ASB Pockets $90M for Denver Office Buildings

1755 Blake St. Image courtesy of ASB Real Estate Investments

Unico Properties, a Seattle-based private equity real estate investment firm, has increased its Denver holdings with the purchase of two LoDo office buildings totaling 170,472 square feet from ASB Real Estate Investments for $85.5 million.

ASB, a division of real estate investment management firm ASB Capital Management, completed the disposition on behalf of its Allegiance Real Estate Fund, a $7.4 billion core investment vehicle.

ASB had acquired the assets—1755 Blake St. and 1515-1527 Wazee St.—in 2013 for $69.8 million. Both buildings are located a short distance from Union Station, Denver’s transport hub, and are in the center of the city’s popular restaurant and entertainment district.

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JLL marketed the properties on behalf of ASB. The JLL Capital Markets Investment Sales and Advisory team was led by Senior Managing Director Mark Katz and Senior Director Peter Merrion.

The sale was part of ASB’s portfolio strategy to selectively reduce office exposure and increase investments in industrial and apartment assets coming out of the pandemic. In September, ASB and partner Lincoln Property Co. sold Two Financial Center, a 220,000-square-foot, 12-story Class A office building in Boston to Nan Fung Life Science Group for $120 million. The firm also sold 64 New York Ave., a 355,034-square-foot, five-story building in Washington, D.C., for $201.8 million to Boyd Watterson Asset Management in April.

Denver Details

ASB continues to own Colorado Center, a 1 million-square-foot office complex located between downtown and the Denver Tech Center at 2000 South Colorado Blvd., in a joint venture with Lincoln Property Co.

Hardware Block at 1515-1527 Wazee St. Image courtesy of ASB Real Estate Investments

The LoDo buildings purchased by Unico include 1755 Blake St., a LEED Silver-certified five-story brick building constructed in 2008 that sold for $61.2 million, according to CommercialEdge data. The multi-tenant property has 112,943 square feet, including 13,282 square feet of retail space. The asset also features a fitness center and 120 parking spaces.

The second office property at 1515-1527 Wazee St. sold for about $24.3 million, CommercialEdge reported. It was constructed in 1895 and is known as the Hardware Block. Also a multi-tenant property, the four-story building was converted to office use in 2001. The asset has 52,191 square feet, including 7,220 square feet of retail and 36 parking spaces, according to CommercialEdge.

Unico Moves

Unico’s portfolio includes office, mixed-use and multifamily properties that it owns, manages or is developing across the U.S. in markets including Denver, Seattle, Portland, Salt Lake City, Austin and Nashville. The firm is currently co-invested in and managing a portfolio valued at more than $4.3 billion.

Unico continues to manage 1600 Lincoln, a 28-story, 284,600-square-foot Class A office building in downtown Denver that it sold to Westport Capital Partners for $67.2 million in March 2018. In June, Unico sold office space in Denver and in Boulder, Colo., to Beacon Capital Partners, according to the Denver Post. The firm still has numerous holdings in LoDo such as 1430 Wynkoop St. and 1875 Lawrence St. and other parts of Denver. It has assets in more Colorado markets including Boulder, Englewood, Lakewood and Colorado Springs.

In August, Unico expanded its metro Seattle portfolio with the acquisition of 100 Atrium, a seven-story, 235,500-square-foot Class A building in Bellevue, Wash., purchased from ScanlanKemperBard Cos. for a reported $143.2 million. A month earlier, Unico acquired a two-building Class A office property totaling about 203,000 square feet from Shorenstein in Lake Oswego, Ore., a Portland suburb.