An Australian real estate firm is betting on the northeast Aurora corridor with a $185 million development that will include a mix of residences, retail and commercial space.
Lend Lease Corp. Ltd. paid about $22 million for 500 acres, known as Horizon City Center, at the southwest corner of Interstate 70 and the E-470 toll road.
It plans to develop the site, its first Denver project, with 2,950 housing units, 1.7 million square feet of retail space and 2.8 million square feet of commercial space.
“We picked Denver because we saw it as a solid market with strong population growth and an educated workforce,” said Simon Walker, project director for Lend Lease.
Lend Lease purchased the property from RealtiCorp of Greenville S.C., which had planned to spend up to $2 billion developing it. Officials from RealtiCorp could not be reached for comment.
Lend Lease was particularly interested in developing a project along the E-470 corridor because of its growth potential, Walker said.
“The Denver Regional Council of Governments forecast 80,000 new homes to be built along that corridor,” he said.
Businesses also are attracted to the E-470 corridor. Denver-based ProLogis controls the two northern quadrants of the interchange.
On the northeast corner is ProLogis Park 70, where it developed a 400,000-square-foot building for a General Motors regional parts and distribution center. It also developed a nearly 300,000- square-foot facility it leases to MasterCraft Cabinets and the Schneider National trucking company. It plans to start a third building in the park this year.
ProLogis also owns several hundred acres on the northwest quadrant that it acquired when it merged with Catellus last year.
“This is clearly the best location in the market with the convergence of two highways,” said Tyson Chave, a vice president at ProLogis. “Sometime down the road, it will be like having one of the corners tied up at 25 and 70.”
Staff writer Margaret Jackson can be reached at 303-820-1473 or mjackson@denverpost.com.
