The building was most recently home to a dog daycare and boarding business. (Hayden Kim/BusinessDen)
RiNo’s real estate market is coming back down to earth.
For years, developers have bought up many of the trendy neighborhood’s industrial buildings, converting or replacing them with apartments, offices and hotels.
But last week, an industrial property on one of the main drags sold to a buyer that will keep it the way it is — as a warehouse.
Alvarado Restaurant Nation, one of the region’s largest Taco Bell franchisees, paid $2.1 million for the 6,400-square-foot warehouse on 0.29 acre at 3645 Brighton Blvd., according to public records.
The space will be used to store restaurant equipment. But the buyers are also banking on a RiNo real estate rebound.
“They are looking at it long-term as a land play,” said Jake Malman, the broker who represented the buyer.
The land sold for $168 per square foot and is surrounded by completed or planned development. A Cambria hotel recently opened at Brighton and 36th Street. A few blocks away sits the site of Hurley Place, where developer Bernard Hurley is plotting a 6-acre mixed-use development.
Marylu Flight signed the documents on behalf of the seller, 3645 Brighton LLC. Public records show the property has had the same owners since at least the mid-1980s. Flight and her brokers did not respond to a request for comment. The buyer, Alvarado, which opened its first Taco Bell in downtown Denver in 1984, also declined to comment.
“Obviously, they could’ve selected a less expensive building,” Malman said. “But they liked the idea of a covered land play in RiNo where they occupy this building for their business and, long term, redevelop the site.”
Across the street from the warehouse, another hotel is under construction. Its owners paid $213 per square foot for that 0.43-acre site in 2020. That’s a 23% premium compared with last week’s deal. Next door is Rev360, a 170,000-square-foot office building built in 2020. It has sat empty for the past five years and was given back to the lender at the end of last year.
Malman said the purchase was opportunistic. His client had looked all around the metro for space before stumbling across the Brighton Boulevard listing. It was initially listed for $2.88 million, he said.
“We’ll explore all options when the time comes, whether they develop the site themselves, do a joint venture or sell it to a developer,” Malman said of the Brighton Boulevard site.
While RiNo’s real estate market has cooled, Malman’s brokerage business is heating up. The 32-year-old founder of Malman Real Estate recently brought on longtime NAI Shames Makovsky exec Evan Kline as partner and managing broker. And on Tuesday, another industry veteran, Tyler Bray, will join the firm as a partner after 19 years at Cushman & Wakefield.
Malman said Bray joined on in part because commercial real estate brokers at Malman are encouraged to buy commercial real estate themselves.
“He really wants to build generational long-term wealth and pass that down to his family at some point, and he’s not able to do that at his current brokerage,” Malman said.
The building was most recently home to a dog daycare and boarding business. (Hayden Kim/BusinessDen)
RiNo’s real estate market is coming back down to earth.
For years, developers have bought up many of the trendy neighborhood’s industrial buildings, converting or replacing them with apartments, offices and hotels.
But last week, an industrial property on one of the main drags sold to a buyer that will keep it the way it is — as a warehouse.
Alvarado Restaurant Nation, one of the region’s largest Taco Bell franchisees, paid $2.1 million for the 6,400-square-foot warehouse on 0.29 acre at 3645 Brighton Blvd., according to public records.
The space will be used to store restaurant equipment. But the buyers are also banking on a RiNo real estate rebound.
“They are looking at it long-term as a land play,” said Jake Malman, the broker who represented the buyer.
The land sold for $168 per square foot and is surrounded by completed or planned development. A Cambria hotel recently opened at Brighton and 36th Street. A few blocks away sits the site of Hurley Place, where developer Bernard Hurley is plotting a 6-acre mixed-use development.
Marylu Flight signed the documents on behalf of the seller, 3645 Brighton LLC. Public records show the property has had the same owners since at least the mid-1980s. Flight and her brokers did not respond to a request for comment. The buyer, Alvarado, which opened its first Taco Bell in downtown Denver in 1984, also declined to comment.
“Obviously, they could’ve selected a less expensive building,” Malman said. “But they liked the idea of a covered land play in RiNo where they occupy this building for their business and, long term, redevelop the site.”
Across the street from the warehouse, another hotel is under construction. Its owners paid $213 per square foot for that 0.43-acre site in 2020. That’s a 23% premium compared with last week’s deal. Next door is Rev360, a 170,000-square-foot office building built in 2020. It has sat empty for the past five years and was given back to the lender at the end of last year.
Malman said the purchase was opportunistic. His client had looked all around the metro for space before stumbling across the Brighton Boulevard listing. It was initially listed for $2.88 million, he said.
“We’ll explore all options when the time comes, whether they develop the site themselves, do a joint venture or sell it to a developer,” Malman said of the Brighton Boulevard site.
While RiNo’s real estate market has cooled, Malman’s brokerage business is heating up. The 32-year-old founder of Malman Real Estate recently brought on longtime NAI Shames Makovsky exec Evan Kline as partner and managing broker. And on Tuesday, another industry veteran, Tyler Bray, will join the firm as a partner after 19 years at Cushman & Wakefield.
Malman said Bray joined on in part because commercial real estate brokers at Malman are encouraged to buy commercial real estate themselves.
“He really wants to build generational long-term wealth and pass that down to his family at some point, and he’s not able to do that at his current brokerage,” Malman said.
