The Air Force Academy on Monday broke ground on a 32K SF, $40M visitor center as part of a larger 57-acre development called TrueNorth Commons in northern Colorado Springs.

The project includes a 375-room hotel and conference center along with office space. The project is the last remaining component of Colorado Springs’ City for Champions. The financing for the project was completed through a public-private partnership and included $120M in Regional Tourism Act incentives that were awarded in 2013.

The design and construction team includes Fentress Architects, Matrix Design Group, GE Johnson Construction Co. and Grundy Construction Management & Consulting.

***

PEOPLE

Peter Lauener joins the Colorado office of Brookfield Properties as president. He previously served as executive vice president for master-planned communities and head of development for McWhinney Real Estate Services.

***

Pinkard Construction named Jose Amaya chief business development officer. Amaya has 25 years of experience in executive-level business development roles at JE Dunn Construction, Cumming Corp. and Select Building Group Commercial.

***

SALES

A 41-unit multifamily property at 2920 West 32nd Ave. in Denver changed hands for $12M on July 22. Kevin Calame and Matt Lewallen of NorthPeak Commercial Advisors represented the undisclosed buyer and seller.

***

Cortland purchased The Ridge at Rockrimmon, a 126-unit apartment community at 5965 Nora Point in Colorado Springs from an undisclosed private investor. Saul Levy, Kevin McKenna, Mackenzie Walker, Chris Hart and Jessica Graham with CBRE Capital Markets represented the seller.

***

Denver-based Continental Realty Assets, a subsidiary of Continental Realty Group, and GTIS Partners completed the sale of the 256-unit Canyon Reserve at the Ranch in Westminster, Colorado. JLL brokered the sale of the multifamily property.

***

MIG Real Estate purchased The Links at Legacy Ridge, a 232-unit multifamily community in Westminster, for $94M, according to Mile High CRE. Bill Chiles, Scott Peterson, Brian Cruz and Colby Matzke with the CBRE Capital Markets Debt and Structured Finance team secured $45.7M in acquisition financing in the form of a 10-year, fixed-rate loan on behalf of MIG. MIG will use a portion of the loan to renovate all 232 apartment units and exterior common areas.

***

THIS AND THAT

Dennis Humphries, architect and co-founding partner of Humphries Poli Architecture — now called RATIO Design after a 2019 merger — will move into a consulting principal role for the firm on Sept. 1.