Global Pacific acquires North Valley Tech Center

Colorado Real Estate Journal – May 4, 2016

‘New’ N. Valley Tech Center boasts appealing spaces, rates
by Jill Jamieson-Nichols

A lighter, brighter North Valley Tech Center with inviting spaces for tenants to gather already has made a big impression on an existing tenant.

Regis University is expanding its footprint in the building at Interstate 25 and East 84th Avenue in Thornton following extensive renovations by Global Pacific Properties.

Global Pacific bought the 470,000-square-foot building at 500 E. 84th Ave. in a complex transaction two years ago and has no debt on the property. The building provides large, flexible floor plates with ample parking in a location close to downtown. But at the time Global Pacific Properties bought it, it needed some help.

“Our first goal was to improve the common areas and make them useful,” said Global Pacific Properties President Michael Law. Additions to the main entrance have been stripped away to bring in much-needed light, and a seating area with a flat-screen television was added to invite people to linger. Skylights and trees line the interior corridors.

The building has new monument signage, landscaping, security cameras and asphalt, and new pylon signage will enhance its interstate visibility.

“We have great, flexible floor plates, and it’s all uniquely linked with this common area,” Law said in recently reintroducing the property to the brokerage community.

Thornton Mayor Heidi Williams hopes the building will be a catalyst to bring new jobs to the area.

CBRE Inc. Senior Vice President Frank Kelley, who has been involved with the property since 1997 and is handling leasing for the owner, said North Valley Tech Center’s location 10 minutes from downtown Denver at a major intersection on I-25 always created a lot of interest. “But now that the owners have done extensive renovations and have repositioned it, people can see the opportunity to occupy flexible, state-of-the-art space in an infill location that can accommodate a number of uses.

“The nearby public transportation, current building parking ratio (5.5:1,000) and the excellent business climate created by the city of Thornton add to the attractiveness of this property,” he said.

Major tenants include Zenith Education Group Inc., a call center that occupies 82,622 sf; SunGard Availability Service, an 85,064-sf data center; and Regis University. Regis occupies 28,371 sf and is moving its counseling school, the Center for Counseling and Family Therapy, to the building from Broomfield, bringing its overall footprint to 37,388 sf.

The building offers up to 100,000 sf of contiguous space, 15- to 25-foot ceilings, redundant fiber with two providers, and floor loads of more than 100 pounds per sf. Located in an enterprise zone, it offers both plug-and-play and unfinished space as well as loading capability. It’s also close to a strong labor force and suitable for a variety of user types – at asking rates of $12 to $16 per sf modified gross.

With tight vacancies in Denver and Boulder, Law said there isn’t much competing space of the same quality at such competitive lease rates.

The building that’s become North Valley Tech Center was the Denver metro area’s first mall. It was redeveloped as flex/call center space in the late 1990s.