Multifamily Developer Inks New Office Lease as it Doubles down on Denver

A growing multifamily developer has selected the Denver Tech Center as the location for its second headquarters. 

The Garrett Companies, an Indianapolis, Indiana-based firm that develops, builds and manages multifamily apartments, recently leased the eighth floor of 5075 S. Syracuse St. in the Denver Tech Center for a total of 22,000 square feet. 

Aaron Kitch, acquisitions manager at The Garrett Companies, said the firm had been eyeing a Denver expansion and regional headquarters for a long time, but the pandemic delayed plans to grow here.

Some employees moved out to Colorado during the pandemic and worked remotely, and the company signed a two-year lease for about 5,000 square feet in Lone Tree. But the company quickly outgrew it, Kitch said. 

“With our industry, every time you get a new project, there’s construction staff that needs to be hired. There’s management staff that needs to be hired. And we had a big growth on projects over the last couple of years that just caused a need of hiring,” Kitch said. 

With The Garrett Companies continuing to hire new employees for its ever-growing list of developments in Colorado, the firm needed more space. Kitch said the firm looked downtown and even south of Lone Tree before landing on the building in the Tech Center. 

“The Tech Center just seemed to be more centrally located for everybody,” he said. 

The company is lightly remodeling the new office, including adding a coffee area and updating the lobby area and bathrooms, Kitch said. 

Kitch said The Garrett Companies has about 12 multifamily projects finishing construction in 2023 in the Denver area as well as in Colorado Springs. Denver continues to be a primary market for the company due to its rent growth and other performance metrics.

The company lists 22 apartment projects in various stages of development on its website in Castle Rock, Denver, Parker, Thornton, Colorado Springs, Longmont, Aurora, Centennial, Broomfield and Westminster. 

“Denver is just such a great market that we continue to want to expand and build here,” Kitch said. 

Across the rest of the country, The Garrett Companies has built more than 50 multifamily communities in 17 states, and has built more than 12,000 apartments since 2014. 

The type of multifamily product that The Garrett Companies builds lends itself more to suburban locations rather than downtown. Kitch said the company prefers to build surface parking instead of structured parking, and wood framing instead of steel framing.

Ryan Link and Harrison Archer with CBRE represented The Garrett Companies in its new lease at 5075 S. Syracuse St. 

“Opportunistic tenants are reaping the benefits of actively looking for space now – whether looking for short- or long-term deals,” Link said in a statement provided to the Denver Business Journal. “There is a healthy supply of product and many landlords or sublandlords are eager to get deals done and move space. Holistically speaking, it remains a very tenant friendly market.”

Greenwood Village-based Kore Investments purchased the 12-story office building at 5075 S. Syracuse St. for $115.2 million in 2018, according to previous DBJ reporting.