The site of a long-vacant high school that was turned into an industrial campus has sold for $74M.
Westfield Co. sold Hub 25, a recently completed multi-tenant campus at 601 East 64th Ave., to institutional investors advised by J.P. Morgan Asset Management, marking the first new-construction industrial campus sale in central Denver during this cycle.
The site once housed the former Mapleton High School, which sat vacant for 20 years before Westfield purchased the land in 2016 to develop it into a four-building, 421,499 SF industrial park. In just over two years, the project advanced from demolition to development to lease-up and now disposition.
“What Westfield accomplished at Hub 25 is an amazing feat,” said CBRE Senior Vice President Tyler Carner, who with partner Jeremy Ballenger represented Westfield in the leasing and sale of the project. “They took a complicated piece of land that needed significant improvements, recognized a need in the market for small-bay, light-industrial space and delivered an outstanding product that piqued the interest of top-tier capital. That process often takes several years, and Westfield made it happen in just over two."
Westfield launched Hub 25 speculatively in the spring of 2016, retaining CBRE to market the space for lease after Carner and Ballenger represented the Mapleton School District in the sale of the land to Westfield. CBRE secured six tenant leases before construction was completed, bringing the project to 70% pre-leased when it was delivered in mid-2017. Hub 25 is currently 95% leased to eight tenants, including BSI Designs, Mountain High Appliance and Rep Fitness.
The rapid lease-up, combined with the size and scope of the offering, drove investor interest in its sale.
“What I found most significant about the sale is that the institutional investors accepted Denver as a top-tier market, based upon the interest from a number of buyers at the pricing level typically only seen in coastal and tier-one markets," Westfield Co. partner Randy Schwartz said.
Hub 25 includes four buildings ranging from about 43,500 SF to 145K SF. The buildings offer a mix of distribution, office and showroom space with clear heights between 24 and 28 feet. The campus is on 23.76 acres between Interstate 70 and I-76 in unincorporated Adams County.
