Denver-based AmeriVest Properties Inc. has struck a deal to sell its regional portfolio of office properties for $273 million to a California joint venture.
Publicly traded AmeriVest, a real-estate investment trust, had received shareholder approval in May to liquidate its holdings. The move was intended to appease large AmeriVest shareholders who were pressuring the company to boost its stagnant stock price.
The holdings – office buildings in Colorado, Texas and Arizona that primarily lease space to small and midsized companies – will be acquired by Koll/PER LLC, jointly owned by the Koll Co., a Newport Beach, Calif., real-estate firm, and the Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho.
The sale, announced Tuesday, caused shares of Ameri Vest to jump by 10.9 percent to close at $4.88.
The transaction is expected to close with a gradual transfer of the office properties beginning in mid-August. The purchase price, minus a reserve for capital expenditures of $875,000, includes the assumption of $126 million in Ameri Vest debt.
Based on the sale price, the company upped its estimated cash distribution to between $5.05 and $5.35 per share, up from a previous range of $4.20 to $4.80.
“We were very pleased with both the quality and the quantity of offers received for these properties,” chief executive Charles Knight said.
As of March 31, AmeriVest owned 1.7 million square feet of office space in 12 buildings in metropolitan Denver, Dallas and Phoenix.
Colorado holdings include the Centerra Building, 1873 S. Bellaire St. in Denver; the Kellogg Building, 26 W. Dry Creek Circle in Littleton; and Sheridan Center, at Interstate 25 and South Colorado Boulevard.
AmeriVest purchases office buildings and leases them to small and midsized tenants. The company’s market capitalization of $117.7 million is small for its sector, where many real- estate investment trusts, or REITs, have market caps of more than $1 billion.
Staff writer Will Shanley can be reached at 303-820-1260 or wshanley@denverpost.com.
