Global investment firm Kennedy Wilson scooped up the Fletcher Southlands complex in Aurora, Colorado, for a bargain price. (CoStar)

By Katie Burke

CoStar News

November 25, 2025 | 11:13 AM

Denver’s multifamily market has been slogging through a panoply of challenges, but a flurry of larger deals among high-profile buyers is creating the framework for what could become a stronger year ahead.

Kennedy Wilson is the latest heavyweight investor to widen its stake in the region with the closing of a nearly $95 million deal for an apartment complex on the Denver outskirts. While the price tag is less than the $103.3 million CBRE Investment Management paid for the 320-unit complex in 2021, it’s the latest deal to suggest buyers see opportunity on the horizon.

The deal with the Beverly Hills, California-based global investment firm closed this month, according to property records.

Built in the early 2000s, the Fletcher Southlands apartment complex at 22959 E. Smoky Hill Road in Aurora has changed hands several times since, a trajectory that has coincided with Denver’s emergence as one of the fastest-growing multifamily markets in the United States.

CBRE’s investment arm purchased the complex when Denver and other cities across the country were benefiting from pandemic-triggered migration shifts. Population growth pushed demand and rents to all-time highs, and developers sprinted to capitalize on the boom.

Since the start of 2021, more than 55,450 units’ worth of projects have broken ground across the Denver area, one of the most active construction pipelines in the U.S.

Positioned for a rebound

The market has since been choking on some of that growth, a scenario in which pricing has fallen and investor interest has cooled.

More than 16,000 units have been added to the regional inventory over the past year, according to CoStar data. The influx of units has meant landlords have had to compete for renters, and demand was largely unable to keep up with the increasing supply.

With the higher cost of capital and slower rent growth, investment volume was pushed to a cyclical low in the second half of 2022, and many buyers kept their foot on the brake for the next couple of years.

Investors collectively have spent about $2.8 billion on Denver-area multifamily acquisitions over the past year, CoStar data shows, down roughly 30% from investment volume in the years leading up to the pandemic.

Hines sells apartment complex in Denver’s priciest multifamily deal this year

The historic spike in new development has also meant that landlords are competing for tenants, often offering concessions of up to 14 weeks of free rent on a one-year lease or other perks, such as complimentary parking, move-in services or credits to nearby businesses. As a result, Denver has been at the forefront of the national rent decline, in October posting a 1.3% drop — the steepest among U.S. markets.

Denver’s construction activity is finally beginning to slow. Add that to potential interest rate drops, and the city’s investment landscape could become a bit more attractive.

Already, Hines has landed a deal with a Florida investment firm for $125.6 million, Denver’s priciest multifamily acquisition so far this year. Shea Properties has also finalized a few sales in the Denver Tech Center over the past month. And Pacific Urban Investors, the multifamily management arm of brokerage Marcus & Millichap, paid $117 million for a 420-unit apartment complex in Greenwood Village, an affluent Denver suburb that commands some of the highest rents in the market.