To no longer receive our emails



	December 2006

	Welcome to Cherry Creek Perspective. If it was forwarded to you, and you would like to continue to receive this monthly email newsletter, subscribe free by clicking on Subscribe If you are not sure if you have already subscribed, feel free to subscribe again. You will be sent only one copy. Please forward this email to friends and business associates and encourage them to subscribe free at Subscribe. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mayor John Hickenlooper will speak at the Cherry Creek North Neighborhood Association meeting on Tuesday, January 16th. The meeting will be held at the Daniels Fund building at 1st Avenue/Monroe Street at 7:30 PM. Park in the Daniels lot at 1st/Madison. Please do not park in the 100 block of Monroe Street. Renovation work on the former Tattered Cover building, One Fillmore Place and the adjacent 158 Fillmore office building is to begin in April. The $10 million project will involve replacement of the current brick walls with glass-curtain walls on both buildings and upgrading the buildings to qualify for LEED (“green” or environmental building) certification. Janus Capital Group will vacate the office portion of the complex in March. New office tenants have agreed to lease part of the office building, but no leases have been signed as yet for the retail portion. A median in Detroit Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues will NOT be installed. Denver Public Works as a part of the Clayton Lane project previously planned the median. The intent was to divert traffic to 1st Avenue, but the opposite effect of increasing traffic on 2nd Avenue was discovered. As NorthCreek is under construction across Detroit Street from Clayton Lane and with support from the Cherry Creek North Neighborhood Association, the Cherry Creek North BID and the Cherry Creek Steering Committee, Denver Council Member Jeanne Robb successfully asked Bill Vidal, Manager of Public Works to remove the median from the plan. The 9-story office Wells Fargo office building at 400 South Colorado Boulevard sold in November as part of a 19-property portfolio of office buildings and land in the Denver and Colorado Springs areas. Mack-Cali Realty Corp. sold the portfolio to Westcore Properties LLC for $194,300,000. The allocated price of the building was $12,306,600 or $89/SF for the 139,000 SF building. Westcore is backed by Dubai Investment Group. The 3-story office building at the SWC East 12th Avenue/Monroe Street sold in October. The $1,000,000 price is equivalent to $83/SF for the 12,152 SF building. The building was 50% vacant and the buyer plans to renovate and partially occupy as executive suites.

The 1,572 SF 2-story office building at 3318 East 2nd Avenue was sold in October for $225,000 or $143/SF. The building just east of Cherry Creek North was formerly an older residence that had been moved onto the site many years ago and partially occupied by the seller, an appraiser. The buyer was a partner in the original redevelopment and owned and occupied an adjacent similar older house/office conversion.

The JW Marriott Hotel in Cherry Creek North sold in October to a joint venture of Sage Hospitality Resources, a Denver based hotel developer and operator, and JP Morgan. The $70 million sale price is equivalent to $357,000/room for the 196 room 11- story property. The full service hotel carries 4-stars from AAA. Separately, Charlie Biederman, the developer/seller is redeveloping the former Embassy Suites hotel in downtown Denver into a Ritz-Carlton hotel and residential condominium building.

The 3-story retail/office building occupied by 10,000 Villages and Show of Hands at 280 Columbine sold in October for $4,100,000. The price is equivalent to $174/SF for the 23,600 SF building built in 1963. Cherry Creek Plaza at 235 Fillmore Street also sold in October for $5,500,000. The 2-story retail building was built in 1972 with a large atrium and includes Mel’s Bar and Grille and Pismo Gallery as tenants. The building contains 18,300 SF so the price is equivalent to $301/SF. The Denver Business Journal reports that the buyers in both of these sales are controlled by Western Development Group LLC, the developer of NorthCreek on the block bounded by 1st/2nd/Detroit/Fillmore and the owner of the Starbucks retail/office building at 200 Fillmore Street.

The move of the VA Hospital adjacent to the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center at 9th/Colorado Boulevard to join the new UCHSC at Fitzsimons has received final federal approval. Congress has authorized funds for the move and acquisition of the site by the Veterans Administration. For more on the redevelopment of the 9th/Colorado campus by Shea Properties go to http ://www.sheaneighbors.com/index.cfm.

The City of Denver has purchased 2.5 acres, a part of which is now leased by the District 6 Police Station at Colfax/Washington Street. The two purchases total $5 million equivalent to $46/SF of land, including the existing buildings. Bond funding of a new station will likely be proposed as a part of the Mayor’s Infrastructure Priorities Task Force recommendations and included in an election in May or November of 2007.

The Denver Planning Board approved a downzone of a portion of Congress Park as a part of Blueprint Denver and East Colfax Plan. The Denver City Council will consider changing the 1300 Block of Madison Street from R-3 (High Density Multifamily) to R-2 (Low Density Multifamily). More downzone applications are likely in the area between 13th/Colfax/York/Colorado, but much concern was expressed in the Planning Board hearings about the potential creation of legal non-conforming uses and the impact of downzones on adjacent properties. The can is open and its full of worms!

Startek USA agreed to renew and expand its lease at 44 Cook Street in Cherry Creek East to 23,086 square feet. Crescent Real Estate Equities is the landlord.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment recently signed and expanded their lease at the Campus at Cherry Creek in Glendale by another 23,146 square feet at 710 South Ash, bringing their total leased area at the park to 271,273 square feet. The agency currently has leases in the park at 4300 Cherry Creek South Drive and 700 South Ash Street.

If your organization would like to consider sponsorship of Cherry Creek Perspective, please contact Bill James at bjames@jres.com or 303-316- 6768.