1900 Lawrence St. in Denver

A prominent downtown Denver office building has landed a new tenant.

National architecture firm Cooper Carry will move its Colorado office from Boulder to Denver’s 1900 Lawerence office tower later this year, the company confirmed with Bisnow on Monday.

Cooper Carry signed a lease for approximately 5,700 SF at 1900 Lawrence St., a 30-story office building that opened in 2024. 

The firm’s new office space on the 18th floor of the downtown Denver building will accommodate up to 45 employees, according to Cooper Carry.

“Downtown Denver is in the midst of a meaningful resurgence,” Cooper Carry CEO Kyle Reis said in a statement. “We see tremendous momentum returning to the urban core, from investment and development activity to the renewed energy across its business and cultural institutions.”

The new office will primarily include open work areas, private offices and business support services, according to a commercial construction permit filed with the city of Denver on June 11. Cooper Carry will be the first business to occupy this space. The space also gives it flexibility to expand, principal Krista Dumkrieger said in a statement.

Cooper Carry established its presence in Colorado after it acquired Boulder-based architecture firm 505Design in 2023. The Boulder office employs 25 people, the firm said in a statement.

Cooper Carry was founded in 1960. It has five offices across the U.S., including locations in Atlanta, New York City, Charlotte and Washington, D.C.

1900 Lawrence is a 720K SF mixed-use building in Denver’s central business district. Other tenants at the property include Monfort Cos., Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Reed Smith and D.A. Davidson. Denver restaurateur Troy Guard is also expected to open an eatery in the office tower next year, as reported by The Denver Post.

In fall 2024, 1900 Lawrence leasing agent Jamie Roupp told the Denver Business Journal that top-floor leasing at the office tower was $45 per SF, triple-net.

Last July, Riverside Investment & Development landed a loan extension and recapitalization for 1900 Lawrence. The $242M loan was extended through mid-2027, according to previous Bisnow reporting.

AV Management, a private New York based investment firm, completed the acquisition of 73-75 Sullivan St. in SoHo from a longtime SoHo developer for $43,333,000. Cushman & Wakefield’s Dylan Walsh and Nico Nicolaou represented the seller. Citizens Private Bank provided $21.6 million in competitive acquisition financing under significant time constraints.

73-75 Sullivan St. was completed in 2016 as a ground-up construction project. It features expansive layouts, modern construction vintage and long-term commercial tenancy, according to AV Management.

“This special situation transaction represents the robust opportunity set to purchase investment-grade assets at historically high yields by taking advantage of early-cycle market dynamics,” said AV Principal Ahcene Ouldsaada. “73-75 Sullivan St. capitalizes on the dislocation caused by the 2022’s historically unprecedented hike in domestic base rates. The asset was acquired at an opportunistic basis and will be held long-term as a permanent income vehicle with an option for attractive liquidity as markets normalize.”

Lee & Associates NYC completed a new office lease for Jones Jones LLC at 44 Wall St. in Manhattan’s Financial District.  The law firm signed a 10-year, nine-month lease for 5,311 square feet.

Jones Jones will relocate from its former office at 5 Hanover Square amid the growing number of residential conversions taking place throughout the Financial District, including the planned conversion of 5 Hanover. The firm selected 44 Wall St. to remain in Lower Manhattan, citing the neighborhood’s accessibility, extensive transportation options, dining and retail amenities and strong value proposition for office tenants. 

The landlord was represented by George Comfort & Sons’ Alexander Bermingham.  Tenant representation was handled by Todd Korren and Noah Caspi of Lee NYC. 

“Lower Manhattan continues to attract tenants seeking quality office space at a strong value, particularly as older office properties throughout the neighborhood undergo residential conversions,” said Korren.  “Jones Jones was focused on remaining in the Financial District, and 44 Wall St. offered an ideal combination of location, accessibility and efficiency for the firm’s next chapter.”

Hilltop Residential, a Houston-based multifamily investment manager, closed its largest fundraise to date, raising $288M in commitments and planning to acquire up to $2B in assets. 

Hilltop Growth Fund VI will be used to acquire properties at “compelling bases” created by today’s capital markets dislocation, the company announced Tuesday. 

“Our strategy remains consistent: Acquire high-quality assets in growth markets where we can create value through operational improvements, capital enhancements, and disciplined asset management,” Hilltop Residential Managing Partner Greg Finch said in a news release.

Hilltop expects the fund to acquire about $1.5B to $2B in gross asset value and to fully deploy the fund within two years. Hilltop has already acquired nine assets with the fund and identified additional opportunities, according to the press release.

Finch, former president and co-founder of Venterra Realty, launched Hilltop Residential in 2017 with his sights set on multifamily value-add opportunities in Texas and other Southern states. The investment and development firm now manages a $3B portfolio of 13,000 units, including 12 properties in the Houston area.

Hilltop has invested in 15 Sun Belt markets, including Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte and Orlando, Florida. In January, the firm acquired a 292-unit community in the Houston Heights, the Houston Business Journal reported.

Hilltop also acquired a 308-unit community in St. Petersburg, Florida, in November, according to the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

The investor base for Hilltop Growth Fund VI includes endowments and foundations, financial institutions, insurance companies and family offices. 

“Closing our largest fund to date in one of the most challenging capital formation environments we’ve seen reflects the trust our partners have in our platform and our ability to capitalize on today’s multifamily opportunity set,” Hilltop Residential Managing Partner David Wylie said in the release. 

Courtesy of Jackson-Shaw

Jackson-Shaw Founder Lewis Shaw II passed away at 82.

Lewis Shaw II, who founded Dallas-based Jackson-Shaw and grew it into a major national player that has completed 63M SF of development, has died. 

Shaw was 82 at the time of his passing on March 5 following a brief illness, D Magazine reported.

Shaw grew up in Ohio and graduated from Wittenburg University in 1966, according to an obituary. After college, he spent seven years in the U.S. Air Force. He moved to Dallas after the Air Force and worked at IBM for a short time.

Shaw met Jim Jackson and joined his small contracting firm, J.C. Jackson Co., in 1974. Jackson died a few years later, and Shaw bought the company and renamed it Jackson-Shaw. He would go on to grow it to a national development firm and complete $3.6B in transactions, according to the firm’s website.

The company has expanded in several markets including Austin; Charlotte, North Carolina; Jacksonville, Florida; and Las Vegas. Its recent projects include the 535K SF Greensport Logistics Park in Houston and a 1.7M SF Lakeview Business District project in Rowlett, Texas.

Shaw also co-founded American General Hospitality Inc. in 1980, a company that merged with Meristar Hotels & Resorts 18 years later.

He was inducted into the North Texas Commercial Association of Realtors Hall of Fame in 2003 and was part of the Wittenberg University Board of Directors, the Dallas Business Journal reported. 

Life science REIT IQHQ said Tuesday it had entered into an early lease renewal and long-term extension with Generate:Biomedicines at the Innovation Park life science district in Andover, MA. Innovation Park houses Generate’s 75,000-square-foot cryogenic electron microscopy laboratory, one of the largest laboratories of its type in the U.S.

IQHQ acquired the Innovation Park campus between 2020 and 2021 and developed it into a 340,000-square-foot life science hub for leading biotechnology and life science manufacturing companies in the greater Boston market. “We are proud that Generate:Biomedicines, a global leader in generative biology, has made a long-term commitment at IQHQ’s Innovation Park district to accelerate breakthroughs in therapeutic discovery and development at their cutting-edge CryoEM laboratory,” said Tracy Murphy, co-CEO and co-founder of IQHQ.

Innovation Park is one of four life science districts IQHQ owns in Greater Boston. Leasing at the park is overseen by Colliers’ Curtis Cole and Tim Allen.

Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, LLP (GRSM), one of the largest law firms in the country with offices in all 50 states, has committed to an 11,500-square-foot office lease at Eastman Companies’ The Eisenhower, a Class A office complex located at 290 W. Mount Pleasant Ave. in Livingston, NJ. The law firm has relocated its NJ offices to the prominent office property.

The CBRE team of Jon Meisel, Erin Wenzler and Dan Casey spearheads the leasing campaign at The Eisenhower and represented Eastman Companies in the negotiations. Gordon Rees was represented by Bill Montana of Savills.

“The Eisenhower continues to attract strong tenants who view the building as the best option for Class A office space in the Livingston area,” said Meisel. “After an exhaustive search of the market, The Eisenhower proved to be the best choice for GRSM due to its strong, stable ownership, unmatched on-site amenities, and efficient layouts ideal for a law practice.”

Courtesy of Denholtz Properties

Denholtz Properties CEO Katie Kurtz

Katie Kurtz is trading in glassy Manhattan skyscrapers for squat New Jersey commercial buildings.

Kurtz, who has been the chief financial officer and co-chief investment officer at Silverstein Properties since 2021, was named CEO at Denholtz Properties, a Red Bank, New Jersey-based firm that develops suburban apartments, offices and industrial buildings.

Steven Denholtz, the developer’s longtime CEO who has been with the company since 1983, will take the role of chairman, while his longtime partner, Stephen Cassidy, will shift from president to managing partner.

“It has been my honor to lead Denholtz Properties through our evolution over the past four decades,” Denholtz said in a statement. “As we look to the future, we are confident that Katie’s extensive experience and leadership will guide us in building upon our legacy while seizing new opportunities for sustained growth.” 

Denholtz Properties, which also has a regional headquarters in Orlando, has a $2B portfolio that ranges from an under-construction apartment building in Charlotte to a 49-acre medical office campus in Chappaqua in Westchester County, New York. Its portfolio includes holdings in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Texas, Florida and Tennessee. 

The firm’s outgoing CEO was given the NAIOP New Jersey lifetime achievement award this year. The portfolio he built up is starkly different than Kurtz’s last employer, where she was in charge of managing the finances of the World Trade Center complex among other billion-dollar projects. Before joining Silverstein, she had stints at AR Global and The Carlyle Group.

But Denholtz and Silverstein do overlap in some regards: They are multigenerational family businesses and have expanded their companies into new states and business lines, including setting up debt funds.

Denholtz launched a $100M rescue capital fund earlier this year, and Silverstein Capital Partners has raised $5B since its 2018 inception while positioning the firm to take over major projects such as the Brooklyn Tower and the $1B Avenue Bellevue near Seattle. 

“Over the past several years, Denholtz Properties’ strategic expansion into new markets has driven significant growth in its assets under management,” Kurtz said in an emailed statement. “The current market presents substantial opportunities to further expand the reach, size and diversity of our portfolio while strengthening our capital base.”

Israeli tech firm WalkMe Inc. is moving its U.S. headquarters to Kilroy Realty’s 350 Mission St. as it prepares to be acquired by software giant SAP, reported the San Francisco Business Journal. The digital adoption software provider, whose tools help guide users and employees through apps, signed on to sublease close to 18,000 square feet on the 26th floor of 350 Mission St. from Salesforce, sources told the Business Journal. WalkMe previously leased roughly 40,000 square feet at 71 Stevenson St.

The company’s lease at 71 Stevenson was set to expire in July. Although WalkMe is expected to take occupancy at 350 Mission this fall, it already lists 350 Mission as its headquarters on its website. It’s the latest to sublease Salesforce space at the 455,350-square-foot office property, which Salesforce once occupied in its entirety.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Sam Wasserstein, JD Lumpkin and Danny Pickard are listing Salesforce’s space at 350 Mission. JLL’s Mike Sample represented WalkMe in the deal.

GlossGenius, a financial technology company that powers the self-care industry through its spa and salon software, has leased 13,619 square feet of office space at 838 Broadway, a landmarked property owned by ZG Capital Partners. The company’s relocation from SoHo represents the first transaction in the building following ZG Capital’s recently completed full-building renovation.

Originally designed by Stephen Decatur Hatch in 1876, 838 Broadway was built on the site of President
Theodore Roosevelt’s great-great uncle James T. Roosevelt’s home. Ownership engaged architecture firm Spectorgroup to execute a gut renovation of the 80,000-square-foot boutique asset.

A JLL agency team led by Vice Chairman Mitchell Konsker, Executive Managing Directors Benjamin Bass
and Greg Wang and Associate Vice President Thomas Swartz represented ZG Capital Partners in the
transaction. Senior Vice President Joseph Sipala, Associate Vice President Hannah Bernstein and Associate
Stefanie Rock represented GlossGenius.

“ZG Capital’s vision to revitalize this historic property with a hospitality-infused design has combined the
building’s timeless elegance with design elements and modern finishes that create a superior office
environment for contemporary space users,” said Konsker