LBA Pays $41M for Amazon-Leased Warehouse Near Denver

LBA Realty has bought a 304,600-square-foot warehouse leased to Amazon.com outside Denver for $41 million.

An affiliate of the Irvine, Calif.-based investor bought the two-story distribution center at 7800 South Fairplay Street in Englewood, nine miles south of Denver, the Denver Business Journal and Connect CRE reported.

The seller was BPG Dove Valley 2, an affiliate of BlueScope Properties Group, based in Kansas City, Missouri. The price works out to $135 per square foot.

Bluescope built the warehouse, dubbed Dove Valley Logistics Centre II, last year. It has 89 docks and is less than a mile from E-470.

Englewood has an industrial market that outperforms nearby Denver.

The city has 507 industrial buildings totaling 8.1 million square feet, according to a commercial real estate report by the city.

The vacancy for industrial properties in June was 3.9 percent, with 497,000 square feet available for lease, compared to 8.2 percent vacancy in greater Denver and Arapahoe County.

The market lease rate for industrial properties in Englewood was $13.17 per square foot per year, while the market sales price per square foot was $173.

LBA Realty, founded in 1991, has 7 million square feet of offices in major markets across the West, according to its website.

Last month, the company run by Phil Benning scooped up a 182,500-square-foot, 14-story office building at 255 California Street in San Francisco’s Financial District in a deed-in-lieu transaction. The firm purchased a $92 million loan for $55 million — paying only 60 cents on the dollar at a purchase price of $301 per square foot.

— Dana Bartholomew