Atlanta & Denver Firms Buy Denver West Business Park for $143.65M

LAKEWOOD, CO – An Atlanta-based investment firm on Friday announced a joint purchase of an 82-acre Lakewood and Golden business campus in partnership with a Denver commercial real estate firm.

Bridge Investment Group's Office Division and DPC Companies acquired the 20-building Denver West Business Park campus, at 1546 Cole Blvd. the company announced. Denver Business Journal reported the selling price was $143.65 million.

In 2014, Denver Business Journal reported the property was sold to New York-based HighBrook Investment Management LP for $104 million.

The large campus straddles I-70 with part of the parcel in Lakewood and part in Golden. It includes the offices of the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL).

The campus of low-rise office buildings, spotted with statuary representing images of the Old West, was originally built between 1974 and 1981 by Denver-area developer Chuck Stevinson.

According to Bridge Investment Group, "Denver West has undergone more than $25 million in capital improvements since 2014 and is 78 percent occupied."

The company said Bridge and DPC will invest $14 million over the next three-to-four years, including modernizing the lobbies, elevators, restrooms, entrances, corridors, landscaping upgrades and improving existing amenities.

"New amenities will include paddle boarding, lakeside gazebos and other activity areas that resonates with the live-work-play workforce," the company said.

“With strong job growth, a highly educated workforce and a diverse mix of innovative industries, Denver’s economy continues to outpace that of most major metro areas,” said David McCleve, Bridge Investment Group's director of acquisitions, in a press release. “While rent prices continue to increase downtown, Denver West is the next frontier for office space in a community where millennials want to live and find balance between work and play. With strategic renovations, we will reintroduce Denver West as a next-generation workplace that will not only change perceptions of the campus, but will also prepare the entire area for the rapid growth ahead.”

DPC Companies will oversee all leasing, property management and redevelopment work, the press release said.

DPC and Bridge have partnered on other projects such as the Denver Corporate Center in the Denver Tech Center, and the Great American Tower in Phoenix, Arizona. The partners have been working together since 2004 and have completed over $350 million in successful transactions together, a statement said.

Image via Denver West Business Park

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