On March 16, DMCAR honored its top commercial real estate producers of 2022 at the association’s annual Heavy Hitters Awards. In addition, the association honored its Broker of the Year and introduced the inaugural winner of its DMCAR Project of the Year award, as well as office, retail and industrial deals of the year.
Recognizing his leadership, professionalism, business acumen and unwavering dedication to the association and the industry, DMCAR paid tribute to Riki Hashimoto, co-founder of Knightbridge Capital, as its Broker of the Year. The association also recognized its Young Broker of Denver, and Top Landlord companies in the office, retail and industrial categories.
Broker of the Year:
For more than 27 years, Riki Hashimoto has been going about his business with an unmatched level of integrity and relationship building that has allowed him to close hundreds of private capital real estate deals valued at more than $3.5 billion, including more than 300 transactions in the past decade alone.
A DMCAR board member from 2005-2008, he has graciously shared his time and expertise with all those around him. In addition, he has consistently been recognized by DMCAR and other industry organizations as one of Colorado’s Top 10 Investment Professionals over the past 20 years. With more than a quarter century of brokerage behind him, Hashimoto recently stepped down as executive managing director of Newmark and announced his plans to begin the next chapter of his commercial real estate career as the co-founder of Knightbridge Capital.
“Riki has helped define Denver’s commercial real estate market for nearly three decades,” said DMCAR CEO Rachel Marion. “He’s earned the reputation, admiration and respect of all who come in contact with him and who have benefitted from his commitment and dedication to building relationships, finding creative solutions and treating everyone with the ultimate level of professionalism. DMCAR is honored to be able to recognize Riki and pay tribute to all that he has given to our industry and our community.”
DMCAR Project of the Year: 56th & Tower Mixed-Use
After going under contract on 40 acres of land at the northeast corner of 56th and Tower Road in the Spring of 2017, the team at Evergreen Devco envisioned developing a mixed-use project with residential and a grocery-anchored shopping center. The area was growing, but they were clearly pioneering; no new multifamily units had been constructed in the area between 2001
and 2017.
They broke ground on the multifamily project in the fall of 2018 and constructed 324 units. The project sold for record pricing at the end of 2020 but was struggling to attract a grocer to the intersection. They eventually secured a lease with Sprouts Farmers Market, went through an arduous platting process – including being one of the first retail projects to implement Denver’s new electric vehicle charging stations requirement — and broke ground in the spring of 2021.
Project leases included Corner Bakery, ENT Credit Union, The Learning Adventure, European Wax Center, a pediatric medical office, a liquor store, and Daz Bog Coffee. The hip new concept, Birdcall, is working on entitlements and is expected to open later this year. Bringing 56th and Tower to life, the team of Erika Shorter, Tyler Carlson, Karen Ortiz, Dana Dragon and Heather Wiseman from Evergreen Devco, brought 56th & Tower to life.
DMCAR Retail Deal of the Year: Edens RiNo Acquisition
In the summer of 2022, national real estate owner, operator and developer, Edens purchased 2660 Larimer St., a nearly-full city block at 26th and Larimer in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood. The sale of the approximately 97,000-square-foot property was part of a larger deal between Edens and Volunteers of America Colorado.
Both Edens and the VOA Colorado are strongly community-minded, and this agreement served as a great example of a powerful new alignment that will ultimately benefit both VOA Colorado and the neighborhood for years to come. VOA will maintain ownership of its current 20,000-square-foot five points headquarters, which will be remodeled by Edens to better support the
nonprofit’s needs.
The new Edens development will include a mix of retail, housing, and open and public spaces. The project is expected to bring nearly 400 residential units, 90,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, and over 10,000 square feet of publicly-accessible, privately-maintained open space. Dorit Fischer and Hayden Hirschfeld of NAI Shames Makovsky represented Tom Kiler and Edens.
DMCAR Office Deal of the Year: Flatiron Park
Boulder’s Flatiron Park, once home to a gravel quarry, now holds the distinction of being the largest single-asset sale in Colorado history. The sale of Flatiron Park provided a generational chance to acquire scale and continue to grow in this fortress market. The entire offering included more than 1 million square feet spread across 21 existing buildings, 2 build-to-suit R&D buildings, and a fully entitled development parcel.
The JLL team successfully brokered the cash sale of the premier innovation and technology campus on behalf of a joint-venture seller in a time of increasing geopolitical conflict and market volatility. After closing, the JLL team consulted with each party from the seller side to determine a charity of their choice and, as part of their fee for the sale, donated to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, Project Destined, and the Parkinson’s Foundation.
The JLL Capital Markets team representing the seller was led by Mark Katz, Peter Merrion, and Hilary Barnett with support from analysts Phillip Anderson and Kelly Kramer.
DMCAR Industrial Deal of the Year: Dollar General Build-to-Suit
At 919,000 square feet, the Dollar General build-to-suit industrial deal at the corner of 64th and E- 470 in Aurora was one of the year’s largest build-to-suit transactions and involved a land sale and a construction contract by Hyde Development with vertically-integrated General Contractor, Mortenson Construction. Hyde Development pursued the prospect starting in early 2021 with the land closing in Q3 2022.
The project kicks off a 5.5-million-square-foot industrial park. Dollar General plans to invest $172 million into the facility and help create approximately 400 new jobs. Honorees include; Paul Hyde, Tim D’Angelo and Mike Wardwell from Hyde Development. And from CBRE, Tyler Carner, Jeremy Ballenger, Jessica Ostermick, Todd Witty, and Daniel Close.
DMCAR’s Heavy Hitters award recipients by category:
Top Multifamily Brokers – Pamela Koster and Jordan Robbins, JLL – With $826.4 million in individual production, the top multifamily producers standout deal of the year was the $190 million sale of Broomfield’s Terracina Apartments in a deal that involved a principal who was literally in space during the final stages.
Top Land Brokers – Mike Kboudi, Cushman & Wakefield – With $105.6 million in personal production, Kboudi highlighted his team’s work at Broadway Station, the mixed-use project at Broadway and I-25 where they sold a nearly five-acre site for $50 million to a multi-family developer.
Top Industrial Broker – Jim Bolt, CBRE – Balancing the sale of the Pepsi Bottling Plant on Brighton Blvd. with the acquisition of a greenfield site for the company, the industrial Heavy Hitter achieved $385.4 million in personal production.
Top Office Broker – Jamie Gard, Newmark – Among the flurry of deals in 2022 that led to $121.6 in personal production, Gard points to the Davis Graham & Stubbs lease at Paradigm in RiNo as the year’s highlight deal. The state-of-the-art, 200,000-square-foot office development is located at 3400 Walnut Street.
Top Investment Broker – Tim Richey, CBRE – Three key deals, including the sale of 1800 Larimer for nearly $300 million, 1401 Lawrence for well over $200 million, and One DTC West in the heart of Belleview Station at close to $600 per square foot contributed to the perennial Heavy Hitter’s personal production of $500.3 million in 2022.
Top Retail Broker – Sam Zaitz, JLL – Working with Jerry Conover and the former Ale House location in LoHi, Zaitz and his team closed the deal that brought Chicago’s Hampton Social to Denver. A strong retail year with a flurry of deals pushed Zaitz to personal production of $51.5 million.
Top Small Office Broker – Alex Ringsby and Scott Patterson, Ringsby Realty – With $59.1 million in individual production, the small shop team completed three notable sales including a portfolio sale for Fiore Equities, representation of Forum Real Estate Group in the sale of Western Food Center, as well as Huntington Industrial in the sale of a partially leased, 265,000-square-foot new development, including three new warehouses called Park 76.
Young Brokers of Denver:
DMCAR’s 2022 Young Brokers of Denver – Will McCauley and Elliott Polanchyck, Unique Properties – Highlighting the team’s year was the sale of Terra Village Apartments, a 402-unit multifamily property in Edgewater to Trion Properties. The sale represented a 2022 high water mark and traded at a record price per unit in Wheat Ridge and helped them achieve individual production of $51.4 million.
Top Landlords:
DMCAR recognized its 2022 Top Landlords in the office, retail and industrial categories. Association members were asked to submit nominations for their top choices in the submarket that the individual broker practices.
“We’re incredibly proud to honor and celebrate the achievements of our industry’s top producers over the past year,” said DMCAR CEO Rachel Marion. “Our association’s success and strong national reputation have been earned through the incredible focus, hard work and leadership across our membership.”
Founded in 1994, DMCAR is a champion of Denver’s commercial real estate industry. DMCAR leads in advancing Metro Denver’s brokerage and commercial real estate sector and strengthening a diverse, dynamic community of brokers and industry professionals through policy advocacy, education and professional development.
