DENVER – February 16, 2022 – Granite Properties, a commercial real estate investment, development and management company, announced today it has acquired First Avenue Plaza, a two-building office complex consisting of 44 Cook Street, a 10-story, Class-A, 127,000 square foot building and 55 Madison Street, a 8-story, Class-A, 137,000 square foot building. First Avenue Plaza totals 264,000 square feet and spans an entire block in Denver’s highly desired Cherry Creek submarket. With this acquisition, Granite continues to expand its portfolio of well- located, high-quality work environments offering experiences and amenities designed for the modern workforce.
Peter Merrion, Mark Katz and Hilary Barnett of JLL represented the seller, a fund managed by a subsidiary of Ares Management Corporation. Stephanie Lawrence, Paul Bennett and Hally Osdick represented Granite. Eric Tupler and Leon McBroom of JLL’s Debt Advisory team secured an acquisition loan for Granite. Lewis Kasner and Alfie Meyerson of Jackson Walker represented Granite as attorneys for the acquisition and debt financing. The project is being leased by Jeff Caldwell of Pinnacle Real Estate Advisors.
“First Avenue Plaza provides an inviting, high-quality work environment just a short walk from upscale restaurants, shops and the Cherry Creek mall. It’s ideally positioned to help companies attract top talent to grow their business,” said Stephanie Lawrence, Senior Managing Director, Granite Properties. “This acquisition offers Granite a unique opportunity to enter a very attractive and resilient submarket with high office demand and a tight supply. We consider it a very strong addition to our Denver portfolio,” she added.
The project is walking distance from the heart of Denver’s Cherry Creek North, a luxury mixed-use neighborhood offering 16 walkable blocks and nearly 260 shops and restaurants. In addition, substantial multi-family developments on neighboring blocks will continue to add vitality to this area of Cherry Creek. The project is also surrounded by some of Denver’s most desirable neighborhoods and is easily accessible with multiple points of ingress and egress.
First Avenue Plaza offers ample indoor and outdoor space for customers to work, meet and socialize. Along with recently updated common corridors and restrooms, the property features an outdoor plaza connecting the two buildings, offering a variety of seating options and a fireplace. The building also has a new customer amenity center containing a boardroom, additional collaboration areas and coffee service. Additional amenities include a training room, showers and lockers and bike storage. In addition, the project provides a 2.9/1,000 parking ratio, which is one of the highest offered in the parking-constrained Cherry Creek submarket. Granite also plans to introduce on-demand food options, including grab-n-go, FOODA and food trucks to further enhance the customer experience at the project.
With the acquisition of First Avenue Plaza, Granite expands its Denver portfolio to 1.55 million square feet of office properties, which include Plaza Tower One, Regency Plaza, Prentice Plaza, High Pointe Tower and 143 Union.
About Granite Properties
Granite Properties is a privately held commercial real estate investment, development and management company founded in 1991. The firm owns more than 10 million square feet of high-quality office space in Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Denver, Southern California, and Nashville. Granite is an established investor, developer, and manager with a focus on sustainable, high-quality projects. It has completed more than $8 billion in real estate transactions and more than 29 million square feet of real estate development and acquisitions. Current active development projects in Atlanta, Boston, and Dallas total over 2 million square feet with total costs over $1.7 billion. Granite focuses on creating extraordinary customer experiences through mixed-use environments, rich amenities, customer-centric service, and innovative wellness features. The firm has been named one of Fortune Magazine and Great Place to Work Best Workplaces nine consecutive years. For more information, visit: graniteprop.com.
About JLL
JLL (NYSE: JLL) is a leading professional services firm that specializes in real estate and investment management. JLL shapes the future of real estate for a better world by using the most advanced technology to create rewarding opportunities, amazing spaces and sustainable real estate solutions for our clients, our people and our communities. JLL is a Fortune 500 company with annual revenue of $16.6 billion in 2020, operations in over 80 countries and a global workforce more than 95,000 as of September 30, 2021. JLL is the brand name, and a registered trademark, of Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated. For further information, visit jll.com.