Gart Properties Repositions Building

DENVER-Gart Properties LLC is repositioning the former Levitz furniture store warehouse it bought out of bankruptcy court a couple of years ago. Gart, which seeks to buy real estate properties at discounts and then adds value, initially thought one tenant might take the 157,465-sf warehouse building along busy West Sixth Avenue in Lakewood.

Gart also renamed it the 6th Avenue Commerce Center.

In fact, it had the building under contract twice to telecommunications companies that wanted to use it as a telecom hotel before the dot.com economy collapsed.

”We were ahead of the curve in finding a value purchase in a hot market, but we were a little behind the curve as far the telecom hotel phenomena,” Mark Sidell, president of Gart Properties, tells GlobeSt.com.

Instead, the building could end up with five or so tenants, he says.

”We’ll invest in a redesign of the building that will enhance its flexibility and enable companies to use it as retail, industrial or office space,” Sidell tells GlobeSt.com. ”The property offers users great access and visibility.”

About 100,000 cars pass the building each day. The building provides ceiling heights of 16 feet to 32 feet. It’s surrounded by a large parking lot.

Sidell tells GlobeSt.com that such warehouses typically aren’t found in infill sites. More often, such buildings are only available in industrial parks with less visibility, he says.

Alex Ringsby and Paul Kahn of Cushman & Wakefield are marketing the building.

”Buildings that are being marketed as strictly single use facilities will lose a lot of potential tenants and buyers if the owner chooses not to reinvest in the building,” Ringsby tells GlobeSt.com. ”The 6th Avenue Commerce Center is in a great location with high visibility, and lends itself to an office or industrial user as much as it does to a retailer. We want to expand Gart’s options.”

Gart Properties will update the building with a new façade, new office units, new suites and upgraded signage and landscaping. Tenants as small as 10,000 sf can be accommodated.