State pension fund sells long-vacant Cap Hill office building for $3.4M

pera lead scaled

The Colorado Public Employees Retirement Association has sold the office building at 1300 N. Logan St., which once housed its headquarters. (Maia Luem/BusinessDen)

Colorado’s public pension fund has retired one of its buildings in Cap Hill, which has sat vacant for years. 

The Public Employees Retirement Association, PERA, sold its roughly 43,000-square-foot office building at 1300 N. Logan St. last week for $3.38 million, according to public records. 

The buyer, who paid about $76 per square foot, was Dallas-based L&B Realty Advisors, records show. The company declined to comment on the purchase.

Patrick von Keyserling, a spokesman for PERA, said the transaction was an “internal transfer” from the organization’s operational portfolio to its investment one, with L&B serving as the group’s “investment manager.” The retirement association has no plans for any future acquisitions to offset this one. 

PERA commissioned the development of the building to serve as its headquarters in the 1970s. The structure was expected to cost $3 million when it broke ground in April 1975, according to the agency’s annual report that year. Before then, the group rented space nearby at 1390 N. Logan St.

PERA is now headquartered at 1301 Pennsylvania St., which is connected by a skyway to the building on Logan. In late 2019, the Denver Post highlighted the fact that 1300 N. Logan had been sitting unoccupied for the past decade. Von Keyserling added that the building has been vacant since at least March 2009, and said the office’s interior is “in an unfinished condition.”

One person who tried to change that was Cushman & Wakefield broker Robert Hudgins, who said he started marketing the building for lease in 2018. COVID and a change in the retirement association’s leadership, he said, meant no tenant was ever secured.

“I’m surprised that they’re selling,” Hudgins said.

Hudgins said the building’s interior was like “stepping back in time.”

“It needed to be completely remodeled, just because it was old and tired,” he said.

perabody1 scaled

A skyway connects 1300 Logan St., at left, to 1301 Pennsylvania St. (Maia Luem/BusinessDen)

Hudgins said the building would be worth somewhere north of $10 million if it was remodeled with the right tenants and the right leases, and revenue from the property’s 89 parking spots was factored in.

“It was interesting touring it. The top floor used to be the executive offices for PERA way back in the day. And, you know, the conference room, the green room that they had up there, the offices and everything, it was like stepping back into a ‘Dallas’ set,” Hudgins said, referring to the 1980s TV show. 

PERA manages a combined portfolio north of $60 billion for its roughly 200,000 active members and 135,000 retirees, per the association’s 2022 annual report. Real estate accounts for nearly a quarter of the fund’s investments. Along with its current headquarters building, the organization also owns property in Westminster.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with comment from a spokesman for PERA.

pera lead scaled

The Colorado Public Employees Retirement Association has sold the office building at 1300 N. Logan St., which once housed its headquarters. (Maia Luem/BusinessDen)

Colorado’s public pension fund has retired one of its buildings in Cap Hill, which has sat vacant for years. 

The Public Employees Retirement Association, PERA, sold its roughly 43,000-square-foot office building at 1300 N. Logan St. last week for $3.38 million, according to public records. 

The buyer, who paid about $76 per square foot, was Dallas-based L&B Realty Advisors, records show. The company declined to comment on the purchase.

Patrick von Keyserling, a spokesman for PERA, said the transaction was an “internal transfer” from the organization’s operational portfolio to its investment one, with L&B serving as the group’s “investment manager.” The retirement association has no plans for any future acquisitions to offset this one. 

PERA commissioned the development of the building to serve as its headquarters in the 1970s. The structure was expected to cost $3 million when it broke ground in April 1975, according to the agency’s annual report that year. Before then, the group rented space nearby at 1390 N. Logan St.

PERA is now headquartered at 1301 Pennsylvania St., which is connected by a skyway to the building on Logan. In late 2019, the Denver Post highlighted the fact that 1300 N. Logan had been sitting unoccupied for the past decade. Von Keyserling added that the building has been vacant since at least March 2009, and said the office’s interior is “in an unfinished condition.”

One person who tried to change that was Cushman & Wakefield broker Robert Hudgins, who said he started marketing the building for lease in 2018. COVID and a change in the retirement association’s leadership, he said, meant no tenant was ever secured.

“I’m surprised that they’re selling,” Hudgins said.

Hudgins said the building’s interior was like “stepping back in time.”

“It needed to be completely remodeled, just because it was old and tired,” he said.

perabody1 scaled

A skyway connects 1300 Logan St., at left, to 1301 Pennsylvania St. (Maia Luem/BusinessDen)

Hudgins said the building would be worth somewhere north of $10 million if it was remodeled with the right tenants and the right leases, and revenue from the property’s 89 parking spots was factored in.

“It was interesting touring it. The top floor used to be the executive offices for PERA way back in the day. And, you know, the conference room, the green room that they had up there, the offices and everything, it was like stepping back into a ‘Dallas’ set,” Hudgins said, referring to the 1980s TV show. 

PERA manages a combined portfolio north of $60 billion for its roughly 200,000 active members and 135,000 retirees, per the association’s 2022 annual report. Real estate accounts for nearly a quarter of the fund’s investments. Along with its current headquarters building, the organization also owns property in Westminster.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with comment from a spokesman for PERA.

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