Downtown Office Depot To Be Transformed Into Mixed-Use Development

By John Mossman
The Denver Post

The downtown property that currently houses Office Depot at the corner of 16th and Market streets will be transformed into a new 10-story mixed-use development called 16M.

It will offer office space, street-level retail and restaurant amenities and, on the upper floors, residential units.

Completion of the project — which is being developed by Integrated Properties Inc. along with Elevation Group and Sage Hospitality — is planned for early 2014.

The project, which has been approved by the Lower Downtown Design Review Board, includes residential rental units, 130,000 square feet of office space, 15,000 square feet of retail space, a rooftop fitness center and outdoor terrace, and three levels of underground parking with direct access to all floors.

"We're very excited about the momentum in the LoDo district and are confident 16M's visibility and easy accessibility for both tenants and residents will exemplify the mixed-use, work-live-play vitality of the district," said Bruce Deifik of Integrated Properties.

"Easily accessible urban locations have become more attractive as fuel costs remain high and as companies attempt to boost recruitment efforts by providing greater convenience to employees."

Jamie Gard — executive managing director of Denver-based Newmark Knight Frank Frederick Ross, which is the leasing and marketing agent for the project — said the Office Depot will be demolished to make way for the development.

The street level likely will be all restaurants, Gard said. "Anything from high-end, white-tablecloth to fast casual," he said, "and the hope is to have a blend. We're talking to a bunch of people."

Floors two through six will be offices, and 43 rental units will occupy floors seven through 10.

The project initially was proposed as a 180-room W Hotel with 56 condominiums on top.

The design review board sent the developers back to the drawing board in March, asking the architecture firm Gensler to modify the plan to remove rooftop functions that violate height limitations, break up the mass of the facade along Market Street, integrate the architecture of the residential portion with the office portion, and emphasize the corner of the building.

Re-posted by: Legend Retail Group
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Chipotle eyes 155-165 new stores in 2012

Denver Business Journal
Date: Thursday, July 19, 2012, 2:48pm MDT - Last Modified: Thursday, July 19, 2012, 4:56pm MDT

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. said it expects to open between 155 and 165 new restaurants this year.

The Denver company (NYSE: CMG) outlined its growth plans in reporting its second-quarter financials for the year.

Chipotle opened 55 restaurants during the second quarter and now has 1,316 locations.
Through the first six months of the year, Chipotle has added 87 locations.

Click here for more information.


Legend Retail Group

Big-Box Vacancies Prove Hard To Fill

The closing of big-box stores in recent years belonging to the likes of Borders Group Inc., Circuit City Inc. and others has left suburban shopping centers around the country with lots of space to fill.

National vacancy stats for big-box centers have come down a bit to 6.6 percent from a recent high of 7.9 percent in 2009, according to CoStar. But CoStar expects that figure to inch back up by the end of this year, likely hitting 6.8 percent, because of more retailers closing their doors in the weeks and months ahead.

Memphis has seen plenty of examples, especially when looking at empty retail spaces from a broader perspective than the typical metric of a big box that has a minimum of at least 50,000 square feet or so.
The 20,000-square-foot Tower Records space in Downtown’s Peabody Place center, for example, was vacated when the music retail giant was liquidated six years ago and still has not been filled.

A 16,000-square-foot space formerly occupied by World Market, directly across Germantown Parkway from Wolfchase Galleria, still has not been filled since the store’s closing three years ago.

Tower Records, which had been one of the anchors of Peabody Place, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2004, then again in 2006. World Market entered the Memphis area six years ago with three stores, but in 2009 the owner of the chain announced it was closing 26 stores and exiting eight markets, including Memphis.

In a statement about the closings, World Market’s president and CEO Barry Field said the company was moving to “rationalize its operations and media markets in this challenging economic environment.”

“The challenge in filling big-box spaces would be the lack of 40,000- to 60,000-square-foot users, and this is not just a Memphis problem,” said Andrew Phillips, vice president of investment and retail services in Memphis for Colliers International. “We are seeing some discounter retailers who will take down larger spaces, but they are not willing to pay the kind of rents that many landlords want to see.

“If a landlord decides to subdivide the space, it can be expensive, but we have seen some activity when a landlord is willing, or financially able, to do so. A good example of this is at the Market at Riverdale Bend, where we had a 45,000-square-foot former Best Buy space, which the landlord divided for Planet Fitness and Goodwill.”

Phillips said the spaces formerly occupied by Blockbuster, the movie chain that exited the Memphis market a few years ago, have been actively scouted. For the old Blockbuster space in the Germantown Collection, he said there’s been a great deal of interest and that Colliers has just signed a lease for a majority of the space with Gould’s Salon.

Most of those locations have high visibility and demanded higher rents. That requires particular care to choose the right tenant to backfill those spaces.

“Memphis (also) was flooded with big boxes with Kroger’s purchase of Schnucks and subsequent closure of certain locations,” Phillips said. “We have already seen a few of the best located former grocery stores backfilled, and many of these grocers are doing quite well. Many of us were hoping to see another grocery chain immediately jump into the Memphis market after the Schnucks departure, but it will take some time.”

Longmont's Twin Peaks Mall to Get Major Makeover

LONGMONT -- Baby steps won't be enough to revive 27-year-old Twin Peaks Mall. It's going to take blowing the roof off the joint.
That's what the mall's new owners, NewMark Merrill Mountain States, told an audience of more than 150 people Wednesday that attended the second public meeting the company has hosted since it bought the mall in February.

Managing director and principal Allen Ginsborg told the crowd that after receiving input from more than 2,000 community members and, even more important from the standpoint of making Twin Peaks a strong revenue generator again, more than 100 retailers, the mall as it is must cease to exist.

The mall was in foreclosure when NMMS bought it in February for $8.5 million, a fraction of the $33.6 million the previous owner had paid in 2007.
"For the most part the retailers that want to move into this market are not traditional, enclosed, regional mall tenants," Ginsborg said. "It's an open-air format. That's the direction they're driving this to.
"We see this project as a different type of experience. More of an outdoor, community oriented center."
Ginsborg unveiled an artist's rendering that showed a large fountain with kids playing, some outdoor seating, decorative features and storefronts that surrounded the plaza. The "Twin Peaks" sign stood atop an open-air archway.

Marketing Tool Most Real Estate Pros Want?

A very interesting article about technology in the Real Estate Business.  Legend Retail Group has been doing iPad tours for over a year.  They are a great tool to use and the way the industry is going with the new technology.  A great way to carry around demos, tours, aerials and any information you need in one handy carrying case.  No need to haul around 3 Ring binders anymore!

Daily Real Estate News | Wednesday, April 04, 2012

The iPad is the marketing tool that more than three out of four of 110 real estate professionals recently surveyed say they would most like to have, according to the survey by Imprev, a marketing technology company.
The real estate professionals surveyed selected up to five marketing products they most wanted, with the iPad coming out No. 1, followed by 35 percent who want an automated “drip” e-marketing campaign, 29 percent who prefer single property Web sites, 28 percent who said personal blogs, and 25 percent who eyed video.
“Real estate agents are shouting that they want their iPad apps,” says Renwick Congdon, Imprev’s CEO and founder. “The iPad from Apple is quickly becoming a ubiquitous marketing and productivity tool for the real estate industry.”
While the iPad is rated what agents most want to have, real estate pros surveyed said their current favorite technology is the smartphone.
“Mobile marketing continues to accelerate at breakneck speed,” says Congdon. “It’s a game changer for the industry.”

Click the link for the rest of the article.

Marketing Tool Most Real Estate Pros Want?

Best Buy to shut 50 stores

MINNEAPOLIS — Best Buy said it plans to close 50 big-box stores and open 100 smaller locations focused on mobile technology in the U.S. in fiscal 2013 and cut $800 million in costs by fiscal 2015. The news came Thursday as the biggest U.S. specialty-electronics retailer posted a fiscal fourth-quarter loss partly due to restructuring charges, but its adjusted results topped Wall Street's expectations.

Best Buy's strategy of focusing on closing some of its hulking stores to concentrate on smaller Best Buy Mobile outlets illustrates the shifting nature of the electronics industry. Shoppers aren't flocking to big-box stores as they used to. And sales of TVs, digital cameras and video-game consoles have weakened, while sales of tablet computers, smartphones and e-readers have increased.

The company said it has not finalized which locations will be targeted for closure.

"We are quite deliberate and thoughtful when we make such decisions," Best Buy spokeswoman Susan Busch said. "We are working to ensure the impact to our employees will be as minimal as possible, while serving all customers in a convenient and satisfying way."

Busch said the company will announce details about specific store locations and timings for closings once they are finalized.

Best Buy operates 23 big-box stores and five mobile locations in Colorado, according to Best Buy spokeswoman Kelly Groehler. That total includes 19 big-box stores and four mobile stores in metro Denver.
Best Buy lost $1.7 billion, or $4.89 a share, for the period ended March 3. That compares with a profit of $651 million, or $1.62 a share, a year ago.

The Minneapolis-based company said its quarterly results included $2.6 billion in charges. They were mostly related to its purchase of Carphone Warehouse Group's interest in the Best Buy Mobile profit-sharing agreement and related costs, as well as an impairment charge tied to writing off Best Buy Europe goodwill and restructuring charges.

Taking these items out, adjusted earnings were $2.47 a share, above the $2.15 a share that analysts surveyed by FactSet forecast.

Revenue rose 3 percent to $16.08 billion but missed Wall Street's $17.18 billion estimate.
For the full year, Best Buy lost $1.23 billion, or $3.36 a share, compared with a profit of $1.28 billion, or $3.08 a share, in the prior year. Adjusted earnings were $3.64 a share, which tops the previous year's $3.43 a share.

Colorado Papa John’s restaurants for sale

The Baltimore company that owns 40 Papa John’s pizza restaurants in Colorado wants to sell all of its locations and already has a buyer for four in the Denver area.
PJCOMN Acquisition Corp., which is operating under bankruptcy protection, has another 32 locations in Minnesota that are also for sale.

The company is offering its restaurants in three lots, divided by location — Denver, Colorado Springs and Minnesota — and expects to reveal the successful bidders and backup bidders on March 21.
Bidders must pass muster with Louisville, Ky.-based Papa John’s International Inc.    (Nasdaq: PZZA), and the bankruptcy court judge has the final say in any sale. No one connected with PJCOMN, Papa John’s or the bankruptcy case was willing to respond to questions, but the details are spelled out in documents filed in various court cases.

Of the 32 Denver-area restaurants PJCOMN is offering to auction off, the company said it’s already found a buyer for four: 12093A W. Alameda Ave., Lakewood; 14575 W. 64th Ave., Arvada; 2420 Arapahoe Road, Boulder; and 1901 Youngfield St., No. 107, Golden.
PJCOMN has asked for bankruptcy court approval to sell those four to L&J Associates LLC for $22,000 each. An Oklahoma company, L&J Associates operates six Papa John’s restaurants in Colorado, including in Castle Rock and Brighton.

PJCOMN noted in court documents that the four stores are unprofitable and should be closed “as their continued operation will not maximize a recovery to creditors in this case.”

PJCOMN said the four locations would be closed if the judge doesn’t approve the sale.
The $88,000 L&J Associates is offering will go to an affiliate of General Electric Capital Corp., which lent the owners of PJCOMN $8.96 million to finance the 2007 purchase of the restaurants.

The General Electric affiliate, known as GECPAC Investments I LLC, holds the senior secured claim against PJCOMN, which still owes the company $7.69 million.

Brian Q. Mills of Castle Rock and H. Clifford Harris, who lives in Maryland, each own half of PJCOMN. They also borrowed $1.25 million from Capital Delivery Ltd., a subsidiary of Papa John’s International that provides financial help to franchisees.

Capital Delivery sued PJCOMN in federal court in Kentucky last August, claiming the franchisee had defaulted on its loan. The lawsuit demanded the repayment of $1 million in principal and $441,382 in interest.

GECPAC Investments I in September sued PJCOMN in Baltimore, also claiming default on a loan, and convinced a judge to appoint a receiver for PJCOMN.

PJCOMN filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Maryland the day after the receivership order, and later blamed “financial problems caused primarily by the franchisor” for the bankruptcy filing.

Before making the filing, PJCOMN sued Papa John’s International in state court in Kentucky, claiming the purchase left them indebted for millions of dollars that they wouldn’t have borrowed had Mills and Harris had a more accurate financial picture of the restaurants.

Mills and Harris bought PJCOMN from Blackstreet Capital Management LLC, a private equity fund in Chevy Chase, Md., for $11.2 million. Their lawsuit claims neither Blackstreet nor Papa John’s International disclosed more than $1.9 million in liabilities, including unpaid taxes. PJCOMN later dropped Blackstreet as a defendant.

Papa John’s International admits to introducing buyer and seller, but not to withholding any financial information.

Papa John’s International counted 3,010 restaurants in North America at the end of last year; all but 597 are company-owned.

Mills and Harris also say they weren’t aware of potential legal trouble over how delivery drivers were paid. Rival Pizza Hut Inc. — a subsidiary of Yum Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM) — was sued in California in 2004 over allegations the company failed to reimburse drivers for using their personal vehicles to deliver pizzas and failed to pay wages. The case was settled two years later for $5.1 million.

Shane Bass, a former delivery driver for PJCOMN in Denver and Aurora, filed a suit in federal court in Denver in 2009 and made allegations similar to those in the Pizza Hut case. The lawsuit was later certified as a class action involving more than 1,000 current and former employees. Drivers in Minnesota filed their own class-action lawsuit.

PJCOMN has agreed to settle the two lawsuits for a combined $300,000. The proposed settlement requires the approval of the bankruptcy court.