From left, Walt Koelbel, Mark Hemmeter and Dean Koelbel. Hemmeter and Koelbel & Co. have teamed up for a new coworking business called Work Simple. (Courtesy of Work Simple)
Mark Hemmeter wants his office leases to be as flexible as a gym membership.
“It’s like joining a health club, same kind of concept,” he said.
Two years ago, the 62-year-old started Work Simple, a new coworking firm offering short-term leases, with local real estate player Koelbel & Co. Last week, the team closed on its second acquisition, a 40-year-old office building at 6041 S. Syracuse Way in Greenwood Village.
The 54,000-square-foot building is about two blocks from Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre on the west side of Interstate 25. Work Simple paid $2.3 million, according to public records, or about $43.50 a square foot.
The seller, Patina Syracuse Hill II LLC, paid $4.75 million for it in 2014, according to public records — meaning Work Simple bought at a 50% discount. Christina Caulkins signed the paperwork on behalf of the entity; her LinkedIn profile shows her as president of Patina Management, a Minnesota and Colorado real estate company.
“This was an individual seller who knew the Koelbel family. She wanted to sell the building and she actually called (Koelbel & Co. CEO) Carl Koelbel and we looked at it and got it done,” Hemmeter said.
Work Simple purchased its first office building at 9191 Sheridan Blvd. in Westminster last fall. The company’s business model is centered around simple, short-term leases in a no-frills environment. There are no hot desks or shared workstations, only offices for lease. In Westminster, they range from 50 to 2,000 square feet.
“We’re basically doing what we did at Sheridan and are doing it again,” Hemmeter said.
The coworking veteran began leasing in Westminster last month. His clients range from high school tutors to auto brokers to software companies. Before Work Simple, Hemmeter spent about 20 years as CEO of Office Evolution, a coworking business he founded in 2003. He holds a degree from the University of Colorado Boulder and was a longtime friend of the late Buz Koelbel.
“We think that there’s a very important segment of the market that really values flexibility, turnkey and shared amenities – and that’s what we deliver,” he said.
Hemmeter added that he needs buildings with enough vacancy to work with, but also enough existing tenants to provide some cash flow.
Buildings that fit this demographic are often older and more suburban, which is exactly what the past two purchases have been.
“Someone wanted to market a 95% [occupied] building to us, but we just couldn’t do anything with it. We have to have vacancy,” he said.
Hemmeter is planning to start leasing his new Greenwood Village office building by year’s end. He’ll initially build out only about half of the vacant space inside, likely spending over $100 per square foot. Purchasing secondhand furniture will help lower expenses a bit.
Work Simple will continue evaluating other local opportunities, from Lakewood to Fort Collins and farther south of Denver. The company has a goal to get to 50 properties nationwide in the next five years, but that will happen only if the deals make sense. Hemmeter said he’s really in no rush.
“We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves,” he said. “We build out and test, build out and test. We just want to make sure we deliver what the market wants.”
From left, Walt Koelbel, Mark Hemmeter and Dean Koelbel. Hemmeter and Koelbel & Co. have teamed up for a new coworking business called Work Simple. (Courtesy of Work Simple)
Mark Hemmeter wants his office leases to be as flexible as a gym membership.
“It’s like joining a health club, same kind of concept,” he said.
Two years ago, the 62-year-old started Work Simple, a new coworking firm offering short-term leases, with local real estate player Koelbel & Co. Last week, the team closed on its second acquisition, a 40-year-old office building at 6041 S. Syracuse Way in Greenwood Village.
The 54,000-square-foot building is about two blocks from Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre on the west side of Interstate 25. Work Simple paid $2.3 million, according to public records, or about $43.50 a square foot.
The seller, Patina Syracuse Hill II LLC, paid $4.75 million for it in 2014, according to public records — meaning Work Simple bought at a 50% discount. Christina Caulkins signed the paperwork on behalf of the entity; her LinkedIn profile shows her as president of Patina Management, a Minnesota and Colorado real estate company.
“This was an individual seller who knew the Koelbel family. She wanted to sell the building and she actually called (Koelbel & Co. CEO) Carl Koelbel and we looked at it and got it done,” Hemmeter said.
Work Simple purchased its first office building at 9191 Sheridan Blvd. in Westminster last fall. The company’s business model is centered around simple, short-term leases in a no-frills environment. There are no hot desks or shared workstations, only offices for lease. In Westminster, they range from 50 to 2,000 square feet.
“We’re basically doing what we did at Sheridan and are doing it again,” Hemmeter said.
The coworking veteran began leasing in Westminster last month. His clients range from high school tutors to auto brokers to software companies. Before Work Simple, Hemmeter spent about 20 years as CEO of Office Evolution, a coworking business he founded in 2003. He holds a degree from the University of Colorado Boulder and was a longtime friend of the late Buz Koelbel.
“We think that there’s a very important segment of the market that really values flexibility, turnkey and shared amenities – and that’s what we deliver,” he said.
Hemmeter added that he needs buildings with enough vacancy to work with, but also enough existing tenants to provide some cash flow.
Buildings that fit this demographic are often older and more suburban, which is exactly what the past two purchases have been.
“Someone wanted to market a 95% [occupied] building to us, but we just couldn’t do anything with it. We have to have vacancy,” he said.
Hemmeter is planning to start leasing his new Greenwood Village office building by year’s end. He’ll initially build out only about half of the vacant space inside, likely spending over $100 per square foot. Purchasing secondhand furniture will help lower expenses a bit.
Work Simple will continue evaluating other local opportunities, from Lakewood to Fort Collins and farther south of Denver. The company has a goal to get to 50 properties nationwide in the next five years, but that will happen only if the deals make sense. Hemmeter said he’s really in no rush.
“We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves,” he said. “We build out and test, build out and test. We just want to make sure we deliver what the market wants.”
