Pacific Ventures, Avanti Buy 500 Acres Near Denver for Homes

Pacific Ventures Management and Avanti Properties Group have bought 503 acres in a Denver suburb approved for a master-planned development with up to 3,000 homes.

The Newport Beach, Calif.-based developer and Florida-based investor purchased the Uptown Horizon project off Interstate 70 and E-470 in Aurora, 17 miles east of Denver, the Denver Business Journal reported. The purchase price was not disclosed.

The seller was Lend Lease Communities, the U.S. real estate arm of Australia-based Lendlease and the former master developer of Uptown Horizon.

Brokers Greg Vogel, Wes Campbell and Max Xander of Land Advisors Organization represented the seller.

With the purchase, Pacific Ventures becomes the master developer leading the development, management and future planning. At full build-out, Uptown Horizon is expected to have up to 3,000 homes.

Plans also include shops and restaurants, offices, medical facilities, an elementary school and a firehouse.

“It’s in the Aurora growth market. We like that,” Mark Kehke, founder and chairman of Pacific Ventures, told the Business Journal. “It’s got existing entitlement in place. It’s got existing infrastructure in place and a long runway ahead of it.

“And we saw a huge potential going forward, so it was really kind of a perfect fit for us.”

Some 66 acres, or 13 percent of Uptown Horizon, has been developed and sold to home and apartment builders, including 654 lots and land for 350 apartments. There’s a community park, dog park, tennis courts and a children’s playground, plus hiking trails.

Meritage Homes, a national homebuilder based in Scottsdale, Ariz. is now selling two neighborhoods there, while Texas-based DR Horton is set to open two more neighborhoods. Locally based Ascend at Horizon Uptown is listing luxury apartments, with a fitness club, work areas and a pool.

In 2008, the City of Aurora approved a development plan with Lend Lease Communities for Horizon Uptown. The commercial component has yet to break ground.

“It has an entitlement for a lot of commercial space. That’s one of the things we’re looking at is whether that’s still appropriate,” Kehke told the newspaper. “I think we need to do a deep dive into exactly what does belong here.”

Pacific Ventures Management, founded by Kehke in 2017, has bought, planned, developed and sold more than $4 billion in real estate assets, according to its website. It claims a “strong track record” of replacing developers of partially developed master-planned communities.

Avanti Properties Group, founded in 1970, has spent $1.6 billion buying residential, commercial and industrial land in more than 25 of the fastest-growing U.S. markets, according to its website.

— Dana Bartholomew