The Johns Manville purchase is the largest office building deal in Denver in more than a year.

The Class-A building was constructed in 1978 and renovated in 1998. It is 99% leased.

Crescent says its rental rates are below the current market.

Peter Savoie and Mary Sullivan of Cushman & Wakefield represented Prudential Real Estate Investors, the seller. They were the only brokers on the deal.

Crescent made the purchase at the time that the Downtown market is softening.

"We continue to be long-term supporters of Denver, particularly Denver's CBD market," says Denny Alberts, president and chief executive officer of Crescent.

"By acquiring Johns Manville at a significant discount to replacement cost, we believe we are in a position to fully capitalize on the growth in demand we expect the market to experience when the economy recovers," he adds. "The building has high-quality credit and single-digit lease rollover through 2005. In addition, by owning adjacent buildings, we should gain operating efficiencies for those buildings. This acquisition supports our strategy of taking our office portfolio from approximately 70% to over 80% of total asset value.