Tim Petersen and his clan have long-term interest in their building in HighPointe Business Park in west Greeley.

They built it in 2012 with expansion and growth in mind. But this summer, Petersen sold it to an investment group out of Denver for $4.9 million.

"I sold it because I felt the market was at the top," said Petersen, the head of the Petersen Development Co., which runs a natural pet food brand, Wild Calling! Pet Foods.

"It was a good time to sell. Northern Colorado is really on fire right now," Petersen said.

Hot real estate buys have been a hallmark of the northern Colorado market for a good three years now. Hundreds of industrial properties, apartment complexes and commercial buildings traded hands in the past year and a half.

Industrial centers remain at a premium, and Kenneth Monfort, grandson of Greeley's iconic cattle rancher and son of Rockies' co-owner Charlie Monfort, was an eager buyer of Petersen's building.

"Industrial is being underserviced in the area," said Monfort, who now lives and works in Denver. "It may be worth saying that groups like ours are looking at potentially building space out there for industrial."

Real estate investment was all but dead in the recession, it's now back in full swing, retail and industrial.

"Savings accounts and bonds are so low, so all the money is coming to real estate because cause you can get a higher rater of return," said Mark Bradley, an agent with Realtec Commercial Real Estate Services in Greeley.

Rich Werner, CEO and president of Upstate Colorado Economic Development said the growth of the region will drive that investment.

"Investors are looking at these numbers and seeing these opportunities and investing accordingly," Werner said.

Bradley and Ron Randel, with Wheeler Management in Greeley, both say they are seeing some interesting investments in fast-food, where buyers are paying high prices to get their long-term investments in hand.

"It comes from people not being able to find good investment income, like retired people who will settle for less return on their money. They don't get that anywhere else but (from) a long-term lease," Randel said.

Prices are pretty inflated, however.

"There's obviously investors that are paying quite a bit of money for investment properties, because there's such a shortage of those," Bradley said.

Petersen said he's found that many outside investors are looking into Weld County because of its growth and because the Denver market is full.

"People would just call me out of the blue wanting to know if I wanted to sell," Petersen said. "I thought, 'This is crazy.' We had so much interest, I thought we'll go out and test the market."

Petersen quickly found it was the right time to sell. This is old hat to him anyway. In 2008, he sold his distribution company. Two years later, he sold a commercial building he owned in east Greeley. By 2012, he was building his building at HighPointe.

Petersen was approached to sell his 40,000-square-foot building a while back and will continue to lease the property for the next seven years. PolyTech, a company that supplies Vestas Blades in Windsor, occupies half the building, and it has a five-year lease.

But this market has Petersen curious.

"I just sold this one, and I don't have any (projects) currently, but we'll sure start looking now," Petersen said.

For many real estate agents, investment buying is par for the course; properties change hands all the time. They don't see any upswings in investment buying, though all commercial real estate is hot.

In his first big venture outside his family's companies, Monfort said investing in Greeley was like coming full circle. His partnership, IH Holdings Eleven, was the official buyer of the Petersen building.

Monfort, who grew up in Eaton, said he hopes to capitalize on real estate development in small, rural towns in northern Colorado and Wyoming, "not the flashy, sexy urban products."

"I would just say the full circle aspect of doing stuff back home in Greeley will always be a priority for me," Monfort said. "I wouldn't have looked at it (the Petersen building) otherwise."

Link:
Big west Greeley investment buy is one of many in Weld - Greeley Tribune