able to acquire a high-performing building that’s been invested in heavily is appealing, and that’s what we’re looking for right now,” he said.
