Equity West Gets Bargain in Inverness Building

Until recently, that is. Denver-based Equity Investment Partners paid a bargain $5 million, or $46 per sf, for the 108,305-sf building to Time Warner Cable. David Naus, who heads Equity Investment, estimates the replacement cost of the building at $145 to $150 per sf, a figure brokers tell GlobeSt.com is reasonable. O'Meara, though Inverness Associates, simultaneously bought adjoining five acres for $700,000, which his group will develop at a future date, when the market warrants it.

John O'Meara, president of Inverness Properties, developed the building for Monte Rifkin, founder of American Television and Communications, which he sold to Time Warner. In the ensuing years, Time Warner Cable and some of its offshoots has leased the entire building.

O'Meara tells GlobeSt.com that Time Warner wanted to sell both the building and land in one transaction. "We wanted the land and Dave had no need for it," O'Meara tells GlobeSt.com. "In this industry, people over-use it's a win-win situation, but this truly was one."

Inverness Properties will manage the building for Naus. The building is in great shape, Naus says, as Time Warner Cable spared no expense in making sure it had redundant sources of power and first-class furniture. Time Warner Cable, which has moved much of its operations from the southeast corridor to North Carolina, continues to lease 40,656 sf in the building.

The building includes 6,017 sf of raised floor in a first-floor computer room, five Liebert HVAC units totaling 80 tons of supplementary air conditioning service to the computer room and 290 tons of building air conditioning. In addition, it has backup power to the entire building form dual service from Xcel Energy and two 900-kilowatt generators. The building is served by 3,200-amp electrical service and has fiber optics from MCI and Time Warner Telecom, with numerous other fiber providers in streets in front the building.

While the building is structurally sound, Naus is investing $500,000 to upgrade the building. The upgrade will include building a porte-cochere at the entrance. "It never needed a dramatic entrance before, because it was a user building," Naus notes. He also has commissioned Denver artist Barbara Baer to create a large hanging sculpture for the four-story atrium.