Sales of luxury homes spring forward

Luxury-home sales in the Denver metro area more than doubled in April compared with the same period a year ago, according to a report released May 22 by Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage.

Denver has the most million-dollar sales with 24, followed by Boulder with 19, Cherry Hills Village with 12 and Greenwood Village with 10.

The figures are based on Multiple Listing Service data of all homes sold for more than $1 million during April in the Denver metro area.

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Ninety-three homes in the region sold for more than $1 million in April, up from 44 in April 2012. On a monthly basis, luxury sales were up 31 percent from the 71 transactions in March.

The median sale price of a luxury home declined 8.8 percent in April from a year ago to $1.27 million last month. Last month’s median sale price was fractionally lower than March’s median price.

The report said luxury homes sold in an average of 121 days on the market, down from 133 days the previous month and 172.6 days a year ago. Sellers received an average of 96 percent of their asking price, up from 93 percent a year ago.

BOULDER

COLO. GROUP TO PEARL: The Colorado Group Inc. has opened an office in downtown Boulder at 1539 Pearl St., just east of the Pearl Street Mall.

Colorado Group president W. Scott Reichenberg and brokers Neil Littmann and Scott Crabtree will staff the new office.

The 33-year-old commercial real estate firm will keep its main office at 3434 47th St., in North Boulder, where 24 brokers work.

With so many clients interested in development and investment downtown, Crabtree said the move would help give Colorado Group a presence in the area and provide some added convenience for those clients.

“It’s just to better service our clients in the downtown market,” Crabtree said.

Crabtree said the move would not dictate any new hires at the Colorado Group or affect operations at the company’s current location.

MARKEL GOES 3.0: Boulder-based Markel Homes Inc. now is adhering to the newest Energy Star 3.0 standards, according to a press statement from the company.

The 40-year-old company follows a list of energy-efficient and green practices in all of its new and single-family and townhome projects that include installing:

• 92 percent high-efficiency furnaces and Energy Star-rated automatic setback thermostats.

• Double-paned, insulated and argon-filled low thermal emissivity (low-E) windows.

• Energy Star-rated appliances and lighting.

• Low volatile organic compound, or VOC, paints and cabinetry.

• Watersense bathroom faucets and low-flow toilets and shower heads.

• Landscaping with low water-use zone and drip irrigation systems.

New Markel homeowners are provided with annual energy cost comparisons as well as education on operating the home’s green features, according to the press statement.

IRON GATE MOVING: Iron Gate Capital LLC, a Louisville-based private equity firm, will be moving its operations to Boulder this summer.

Iron Gate, which has been in business for about 8 1/2 years and whose client list includes Denver-based hamburger chain Smashburger, recently leased 1,205 square feet of office space at 3000 Pearl St., Suite 201, at the southeast corner of 30th and Pearl streets.

Iron Gate partner and managing director Douglas Fahoury said his company recently had hired a new partner and needed some additional space for its three-person operation. The move is planned for July.

“We just wanted to stay somewhere between Broomfield and Boulder, and it was the best space for the price,” Fahoury said.

Fahoury said Freeman Myre Inc., the owner of the building, previously occupied Iron Gate’s newly leased space and combined its own offices into a different area of the building.

Broker Alex Hammerstein of CBRE represented Iron Gate in the transaction.

BROOMFIELD

GUN RANGE TAKES AIM: Gun owners soon could have a new place for target practice in Broomfield.

Shoot Indoors Inc., owned by Bryan Stear of Denver, last month closed on a lease for 11,628 square feet of industrial space at 1 Park St., near the intersection of U.S. Highway 287 and Commerce Street.

Attempts to reach Stear, an engineer, were unsuccessful. But Art Belefonte of Belefonte Brokers, which represented Shoot Indoors in the transaction, confirmed that Stear aims to open the range, though Belefonte did not know a timeline.

Chris Ball and Brandon Ray of Cassidy Turley Colorado LLC represented landlord Evan Charles Properties LLC in the transaction. Ray said the Park Street building, which includes about 26,000 square feet of total space, has sat vacant for about three years.

LONGMONT

ELECTROM RELOCATES: Electrom Instruments Inc. has moved to a 5,000-square-foot manufacturing space in Longmont from Loveland to accommodate its plans for growth.

Electrom makes motor surge test equipment.

Its new home is at 1821 Lefthand Circle in The Campus at Longmont business park. The new location has triple the amount of production space of the old location, said Jerry Kauffman, Electrom’s manager of production. At the same time, the company has discontinued its motor repair service, Kauffman said.

Electrom recently redesigned its products to computerize the control systems, Kauffman said. Product control systems previously were mechanically controlled.

Electrom has 10 employees. Its customers are in the United States and around the globe. The company plans to expand its overseas sales into Europe in coming months, Kauffman said.

The company offers training for users of its products. Company products are used in power generation, mining, oil and gas industries, the automobile industry and in various processing and manufacturing plants.

LOUISVILLE

SLACKLINES MOVING: Canaima Outdoors Inc., the distributor of multiple outdoor product lines and the parent company of Gibbon Slacklines, is moving out of Boulder to a larger location in Louisville.

A group of Canaima partners, 385S Pierce LLC, closed in late May on a deal to purchase a 40,407-square-foot building in the Colorado Technology Center.

The group paid $2.5 million for the building at 385 S. Pierce St., which was sold by CTC Commons I LLC, a local entity controlled by O’Connor Development in Boulder.

Canaima, doing business as Gibbon Slacklines, is located at 2450 Central Ave., in east Boulder, and will be leaving its 6,000-square-foot space there entirely. Gibbon, which has experienced sales growth since its product was incorporated into Madonna’s halftime show at the 2012 Super Bowl, produces equipment for slacklining, a sport in which athletes walk on a narrow line that is similar to a balance beam but narrower and flexible.

The new building provides more space. In addition to slacklines, Gibbon vice president for sales Emilio Torres said Gibbon is expanding its product line to be more of a lifestyle brand, including backpacks, clothing and hammocks. Gibbon has also begun producing zip lines.

“The whole reason why we purchased the building was because of the growth of Gibbon Slacklines,” Torres said. “It’s a new sport. It’s a new product that’s taken the country by storm over the last couple of years.”

The building at 385 S. Pierce is 40 percent occupied by Apria Healthcare, a provider of home respiratory and home medical equipment that will remain as a tenant. Gibbon, which this weekend hosts the slacklining world championships at the GoPro Mountain Games in Vail, will take over the rest of the space.

Torres said the Louisville location worked out nicely because it was the closest space they could purchase to the new slackline park in Superior that also fit Gibbon’s needs.

“It was definitely the right size for the right price,” Torres said.

The seller in the transaction was represented by Geoffrey Keys and Ashley Overton of Keys Commercial Real Estate LLC in Boulder. Eric Rutherford of Wright Kingdom Inc. in Boulder represented the buyer.

LYND AT NORTH MAIN: Golden-based Confluence Cos. LLC has selected the Denver office of The Lynd Co. to manage its North Main at Steel Ranch luxury apartment complex in Louisville, Lynd announced.

Lynd, a national real estate management firm based in San Antonio, is a privately held company with offices in Denver and Miami.

North Main at Steel Ranch is a $36 million apartment complex under construction at the intersection of Colorado Highway 42 and South Boulder Road.

Confluence is building 228 garden-style luxury units at the site. The development will open to residents in August with amenities such as a large outdoor gathering area, a washing station for dogs and a station for bicycle cleaning and maintenance.

The agreement between Confluence and Lynd is one of three included in the announcement. Lynd also is slated to manage Confluence’s West Eighth Apartments in Golden and the Van Gordon project in Lakewood.

Joshua Lindenstein can be reached at 303-630-1943 or jlindenstein@bcbr.com.