Joint Partnership to Develop 3 Denver Self-Storage Facilities

A joint partnership led by real estate company VanWest Partners plans to build three self-storage facilities in the Denver metropolitan area. Grant Self Storage, Park Avenue Self Storage and Steele Self Storage will comprise a total of 233,901 square feet of storage space. The Grant and Park Avenue projects will also include 4,569 and 3,701 square feet of leasable retail space, respectively, according to a press release. The three projects are in partnership with real estate firm Baron Property Services LLC and contractor Haselden Construction. They’re expected to be complete by the end of the first quarter in 2018.

The projects are:

• Grant Self Storage, 900 Grant St., 99,806 square feet
• Park Avenue Self Storage, 2249 Champa St., 75,145 square feet
• Steele Self Storage, 3879 Adams St. and 3874-3879 Steele St., 58,950 square feet

“Denver is one of the more underserved storage markets,” Jacob Vanderslice, a principal at VanWest, told the source. “There are a lot of new projects under development now that weren’t in the pipeline a couple years ago; but self-storage is very localized, and we’re confident we can capture our neighborhood level demographic.”

The Grant project will require converting a former Denver Public Schools administrative building, while the other two projects will be new construction. Vanderslice estimated the cost to build the facilities at $40 million. Among the challenges is the conversion, which will require wrapping some of the structure in carbon fiber. “It is relatively expensive,” Wade Buxton, another principal at VanWest, told the source. “The biggest factor is bringing the floor loads up to what’s required for storage.”

Haselden will serve as contractor for the Grant and Steele projects, while Waner Construction will be the contractor for the Park Avenue asset.

VanWest is a full-service real estate company with interests in commercial and residential properties. Its services include due diligence; investment, landlord and tenant representation; as well as project and property management.