Nichols, Shorenstein sell Platte Street office to betting firm for $135M

Bet365 is going all in on Denver — and a local developer is happy to just break even.

Just under two years after leasing two floors of office space at 1701 Platte St. for its U.S. headquarters, the British sports betting firm has purchased the building.

Bet365 paid $135 million, according to public records. That works out to just under $550 for each of the One Platte building’s approximately 250,000 square feet.

The sellers in the deal were Nichols Partnership and San Francisco-based Shorenstein Properties, which developed the building.

Nichols partner Daniel Nichols said the total project cost was “about what we sold it for,” which he sees as a win at a time when office building owners are regularly surrendering properties to lenders.

“All things considered, I think it was a huge success to not lose everything in the office world right now,” he said.

Nichols and Shorenstein broke ground on One Platte in February 2020, just before the onset of the pandemic. Back then, “the projected return metrics were different, but the market was significantly different,” Nichols said. The building was completed two years later.

Nichols said only one 30,000-square-foot space, built out with spec suites, remains vacant. In addition to Bet365, which has about 125,000 square feet, tech firm Velocity Global and construction firm McCarthy also occupy office space.

The building’s top floor is leased, but not occupied, by stock-trading app Robinhood. The company originally leased two floors before One Platte’s completion but later bought out its lease for one of them. Nichols said the company has been paying its rent.

One Platte’s four retail spaces are all leased. Tenants include financial services firm Schwab and coffee shop Kaffe Landskap.

Nichols said the project’s construction loan, which had previously been extended, was coming due next year. Shorenstein was the primary driver in the decision to sell.

Bet365, which did not respond to requests for comment, is one of the dominant sports betting firms in its native U.K., but trails behind competitors including FanDuel and DraftKings in the United States. It currently takes bets in 13 states, including Colorado, where sports betting launched in May 2020.

In 2023, the Colorado Economic Development Commission made Bet365 eligible for up to $14 million in state tax credits in the hopes of landing the company’s U.S. headquarters. The company has said it plans to hire nearly 1,000 employees locally.

Nichols called the company’s office buy “a huge win for Denver,” saying it further shows Bet365 is “here for the long haul.”