Lauth Breaks Ground in Market with New Center

The first building on the site will be north of 400,000-sf, making it the largest industrial spec building ever built in the metro area, according to Cushman & Wakefield, which is listing the park for Lauth. Steve Hager, Paul Kahn and Mitch Zatz of Cushman are the listing brokers.

"It was a natural growth area for the industrial market," Lauth tells GlobeSt.com, as the reason why it chose this site."If you look where growth is going, it is along I-76 and I-25 and is comfortably growing east along I-70," he tells GlobeSt.com. "Hence, our search for a land position along that corridor."

Orr says it makes more sense to build a giant industrial warehouse, with high ceilings, as it will better meet the needs of the market. Aurora Commerce Center is designed for distribution, manufacturing, flex office/R&D, and light industrial requirements.

Lauth will accommodate companies needing build-to-suit sites for sale or lease.On the southern border of the property, Union Pacific provides rail service.The state-of-the-art buildings in the center will handle users from 30,000-sf to 500,000-sf, Orr tells GlobeSt.com.

The privately held Lauth, which has built more than $1.5 billion in properties, won't stop with the Aurora Commerce Center.

"We've built virtually everything," Orr tells GlobeSt.com, "from mid-rises to laboratories to charter schools. In the Denver area, we see ourselves expanding into retail. We're currently identifying areas for various grocery anchored to big box to lifestyle centers. We see that as a big part of our future growth."

While there is no need for spec office space in the Denver metro area at this time, Lauth will look for opportunities to acquire office properties and reposition them, he tells GlobeSt.com.

"We would also look at retail for value-added type of properties," Orr tells GlobeSt.com."All in all, he says he would like to be doing $200 million in business in the metro area on an annual basis.