Griffin Capital in Joint Venture with Legacy Partners in Colorado Opportunity Zone Project
August 9, 2019 | James Sprow | Blue Vault
Griffin Capital Company, LLC (“Griffin Capital”), a leading private alternative asset manager, with Legacy Partners (Legacy), a privately-owned national real estate firm, announced on August 5 the closing of the joint venture’s first multifamily development site in a qualified opportunity zone.
The land is located at 1363 N. Victor Street in Aurora, a 4.52-acre site upon which Griffin Capital and Legacy will develop a five-story, 363-unit multifamily community named Legacy at Fitz. The site is adjacent to the Fitzsimons Medical Center, the largest concentration of medical facilities in the Rocky Mountain region. Construction will commence in the next several weeks.
The Aurora, Colorado Opportunity Zone (“OZ”) is located east of Denver, southwest of the Denver airport.
Zooming in on the OZ, we see the vacant land near Fitzsimons Medical Center.
Kevin Shields, Chairman and CEO of Griffin Capital stated, “We could not be more thrilled to acquire our first QOZ land parcel and commence development. We have assembled an outstanding group of best-in-class multifamily development partners with seven great properties, all but one of which were in the respective developer’s forward pipeline prior to the OZ legislation having been finalized; these opportunities were culled from over $3 billion of potential investment opportunities underwritten by our real estate team.”
“Legacy at Fitz is an outstanding property in a fast-growing area,” noted Eric Kaplan, President of Griffin Capital Private Equity, LLC. “The property’s proximity to the large and growing medical campus, a nearby light rail station, dining and retail options, an adjacent Hyatt Regency hotel, and our planned luxury amenities combine to make Legacy at Fitz an extremely desirable, sought-after residential community. We are especially pleased to be developing the property with Legacy Partners, a long-standing and well-respected institutional real estate firm with extensive experience building and managing multifamily communities in the Denver area. Legacy Partners’ local experience allows us to realize significant economies of scale both in the development and management phase of our ownership life cycle.”
Fitzsimons Medical Center is a key anchor for the immediate community encompassing over 578 acres and including the Anschutz Medical Campus, University of Colorado-affiliated hospitals and research centers as well as one of the nation’s largest VA hospitals. The campus currently supports over 30,000 medical students and professionals and, as part of the campus’ on-going $5 billion redevelopment, is projected to increase its population to over 50,000 in the next decade. This significant anticipated job growth will be a crucial driver in residential growth translating into demand for apartment units and long-term rental rate growth at the Legacy at Fitz.
Legacy at Fitz is designed to feature a mix of studios, one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments as well as 497 parking spots. Residential amenities will include a clubhouse, fitness center, Pilates room, a rooftop deck, two courtyards, a resort-style pool and spa, outdoor kitchens, and fire pits. Legacy at Fitz is immediately adjacent to an elevated pedestrian bridge physically connecting the property to the Fitzsimons Medical Center, which is a 15-minute drive to Denver International Airport and a 20-minute drive to Downtown Denver and the Denver Tech Center.
As part of its opportunity zone investment program, Griffin Capital intends to develop two multifamily communities in partnership with Legacy Partners (the recently acquired 363 units in Aurora, Colorado, and 225 units in Tampa), two with Greystar Real Estate Partners (300 units in Austin and 500 units in Baltimore) and three communities with Fairfield Residential (365 units in Austin, 284 units in Houston and 310 units in suburban Washington, DC’s Hyattsville, MD).
Sources: Griffin Capital Company, LLC; Google Earth, www.opportunityzonesmap.com
