Brookfield Office Properties Inc. and an investment consortium have paid $215 million to buy the former Qwest tower from PSEG Energy Holdings, Brookfield announced today.
Brookfield will hold a 51 percent interest, worth $110 million, in the building at 1801 California St. and manage the 54-story office building in Denver’s central business district on behalf of the other investors.
The tower now bears the name of CenturyLink, which bought Qwest in April.
Brookfield said the purchase is a vote of confidence in Denver’s commercial real estate market and part of the company’s larger strategy of owning the premier buildings in the best areas.
“The Denver market has demonstrated strong fundamentals with positive absorption and job growth over the past 18 months,” said Dennis Friedrich, president and global chief investment officer of Brookfield Office Properties.
The building is Denver’s second tallest skyscraper after Republic Plaza, which Brookfield also owns. It has 1.4 million square feet of Class A rentable office space and 1,500 parking spaces.
Brookfield said the building is 100 percent leased, with 80 percent of the leases expiring by July 2012.
Major tenants include CenturyLink, Patton Boggs and MWH Americas Inc.
PSEG, which has owned the building since 1991, said it was selling it to focus on energy investments in the United States.
Built in 1983, the building was most famous as the headquarters of Qwest Communications, which placed a large blue sign on top of it visible for miles around.
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410, asvaldi@denverpost.com or
