Whole Foods plans Aurora distribution center

AURORA — Whole Foods Market will occupy a new distribution center in the HighPoint Elevated industrial park under construction near Denver International Airport in Aurora.

The Austin, Texas-based grocery chain commissioned a build-to-suit for Building 2, totaling 137,000 square feet, in a lease arranged by commercial brokerage CBRE.

HighPoint Elevated will encompass up to 5.5 million square feet of industrial and logistics space at buildout.

Hyde Development and Mortenson are developing the project, which already has attracted tenants such as Dollar General, Xcel Energy, Scott’s Miracle Grow and PrimeSource Building Products.

Todd Witty, Daniel Close, Tyler Carner, Jeremy Ballenger and Jessica Ostermick of CBRE represented Hyde Development in the lease to Whole Foods Market, which was represented by Steve Hager of Cushman & Wakefield.

“The Hyde Development-Mortenson partnership was able to shorten the delivery timeline, which was critical to meeting Whole Foods Market’s timing needs,” Witty, a senior vice president with CBRE, said in a prepared statement. “The team was able to deliver a build-to-suit in the same amount of time it would have taken to retrofit a building built speculatively, ultimately delivering a more efficient and cost-effective building.”

Whole Foods will use Building 2 as a distribution center under a long-term lease, with the possibility for future expansion. The building is located at the intersection of Denali Road and 60th Avenue.

Buildings at HighPoint Elevated will range from 64,000 square feet to 1 million square feet, with at least one building slated for cold storage. Some buildings will house multiple tenants, while others represent build-to-suits, including a 919,000-square-foot distribution center commissioned by Dollar General.

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