An office building is being eyed for the corner in Cherry Creek where Italian restaurant Cucina Colore currently operates.
On Friday, Open Studio Architecture submitted plans to Denver for a four-story, 55,000-square-foot building at 3035 E. Third Ave. It would include 8,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor, plus two levels of underground parking.
The 0.43-acre property is owned by Country Club resident Kevin Beck and his wife. The couple bought the property in August, paying $9.85 million, or $525 a square foot.
“There’s a shortage of office for high-quality tenants in Cherry Creek,” Beck told BusinessDen last week.
Beck emphasized that the plans are preliminary, and nothing is immediately changing at the property, which has a retail building that is home to four tenants. Cucina Colore has operated there since 1994.
Beck said the restaurant has multiple years left on its lease and will be able to complete it.
“There’s leases in place,” Beck said. “Nothing is happening for the foreseeable future.”
Beck is an executive with Paradice Investment Management, which isn’t involved in the project. While he and his wife have some familiarity with commercial real estate — they own the Cherry Creek building where Paradice operates — they are new to development.
As such, Beck said he expects to partner with someone on the office project. He said he’s talked to possible candidates but has yet to reach a deal.
Beck said he’s also had discussions with Cucina Colore owner Venanzio Momo about taking retail space in the planned new building, although nothing’s been decided.
“We’d love to have them continue to be in the neighborhood,” he said.
Cherry Creek is one of the country’s hottest office markets. At the end of the third quarter, downtown Denver was 37.7% vacant counting sublease space, according to CBRE. Cherry Creek, meanwhile, was at 12.9%. And space among top-tier Class A buildings in the neighborhood is hard to come by.
Matt Joblon’s BMC Investments recently broke ground on an office building at 242 Milwaukee St. And Broe Real Estate expects to start work on the second part of its office project in the 200 block of Clayton Street in the first quarter.
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