Last year marks only the second time ever that the Denver market has exceeded $2 billion in sales. And the dollar volume is twice that of 2003, when nearly $1.1 billion in properties of $1 million or more were purchased. The number of transactions also was double the 109 sales in 2003, and the most sales ever in one year.

"This really speaks volumes for what happened in the market in 2004," Neiman tells GlobeSt.com. "What happened in the market is really a combination of about a dozen factors, including, and certainly led by low interest rates."

Investors poured money into real estate investment trusts, which, unlike many stock mutual funds, were scandal free last year. "I'm not aware of any REIT scandals," Neiman tells GlobeSt.com. "And they performed a lot better," at an average return of 30.4% last year, the fifth consecutive year REITS out-performed stock indices.

"Real estate more and more has become a legitimate asset class," Neiman points out. "That speaks to all of the information available about real estate, as a direct function of the computer age."

In Denver, the top sales were split between office and retail projects. The single biggest sale was $73.9 million paid by American Realty Advisers to the Amstar Group for the majority of the 567,287-sf Amstar Group. The second largest deal was the $55.3-million purchase of the 421,482-sf FlatIron Marketplace in Broomfield by Developers Diversified Realty to Koll/Prudential.

Buyers included REITs, institutional investors, joint ventures with Wall Street investors, as well as local investors, Neiman notes. Local investors included Cohen Capital Corp., which made the third-largest deal when it paid $52.9 million for the 378,458-sf Broadway Marketplace and the No. 6 deal by locally based Gart Properties. Gart paid $41.4 million to the Estate of James Campbell for the 220,000-sf retail center called the Village in Boulder.