The Union Station property is home to three tenants. (Matt Geiger/BusinessDen)
Real estate is all about the long game. But for Mike and Michael Zoellner, sometimes it doesn’t hurt to move fast.
The father-son duo bought four retail condos at 1660 17th St., across the street from Union Station, for $3.4 million last week. The spaces span 8,800 square feet, which makes the deal worth $385 a square foot.
“We have a 1031 exchange right now, so this was the first property that we identified and closed on for our exchange,” said Michael Zoellner, the son.
The deal comes just 13 days after Zoellner and his father — who founded RedPeak, a major central Denver landlord — sold a Cap Hill apartment building for $10.8 million.
Michael Zoellner
“This location and this asset specifically, the building and the quality, it’s just long-term real estate that we feel very comfortable owning, and we believe in downtown long term,” Michael Zoellner said.
The building’s four spaces are fully leased to three tenants: Kentwood Real Estate City Properties has two of the units, SIXT rent a car and a physical therapist. All have multiple years left on their leases, though Kentwood is considering downsizing into a single unit, Michael Zoellner said.
Milo Tedstrom, who along with two others sold the property, declined to comment on the deal. The spaces last traded for $2.15 million in 2006.
Karen Landers and Todd Snyder of Kentwood Commercial represented the trio in the sale. It was originally listed for $5.75 million in the fall of 2023, Landers said.
Landers added that the price came down because interest in the property was mostly from those looking to occupy it. The existing tenants’ long-term leases complicated that.
But she finally snagged a buyer who went under contract at the end of the last year.
“That buyer knew the Zoellners. … He found something else he wanted to purchase instead so he put us in touch with the Zoellners, and they went under contract,” Landers said.
The 1660 17th property, built in 1885, is known as the Struby-Estabrook building. It’s the first warehouse built along Wynkoop Street that later became Denver’s “warehouse row” in the early 1900s. (Matt Geiger/BusinessDen)
The Zoellners enter into their new Union Station real estate at an interesting moment for downtown, and Michael Zoellner is fully aware of that.
“Downtown Denver has different pockets of strength,” he said. “What we were particularly comfortable with here is the location next to Union Station, being a prominent asset downtown, and really just a connector and a central meeting place for folks visiting downtown Denver and for residents of Denver that are coming downtown to just enjoy themselves.
“But you know, there are pockets and areas of downtown and certain office buildings where there’s a lot of vacancy,” Michael Zoellner added.
His father founded RedPeak in 2001. Before that, the fourth-generation Coloradan was a partner at Lincoln Property Co. He left RedPeak in 2017 and has been working out of his own firm, ZF Capital, with his son. The two have a portfolio of Denver apartments and are invested in an amateur baseball team in Wisconsin.
Mike Zoellner has been involved with some high profile projects over the years, including One City Block, a massive, 427,000-square-foot apartment complex in Uptown.
More challenging, perhaps, was the office-to-residential conversion of 1600 Glenarm Place. Mike Zoellner took the 1960s office building and turned it into 333 apartments in 2006. It’s the most ambitious project of its kind completed to date in Denver.
But the market has changed. The Zoellners are OK chilling out for a while.
“We’ve taken the approach with all the apartment development recently to sort of pause on that and not pursue any new development, just to sort of wait and see what happens,” Michael Zoellner said.
“Right now, we’re very focused on the exchange and trying to find replacement properties.”
The Union Station property is home to three tenants. (Matt Geiger/BusinessDen)
Real estate is all about the long game. But for Mike and Michael Zoellner, sometimes it doesn’t hurt to move fast.
The father-son duo bought four retail condos at 1660 17th St., across the street from Union Station, for $3.4 million last week. The spaces span 8,800 square feet, which makes the deal worth $385 a square foot.
“We have a 1031 exchange right now, so this was the first property that we identified and closed on for our exchange,” said Michael Zoellner, the son.
The deal comes just 13 days after Zoellner and his father — who founded RedPeak, a major central Denver landlord — sold a Cap Hill apartment building for $10.8 million.
Michael Zoellner
“This location and this asset specifically, the building and the quality, it’s just long-term real estate that we feel very comfortable owning, and we believe in downtown long term,” Michael Zoellner said.
The building’s four spaces are fully leased to three tenants: Kentwood Real Estate City Properties has two of the units, SIXT rent a car and a physical therapist. All have multiple years left on their leases, though Kentwood is considering downsizing into a single unit, Michael Zoellner said.
Milo Tedstrom, who along with two others sold the property, declined to comment on the deal. The spaces last traded for $2.15 million in 2006.
Karen Landers and Todd Snyder of Kentwood Commercial represented the trio in the sale. It was originally listed for $5.75 million in the fall of 2023, Landers said.
Landers added that the price came down because interest in the property was mostly from those looking to occupy it. The existing tenants’ long-term leases complicated that.
But she finally snagged a buyer who went under contract at the end of the last year.
“That buyer knew the Zoellners. … He found something else he wanted to purchase instead so he put us in touch with the Zoellners, and they went under contract,” Landers said.
The 1660 17th property, built in 1885, is known as the Struby-Estabrook building. It’s the first warehouse built along Wynkoop Street that later became Denver’s “warehouse row” in the early 1900s. (Matt Geiger/BusinessDen)
The Zoellners enter into their new Union Station real estate at an interesting moment for downtown, and Michael Zoellner is fully aware of that.
“Downtown Denver has different pockets of strength,” he said. “What we were particularly comfortable with here is the location next to Union Station, being a prominent asset downtown, and really just a connector and a central meeting place for folks visiting downtown Denver and for residents of Denver that are coming downtown to just enjoy themselves.
“But you know, there are pockets and areas of downtown and certain office buildings where there’s a lot of vacancy,” Michael Zoellner added.
His father founded RedPeak in 2001. Before that, the fourth-generation Coloradan was a partner at Lincoln Property Co. He left RedPeak in 2017 and has been working out of his own firm, ZF Capital, with his son. The two have a portfolio of Denver apartments and are invested in an amateur baseball team in Wisconsin.
Mike Zoellner has been involved with some high profile projects over the years, including One City Block, a massive, 427,000-square-foot apartment complex in Uptown.
More challenging, perhaps, was the office-to-residential conversion of 1600 Glenarm Place. Mike Zoellner took the 1960s office building and turned it into 333 apartments in 2006. It’s the most ambitious project of its kind completed to date in Denver.
But the market has changed. The Zoellners are OK chilling out for a while.
“We’ve taken the approach with all the apartment development recently to sort of pause on that and not pursue any new development, just to sort of wait and see what happens,” Michael Zoellner said.
“Right now, we’re very focused on the exchange and trying to find replacement properties.”
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