Denver, CO – Avison Young today announced it has brokered the acquisition of 37 acres of land for Phase I of Elevation25, a five-building speculative industrial warehouse project totaling 578,240 square feet (sf). The project is located near the intersection of Weld County Road 9½ and Highway 66 in Mead, CO.  

Principal Dawn McCombs and Senior Associate Kevin Hann of Avison Young’s Industrial Services team in Denver represented the buyer, Denver-based Silver Point Development in partnership with an affiliate of Walker & Dunlop Investment Partners. Clayton Pristou of Avison Young’s Denver-based Structured Finance Group arranged acquisition and construction financing with CIBC Bank USA on behalf of the ownership.  

McCombs and Hann have also been tapped by Silver Point Development to head up the project’s leasing.

Silver Point Development plans on breaking ground on the first two buildings of the project later this month which are anticipated for completion in the fall of 2022. Building 1 which totals 94,076 sf is 40% pre-leased to Premier Manufacturing with 56,642 sf of remaining available space. Building 2 which totals 109,676 sf is currently available. 

The developer is poised to acquire an adjacent 36-acre land parcel within the next three years for development of Phase 2 of Elevation25. Phase 2 would include four buildings totaling approximately 422,000 sf, bringing the entire project to one million sf upon completion.  

Elevation25 is the only high-bay warehouse speculative industrial development in the immediate area and is just two turns from I-25, heading northbound or southbound.  It is strategically located equidistant to three of the region’s major markets – Denver, Boulder, and Loveland/Fort Collins, the Town of Mead has been growing in popularity, attracting major companies over recent months for distribution and logistics including Amazon, Home Depot, UPS, and FedEx. The Elevation25 project will seek to capitalize on the 30 percent population growth projection in this northern corridor submarket over the next five years.

“The Denver industrial market is red hot and will continue to be so in the foreseeable future,” said McCombs. “Industrial land opportunities are scarce thus driving developers and investors to seek out new opportunities in secondary markets such as Mead. With strong pricing and robust leasing activity, Elevation25 is poised to be attractive to area users and we are excited to be a leasing partner with Silver Point Development on this significant project.”

“One of the primary pain points nearly every business is experiencing in today’s economic environment is the labor shortage, especially within the manufacturing industry,” said Hann. “Elevation25 helps mitigate this issue by allowing companies to recruit from the nearby Denver, Boulder, and Loveland/Fort Collins markets. Businesses are able to cast a wider net and enhance their recruitment efforts toward employees with a 30-minute or less commute one-way.”

Constrained by the foothills to the west, the northern I-25 corridor is the next logical path of industrial growth, as Denver’s southeast I-25 corridor is becoming over-built, and its eastern I-70 corridor has reached the inner limits of agricultural land with very few roof tops to serve. Still affordable land prices as compared to other submarkets are also attractive to Denver developers who are fatigued from lack of inventory and increasingly high land prices, as well as national firms seeking new opportunities in this region.