$1.7M deal for parcel putting block under single ownership

A full city block in RiNo has come under the control of a single owner.

In late January, 3360 Blake LLC purchased 3360 Blake St. for $1.71 million, according to public records.

The 6,250-square-foot lot, which has an industrial building on it leased to a steel fabrication business, was the last piece needed for Jeff Oberg, who formed the purchasing entity.

Different entities formed by the head of REA Development Corp. already owned all the other parcels in the block formed by Blake and Walnut streets, and 33rd and 34th streets.

Oberg did not respond to requests for comment last week.

The block’s buildings are largely industrial in nature, but they appear poised for redevelopment. In January, an REA Development staffer applied to the city for a certificate of demolition eligibility for every structure along the block, including the one that Oberg just purchased.

Those certificates, if issued, make it easy to demolish a structure within five years. Property owners generally request them when they plan to redevelop or expect to sell their property to someone who will.

Oberg purchased the other parcels between 2015 and 2017, paying $10.25 million.

Adding in the most recent deal, that means he paid a total of $11.96 million for the 2.3-acre block, or about $120 a square foot for the land.

The 3360 Blake parcel was sold by M&S LLP, which purchased it in June 2006 for $360,000, records show. Sean and Christina McLaughlin signed paperwork as partners in that entity.

The owner of the business that operates at 3360 Blake told BusinessDen he has about a year left on his lease.

A federal judge in Virginia has denied a bid by Denver-based Northstar Commercial Partners to have a lawsuit filed against the company by Amazon dismissed.

In an order issued last week, Judge Liam O’Grady said arguments raised by Northstar CEO Brian Watson and other defendants in their respective motions filed in the fall were simply “premature.”

“Defendants’ attacks on those factual assertions, even where they are possibly supported by the evidentiary record, must be saved until after the parties have completed discovery,” the judge wrote.

In the lawsuit first filed late last April, and subsequently updated multiple times, Amazon accused Northstar of paying kickbacks to two now-former Amazon employees in exchange for securing deals to develop data centers in Virginia for the company. Amazon first learned of the situation when someone emailed Jeff Bezos.

The FBI has also been investigating, and seized items from Watson’s Cherry Hills Village home last April.

Watson filed his 50-page motion to dismiss Amazon’s lawsuit in October. The two ex-Amazon employees, Casey Kirschner and Carleton Nelson, also filed separate motions to dismiss the case the same day.

Stan Garnett of Brownstein Hyatt, who is representing Watson, told BusinessDen Friday that Watson “looks forward to resolving the case on the merits.”

In his order last week, O’Grady also denied a separate request by Kirschner and Nelson to have the case moved to Washington state. Nelson lives in Seattle, and Amazon is based in the city as well.

“To force plaintiffs to litigate this matter in the Western District of Washington would be seriously inconvenient,” O’Grady wrote. “No court in Washington

would be able to establish personal jurisdiction over any of the other defendants in the case because all the events giving rise to the dispute took place in Virginia.”