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Midvalley landowner and developer Ace Lane has teamed with a global powerhouse to help him get his 514,000-square-foot project in the El Jebel area off the ground.
Lane enlisted CBRE Group Inc. this spring as its listing broker for the first phase of his Tree Farm development. CBRE has the marketing clout to expose the project well beyond the Roaring Fork Valley. It is number 146 on the Fortune 2019 list of the 500 largest U.S.-based public companies. It was responsible for more than $380 billion of property sales and lease transactions in 2018. The Los Angeles-based company has multiple offices, including several in Colorado.
David Marrs, chief financial officer of the Lane family company Geronimo Adventures, said CBRE will help him sift through offers by prospective buyers of land and decide the best fits, philosophically and financially. Marrs said the project has already generated tremendous attention from buyers.
“I could have had the whole project sold out two times already,” he said.
The Lanes want to make sure each individual builder is a good match with their vision of the project as a model for energy efficiency and sustainable design, Marrs said. The Lanes also want to make sure the selected buyers can build in a timely manner.
“It’s a family legacy project,” he said.
Work has started with demolition of old buildings on the site and infrastructure.
Even though CBRE has the ability to broaden the exposure, local builders will have a priority on obtaining land at the Tree Farm, according to Marrs.
The Tree Farm has approvals from Eagle County for 379,635 square feet of residential space and up to 134,558 square feet of commercial space. The website for the project calls it a $250 million development.
The development is across Highway 82 from Whole Foods. It is clustered around the west and south ends of Lane’s existing Kodiak Ski Lake.
The first phase of the project has seven buildings that are mixed commercial and residential, an office building and a restaurant-bank building.
The net buildable square footage in phase one is about 99,400 or 19% of the total. The anticipated development includes 49,100 square feet of residential, 9,000 square feet for financial services, 9,200 square feet for offices, 4,000 square feet for health and wellness, 4,000 square feet for retail and 24,000 square feet to be determined.
Phase two features a hotel on about 65,000 square feet and the bulk of the residential development.
Marrs said Lane’s team and CBRE are exploring potential deals with numerous hotel operators, including Hyatt Place and Springfield Suites.
CBRE’s marketing material says the nine lots associated with the first phase of the project along with the two lots for the hotel can be purchased for $16.82 million as a whole. Individual lots start at $612,375.
Marrs said the goal is to get the first phase launched so that they can advance to selling land in the second phase. He attributes the strong demand to the shortage of residential lots in the Roaring Fork Valley. A recent regional housing study identified a growing need for affordable residences in the “missing middle” — households making at or even slightly above the area median income. Marrs said that is exactly what the Tree Farm will provide.
He hopes the project progresses to phase two, and the bulk of the residential, while the economy is still humming.
“Timing is key,” Marrs said. “My fear is we’ve been in a good market for 10 years.”
His concern is the good market might not last.
