Business park bought for $625M

Single-asset sale is largest in state history

Boulder’s Flatiron Park near 55th Street and Arapahoe Avenue was at the center of a historic $625 million purchase that counted as the largest single-asset sale in Colorado’s history, according to real estate sources.

Biomed Realty, a San Diegobased real estate investment trust company, announced its acquisition of the business park from JLL’S Capital Markets group, which worked on behalf of Crescent Real Estate LLC, the Real Estate business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Lionstone Investments, in April.

The purchase spans 1 million square feet and 22 buildings with office and flex space. “The tenancy is a mix of life science and tech users,” said Ben Molk, senior vice president of Crescent Real Estate.

Biomed used a holding company with various LLCS in its name, BRE-BMR, to make the purchase from GPIF Flatiron Business Park, which also contained various LLCS, said Boulder County Assessor Cynthia Braddock.

The holding company also just acquired another building at 2100 Central Ave. in the Boulder business park for $17 million, she added.

Biomed aims to invest an extra $200 million in “redevelopment costs over time, which is expected to create nearly 400 new local construction jobs,” said Jon Bergschneider, president of West Coast markets, in a statement. The Blackstone portfolio company also plans to contribute to the University of Colorado’s BioFrontiers Institute.

Mike Ruhl, vice president of leasing at Biomed, described Boulder as “a market to watch, driven by highly educated talent, robust capital flow, an existing base of life science and tech pioneers and great quality of life.”

Biomed also owns and operates life-science real estate in Boston, San Diego, the San Francisco Bay area, Seattle and the New York metropolitan area, along with Cambridge in the United Kingdom. CBRE was awarded the leasing assignment for Flatiron Park by the new owner.

The JLL Capital Markets team representing the seller included Mark Katz, Peter Merrion and Hilary Barnett.

“Biomed’s acquisition of Flatiron Park will greatly benefit the rising life sciences ecosystem in Colorado,” Katz said.