Alliance buys Level 3 buildings for $14 million

Contributing Writer BROOMFIELD — Following the widely reported purchase of two first-class office buildings in Broomfield formerly owned by Level 3 Communications, Alliance Commercial Partners of Lakewood is already aggressively seeking to fill the space.

Frank Kelly and Doug Bakke of CB Richard Ellis, who also brokered the $14 million sale, have begun making proposals to potential tenants.

The two five-story buildings at 11802 Ridge Parkway in the Interlocken business park carry a total of 350,000 square feet as well as 55 acres of adjoining land. The purchase is considered a bargain for Alliance, which paid about $40 per square foot for the buildings it has renamed Views I and II.

Level 3 originally built the buildings for purposes of expansion but never occupied them. Industry analysts estimate that Level 3’s investment in the high-tech buildings may have been as high as $150 per square foot.

?We’re chasing everything that makes sense at this point,? Kelly said of the search for tenants. We’re looking for tenants with good credit who can handle 30,000 square feet or a large tenant who needs 350,000 square feet and everything in-between.? Kelly and Bakke would ideally like to lease the space floor-by-floor as opposed to breaking up the vacant space.

Alliance intends to capitalize on the economical price it received from Level 3, and CB Richard Ellis intends to market the space at an equitable level with the similar spaces available in the Interlocken area. The buildings have the valuable amenities associated with high technology parks including good parking, state-of-the-art wiring and views of the Front Range.

?We’re going to be at market rates just like everybody else. We know we’re competing with similar projects, and we’re going to be very competitive on the rate. A lot depends on the quality of the tenant and what they’re willing to do,? Kelly said.

Rumors that Ebay Inc. may have been seeking to relocate to Denver proved to be unfounded. However, company spokesman Kevin Pursglove did confirm that Denver remains on the company’s short list of potential sites for new server farms.

?Denver is one of a handful of cities that we are exploring in regard to locating some of our Web-hosting facilities,? Pursglove said. This is more about our gradual growth. About two years ago, we began a strategy of diversifying our hosting functions so that they wouldn’t be located in just one or two facilities. We’re up to about four centers now, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we add a few more in the next year. Denver is one of those places under consideration.? Pursglove could not confirm speculation that the Alliance properties were under consideration.

?I don’t know the specific piece of property that we’re looking at. I don’t know if it’s a specific site or if we’re looking at a number of sites there,? Pursglove explained. Ebay, which sold more than $15 billion worth of merchandise last year, recently opened a new customer support center in British Columbia and is considering expanding its operations in Silicon Valley.

Kelly expressed his excitement in starting to work on the Alliance buildings.

?We’re very excited about Alliance being in the market. They’re a great owner and a great landlord, and we’re really excited about working with them,? Kelly said.WESTMINSTER NEW HQ: GE Access, formerly the largest employer on Boulder’s downtown Pearl Street, has completed the move of its headquarters to its new location in the Westmoor Technology Park. From April 4 to 7, more than 340 employees moved to the new 100,000-square-foot facility located at 11300 Westmoor Circle, while 125 employees will remain in Boulder. GE Access is leasing the new headquarters from Sun Microsystems.

Dennis Stoltenberg, the company’s vice president of human resources, praised the internal project managers who successfully completed the move with little disruption.

?I would say what our IT organization did in getting this building ready and what our facilities team did in getting the structure set up to do business made this a very smooth move. We closed up operations on Friday and opened up as usual on Monday. We’ve had nothing except a few little hiccups, and everybody is right back at work,? Stoltenberg said.

Despite more than 200 layoffs in 2001 and nearly 80 in 2002, the company is still one of the computer industry’s most significant equipment and service providers in the Boulder corridor. GE Access, formerly Access Graphics, kept 80,000 square feet of offices in Boulder for more than a decade. The company sells computer systems and networks through vendors, including Sun Microsystems and Storage Technology Corporation, which are now closer geographically.

?I think the location serves us a whole lot better because we’re closer together for speed, closer to the technologies and closer to the Sun and StorageTek relationships, which helps. It also allowed us to come into a facility where we could set up the state-of-the-art technology that we’re using. It’s a whole lot easier out here to get some wiring done without dealing with all the wiring in a downtown area,? Stoltenberg commented.

The company now occupies the second and third floors of the new building and has the option to expand to the first or third floors in the future. GE Access is also maintaining flex office space in Boulder for employees to work on a temporary basis. The company is just one of several companies that are moving out of the Boulder area including Spatial Corp., McStain Enterprises and V-Span. INTERCHANGE UPDATE: The Westminster city council recently approved an intergovernmental agreement that specifies the shared costs between north metro communities for a feasibility study for a new interchange at 144th Avenue and I-25. Thornton also has given their approval to continue with the study, which is the first step in a lengthy process required before construction can be contemplated.ADD-ONS: Three additional builders will be offering single-family homes at Bradburn Village, a mixed-use community being developed at 120th Street and Bradburn Boulevard in Westminster.

Custom-home builders Heartland Development, New Providence Co. and Diemer Custom Builders will be constructing nine homes in the $400,000 to $600,000 price range. Diemer also will be building two of the park structures at Bradburn. One will feature a covered pavilion and the other a tree house.

Other builders already in Bradburn are Sunburst Design, Essex Development, New Town Builders, Beazer Homes and Bradburn Row.BUTTERFLIES: Ground was broken March 29 for the Butterfly Pavilion’s $2.4 million expansion project. The new space will add 13,113 square feet to the existing 17,212-square-foot building. The expansion includes a boardroom, office space, three classrooms, new hallways and a larger exhibit space. Construction is expected to last 10 months. Financing for the project is provided by a Jefferson County municipal bond.BOULDEREPSTEIN PROJECTS: Boulder architect Rick Epstein is busy with several projects including a unique redevelopment project at 2760 29th St. There, Epstein is taking a 20,000-square-foot concrete bunker and using light and steel to change its character.

?The direction from the owner was to turn this site into an interesting office building, and it was a challenge,? Epstein said. To disguise the building, his firm has erected a steel frame with perforated metal to add a new façade to the building. Additional improvements include a glass-box lobby, directed views and shaded windows.

?This was done as a green building, and the metal skin is a sustainable design measure to create strong shading on the building. It also acts as a kind of double-skin so the sun stays off the surface of the concrete in the summer so it stays cooler,? Epstein said.

Epstein is also acting as developer and architect on a 7,000-square-foot mixed-use development on Prospect Street in Longmont that will have 2,000 square feet of commercial use as well as four residential units. He is managing the project with an unnamed partner under the name of Design Prospects LLC.

NAROPA EXPANDS: Naropa University dedicated its newest campus facility in April with a traditional Tibetan ceremony that paid tribute to the legacy of Naropa founder Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. The new facility, to be named the Nalanda Campus, adds more than 50,000 square feet and five and one-half acres to the university’s other two university locations and increases the size of Naropa’s holdings to 160,000 square feet. The university also plans to add dormitories to the five acres of unused space in the future.

?It will be literally a real campus with dorms and people living there finally. The city loved that idea because they’re really into mixed use these days. They love Naropa anyway because the university does a great job, and it’s a community service,? said Terry Krugel of The Colorado Group, who brokered the deal for Naropa with the help of Vince Porreca of Porreca & Associates and Ted Harris of Grubb & Ellis, the listing agent.

However, Naropa discovered upon finalizing the contract with owner Eric Golting that the building, originally located in Boulder County, would be required to go through the annexation process with the city. Further negotiations over the price of the property and the annexation process took nearly a year to complete.

Krugel also credited Sue Evans, Naropa’s vice president of finance and outgoing president John Whitehouse Cobb for the expansion. The facility is slated to become a performing arts center and public lecture hall once renovation is complete. INSPECTOR ACQUIRED: The Real Estate Inspector Inc., one of Colorado’s oldest home inspection companies, was acquired recently by national chain U.S. Inspect, LLC. Founded by Barry and Lena Prentice more than 15 years ago, The Real Estate Inspector grew to become one of the most reputable inspection firms in the Front Range.

?Barry has built a great reputation in the industry as has his son Tom and associate Dennis Tracy. We wanted to move more into Boulder, and it seemed to be a good fit for our team,? said Phil Halpin, U.S. Inspect’s manager of marketing services. Both Tracy and Tom Prentice will stay on as full-time building consultants for the company.

?Their goal is 20 percent of the business across the board in the markets that they are in so with our additional volume plus the ability to carry more business, it helps them increase in this market as well,? explained Tom Prentice, who acknowledged that the transition was going very smoothly.

?It’s opened up a lot of things as far as available marketing tools and things of that nature that we as a little company just couldn’t afford to do. I think this opens up a lot more possibilities for the home-buying public and realtors as well,? Prentice said. IN BRIEF: Terrix Financial recently arranged a $2.3 million loan for Pearl Street Properties in Boulder. The site has five office/warehouse buildings and one office building with a total of 102,252 square feet of space. The loan, facilitated by David O’Brian and Amy Gibson of Terrix Financial, is a modification of an existing loan. The borrower chose not to be named at this time.

Dreamcatcher Learning Center, who operates educational facilities in Boulder and Louisville, recently expanded their operations in Louisville by moving to 867 Coal Creek. The 1,500-square-foot facility will allow the company to draw more business from the south, according to Chris Boston at Gibbons-White.

The Natural Body Shop, a Nederland store, will relocate to 5353 Manhattan St. in Boulder shortly. The new store will occupy 1,451 square feet.

A new locally owned restaurant will open in the near future in the 2500 block of Broadway in Boulder. Although the owners have yet to reveal their concept for the site, the restaurant is locally owned and will occupy over 4,000 square feet. LONGMONTSUMMER HAWK: Engle Homes has announced the introduction of a new arm of its Fox Meadow master planned community located in Longmont next to the Fox Hill Golf Course. The new site, Summer Hawk, will include 117 home sites in a traditional neighborhood design with family, craftsman-style and traditional homes priced in the low $200,000s. The project is a joint venture between the developer and The James Company of Boulder.

?Summer Hawk will provide buyers with more choices within this great Colorado Community. Now people who prefer a more traditional style have an outstanding option available to them,? said Jennifer Taylor, a sales associate with Engle Homes.

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