Lakewood’s tallest building is now in the hands of three Nates and one Taylor.
Union Tower, a 14-story, 206,000-square-foot office building at 165 S. Union Blvd. was bought by Dunton Commercial and Laminar Real Estate on Thursday for $17.3 million, according to public records. Dunton is led by Nate Melchior and Taylor Fenn, and Laminar is run by Nate Bradley and Nate Schnabel.
Built in 1982, the building is 73% occupied, Melchoir said. It fetched $84 per square foot in the deal.
“With a nice mix of tenancy there, we see this as a best-in-class asset and opportunity to take that 73% and move it upward,” he added. “The current ownership has done a great job with the capital they’ve put into the building with some [upgrades to] common areas, amenities and back of house.”
The two firms plan to carve out more “spec suites” – completely built-out and readily available offices – of between 1,500 and 5,000 square feet. As they lease those out, the new owners will evaluate how much big-block space they should keep for larger tenants.
“The sweet spot in the west market is going to be that 3,000- to 5,000-square-foot range,” Bradley said.
Cress Capital, an office and industrial property investor, was the seller, represented by JLL’s Larry Thiel and Sean Whitney.
This week’s sale amounted to a 32% discount from the $25.3 million that Cress paid for the building in 2017.
The firm, which has offices locally and in Southern California, did not respond to a request for comment. Cress has other properties from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs, including downtown Denver’s 410 17th St. office tower. The firm bought a pair of Denver Tech Center office buildings in April.
Bradley, with Laminar, said his firm was looking at buying the tower for themselves when they realized Dunton was also interested.
“There was an opportunity, a synergistic opportunity, between the two groups to pursue it together with [Dunton’s] management and operations and experience in the market,” he said.
Dunton, which does property management, has been around since 1904. Melchoir joined the company in 2018, when it shut down its brokerage arm and started buying buildings for itself. It now owns or manages 5 million square feet of commercial real estate across Colorado.
Previously, Melchoir worked as a real estate asset manager with Wells Fargo, where he became acquainted with Bradley.
“Nate (Melchior) was a client of mine for over 10 years when he was at Wells Fargo initially and when he was onto Dunton. I was handling leasing with him and we established a great relationship there, some mutual respect,” Bradley said.
Bradley and Schnabel’s company, Laminar, has been around for only a few months. Bradley previously worked as a broker with Cushman & Wakefield. Schnabel, meanwhile, had been a solo office investor for a while after a stint at local shop DPC Cos. He has a 400,000-square-foot portfolio, Bradley said of his partner.
This deal is the second purchase for Laminar, after buying an office property in the Denver Tech Center in February.
