The corner retail property has cycled through various restaurants in the last 10 years. (Courtesy Mark Pyms of Panorama Commercial Group)
Jake Malman is hoping that three will be his lucky number.
The real estate broker – who owns his own firm – snagged a retail corner this month in Platt Park for $1 million. His plan is to divide the single retail space on the corner of Downing Street and Evans Avenue into three units.
The deal includes a 5,000-square-foot parking lot behind the 1135 E. Evans Ave. building.
“It’s one of those corners that everyone in Denver seems to know … it’s a great corner and why is the asset underperforming? To me, living close by — I live in Wash Park — it’s a long-term asset for me to redevelop,” Malman said.
“Give the property what it deserves, which is some upgrades on the interiors and the exterior, and demise the space into three units.”
Malman paid approximately $200 a square foot for the nearly 5,000-square-foot building. The selling entity, Downing & Evans LLP, is comprised of four different parties, all represented in the deal by Mark Pyms, co-owner of Denver’s Panorama Commercial Group. The sellers are providing $900,000 in financing for Malman, public records show.
Malman said his decision to split up the property is market-driven.
Jake Malman
“The building was previously occupied by one tenant, but that large of a restaurant right now is not feasible and not what restaurant operators are interested in,” he said.
Malman plans to carve out 1,800-square-foot and 800-square-foot units, leaving the remaining, roughly 2,300-square-foot space for a restaurant operator.
Despite being one-half mile from the University of Denver, the building has had regular turnover. Its last occupant, restaurant Devour The 303 and its accompanying dessert spot, closed in July 2022 after four years there. Before then, it was home to two restaurants that closed in 2018 after being open for 2 ½ and 4 ½ years.
Pyms, the seller’s broker, said his clients owned the building for decades, and are now all in their 70s. It’s been an up-and-down listing experience for him, having first marketed the property two years ago for $2.4 million.
“I thought that that neighborhood — and even in the condition that it was in — they probably should have sold for somewhere around $1.75 million, or a little bit better,” he said.
But issues arose with the building. Pyms said that Devour The 303 took much of the restaurant equipment with them. All that remains is a “bar structure” with taps that need replacing, a hood overtop a now nonexistent oven and some walk-in coolers that “may or may not be in working condition.” Renovating and outfitting the space would cost between $500,000 and $1 million, he said.
Pyms tried auctioning the property twice. The first time, no one bid higher than the reserve price, so no action was taken. The second time, the winning bidder backed out just a single day after the auction, claiming their partner had walked away.
“We said: You never mentioned your partner, and you know, you were vetted, and I think what you did was you bought yourself a lawsuit instead of a property,” Pyms told BusinessDen. “But, you know, the ownership decided that they just didn’t want to go down that path and let them walk, against my advice on it. I thought the guy should have been forced to close it. And it was a little bit higher than what it actually ended up selling at.”
Eventually, the offer from Malman came in.
Malman, 31, owns Malman Commercial Real Estate. The business deals in all assets and has a team of seven, with more coming in the new year. He said it’s been a great year for the company he started two 1/2 years ago.
“We’ve done about $80 million in transaction volume for us … It’s been a good year for a small team.”
The corner retail property has cycled through various restaurants in the last 10 years. (Courtesy Mark Pyms of Panorama Commercial Group)
Jake Malman is hoping that three will be his lucky number.
The real estate broker – who owns his own firm – snagged a retail corner this month in Platt Park for $1 million. His plan is to divide the single retail space on the corner of Downing Street and Evans Avenue into three units.
The deal includes a 5,000-square-foot parking lot behind the 1135 E. Evans Ave. building.
“It’s one of those corners that everyone in Denver seems to know … it’s a great corner and why is the asset underperforming? To me, living close by — I live in Wash Park — it’s a long-term asset for me to redevelop,” Malman said.
“Give the property what it deserves, which is some upgrades on the interiors and the exterior, and demise the space into three units.”
Malman paid approximately $200 a square foot for the nearly 5,000-square-foot building. The selling entity, Downing & Evans LLP, is comprised of four different parties, all represented in the deal by Mark Pyms, co-owner of Denver’s Panorama Commercial Group. The sellers are providing $900,000 in financing for Malman, public records show.
Malman said his decision to split up the property is market-driven.
Jake Malman
“The building was previously occupied by one tenant, but that large of a restaurant right now is not feasible and not what restaurant operators are interested in,” he said.
Malman plans to carve out 1,800-square-foot and 800-square-foot units, leaving the remaining, roughly 2,300-square-foot space for a restaurant operator.
Despite being one-half mile from the University of Denver, the building has had regular turnover. Its last occupant, restaurant Devour The 303 and its accompanying dessert spot, closed in July 2022 after four years there. Before then, it was home to two restaurants that closed in 2018 after being open for 2 ½ and 4 ½ years.
Pyms, the seller’s broker, said his clients owned the building for decades, and are now all in their 70s. It’s been an up-and-down listing experience for him, having first marketed the property two years ago for $2.4 million.
“I thought that that neighborhood — and even in the condition that it was in — they probably should have sold for somewhere around $1.75 million, or a little bit better,” he said.
But issues arose with the building. Pyms said that Devour The 303 took much of the restaurant equipment with them. All that remains is a “bar structure” with taps that need replacing, a hood overtop a now nonexistent oven and some walk-in coolers that “may or may not be in working condition.” Renovating and outfitting the space would cost between $500,000 and $1 million, he said.
Pyms tried auctioning the property twice. The first time, no one bid higher than the reserve price, so no action was taken. The second time, the winning bidder backed out just a single day after the auction, claiming their partner had walked away.
“We said: You never mentioned your partner, and you know, you were vetted, and I think what you did was you bought yourself a lawsuit instead of a property,” Pyms told BusinessDen. “But, you know, the ownership decided that they just didn’t want to go down that path and let them walk, against my advice on it. I thought the guy should have been forced to close it. And it was a little bit higher than what it actually ended up selling at.”
Eventually, the offer from Malman came in.
Malman, 31, owns Malman Commercial Real Estate. The business deals in all assets and has a team of seven, with more coming in the new year. He said it’s been a great year for the company he started two 1/2 years ago.
“We’ve done about $80 million in transaction volume for us … It’s been a good year for a small team.”
