Broe Acquires a Denver Office Building -- a Quarter of the Way to its $100 million Goal

-- The Cascades office building is in a tremendous location with a great tenant base.

Denver, Colorado – September 26, 2003 – The Broe Companies has acquired the Cascades office building in Greenwood Plaza for $24 million. This is the first property Broe has purchased in Denver since stating its goal earlier this year of acquiring $100 million worth of local properties. The Cascades is a 350,000 square foot Class A suburban building in Denver. It has always been one of the best buildings in Denver and is a tremendous opportunity and value. The building is located between Orchard and Arapahoe Roads, east of Quebec Street near the new Yosemite Street light rail stop. The west side has the best views and will have the light rail line.
“We pursued this building because of its superlative access and the tremendous opportunity it presented to purchase a Class A building,” said Carl Luppens, Chief Investment Officer of Broe. “Acquiring a property like the Cascades gets us well on the way to our goal of acquiring $100 million in new properties in the next 18 months. We continue to look for other opportunities like the Cascades.” Broe went to the seller with a proposal for a quick due diligence investigation and a quick closing with no financing contingencies. The seller was skeptical that anyone could move as quickly as Broe did. .In the end, Broe moved fast and the transaction went very smoothly.

Simon Milde, the founder of The Greenwich Group, the real estate brokerage firm which handled the sale, stated, “The successful closing of this transaction is a testament to the professionalism of the buyer, Broe, and the seller, Devon Properties. It was a pleasure to take part in the sale of the Cascades.” Headquartered in New York, The Greenwich Group International is a world leader in real estate investment banking with offices in Boston, Washington DC, Los Angeles, London, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Frankfurt.
The building has easy access to Orchard and Arapahoe Roads affording the best east-west arterial roadways in the southeast office corridor. Quebec is the most convenient north-south arterial road and it runs all the way from Belleview to C-470. Yosemite is the only way across I-25 that avoids the underpass congestion. The Cascades offers all the conveniences of the Tech Center and Greenwood Plaza with none of the congestion.

“We are immediately spending more than $1 million to upgrade the lobby and other common areas,” Luppens continued. “The building systems are in great shape but we are renovating several areas to provide a more contemporary corporate appearance. The new lobby will be primarily limestone. When we complete renovations, the Cascades will be Broe’s showcase property in Denver.” The Cascades offers tenants spectacular Front Range and city views as well as a patio and fountain area for employees breaks, private exterior tenant balconies and other amenities including: a large fitness center, a deli, building conference rooms, and covered, direct access parking. Plus, the floor plate offers tremendous flexibility, including the capability to accommodate a 45,000 square foot tenant on a single floor or provide suites as small as 1,000 square feet.

“We have already been very active in the leasing market, signing a number of leases and letters of intent while we were under contract, so we’ve already made a big move in leasing but still have over 100,000 square feet of great space available and are going to be aggressively leasing it over the next few months,” Luppens said.
The building has two loading docks and dual freight elevators as well as a central HVAC plant. This level of quality is typically found only in the largest and highest quality downtown office buildings.

The building has top quality tenants including Washington Mutual, Ford Motor Credit, Ceridian, Northmarq Mortgage, US Aviation Underwriters, and Keller Williams Realty.

Broe will be handling the leasing in-house so that it can respond quickly to prospects and their brokers. Broe has implemented its 48 hours commission payment guarantee and is streamlining its processes so that brokers and their prospects will find it easy to get leases signed in the building.

About Broe
The Broe Companies, Inc., based in Denver, Colorado, invests in all types of commercial real estate. Broe currently owns office, residential, retail, and industrial properties throughout the United States and Canada. Broe also provides property management, leasing, and asset-management services to owners and lenders. Broe buys companies and makes investments in companies, corporate debt, and bankruptcy situations through Broe Growth Capital; it invests in the transportation sector and associated businesses through its OmniTRAX affiliate, the largest privately owned railroad company in North America; it operates in the medical-device field through McKinley Medical, designer of one of the world’s leading pain-management pumps; it invests in the energy sector through PrairieSun Energy; and it owns and operates retirement communities through Aspen Retirement Corporation. Broe is aggressively seeking new business opportunities.

Media Contact:
Tom Henley
Dir. of Communications
303-398-0342
thenley@broe.com