A Lone Tree office building has been sold to the highest bidder at a low price.
“I made multiple bids, and kind of a little bit of a bidding war, but we were really pleased with the price. We actually underwrote it to a higher valuation,” said Chad Duncan, the director of business development and investor relations at Kore Investments.
Kore, which is based in Greenwood Village, paid $18 million for the six-story, roughly 200,000-square-foot ParkRidge Four office building at 10375 Park Meadows Drive. The deal works out to about $92 a foot.
Chad Duncan
Principal Financial Group out of Iowa was the seller in the deal. The investment management and insurance company purchased the property in 2015 for $42.2 million, meaning it sold for a 57 percent discount.
It sold the building at auction.
“Typically, the auction process is for smaller asset purchase sizes,” Duncan said. “But the owner previous to us wanted to make sure that whoever they sold it to was actually going to have assurance to close and have a really reliable buyer, which is where we were able to come in.”
Duncan said that the building, constructed in 2001 and located just south of the Interstate 25 and E-470 interchange, was attractive for two reasons. First, the building has been well-maintained and is nearly 90 percent occupied. Second is the tried-and-true real estate maxim: location, location location.
“We love freeway buildings. We find that both from a commuting perspective, it’s really nice because it’s right on the light rail. It’s really easy for folks to get to when they get off of their exit on Lincoln.”
Duncan added that the property is close to where many employees live, such as Platt Park and Wash Park, while also being near where many executives reside in Greenwood Village and Cherry Hills Village.
“Places like Lone Tree and the Tech Center allow for a bit of a convergence of younger talent and more executive talent to come together in space,” he said.
Kore plans to spend between $1 million and $3 million adding more amenities and upgrades to the property, whose tenants include Merrill Lynch and Heritage Title.
“Think of that as a lot of the shared space. That’s lobby, fitness, making larger eating spaces, amenitize it a bit more, but then also infill of TI packages and really making suites for folks be the best and brightest,” he said.
The firm, founded in 2017, is very picky about how and where it invests. It has one property in Denver, the RE/MAX plaza at 5075 Syracuse St., and two in Greenwood Village, at 9250 E. Costilla Ave. and 6500 S. Quebec St.
Kore also owns two Chicago-area holdings and one in North Carolina, per its website. The business is mostly interested in high-quality, well-maintained suburban office properties that can be bought at a discount.
“We take a very conservative approach, but we want to really activate the building with a value-add approach, versus just ‘I hope it works’,” Duncan said.