Investors Focus On Income, Credit, Quality

DENVER-Commercial real estate investors in 2002 will focus on income, credit and quality. That is the prediction of Michael Winn, who, with his partner, Tim Richey, is one of the top commercial real estate brokers in Denver.

He was the No. 1 investment broker at Cushman & Wakefield in 1998, 1998 and 2000, and before that was the top broker at Grubb & Ellis from 1981 to 1983, 1990 to 1994 and 1996 and 1997.

Winn also knows what it’s like to sit on the other side of the table, too. From 1984 to 1990, he was a developer in Denver.

Today, lenders who demand developers put a large percentage of their own money into deals wouldn’t lend to a highly leveraged individual like he was in the heyday of the irresponsible lending of the mid-’80s and the early ’90s, he says. In this environment, he says savvy investors next year will go shopping for a number of product types:

* Office buildings in soft, high-tech infill markets.

* Buildings in Central Business Districts, which are active 18 to 24 hours each day.

* Grocery anchored retail centers.

* Functional, low-finish industrial properties.

Meanwhile, owners will look to sell:

* Buildings with weak credit rent rolls.

* Poorly located assets.

* Non-functional assets.