Woodmen Road the new Main Street?

At one point, Woodmen Road was nothing more than a 2 lane road to take people out to Black Forest and Falcon. Now, Woodmen Road is one of, if not the, busiest East/West thoroughfares in Colorado Springs. With the recent opening of the new St. Francis Hospital campus, accompanied by the 3 year old retail center (including Wal-Mart and The Home Depot) and the Villa Sport gym on the opposite corners of Powers and Woodmen, this corridor is going to see sustained growth.

The following article from the Colorado Springs Gazette outlines the planned developments between Powers Blvd and Falcon along Woodmen Road.

Woodmen: Future Main Street?

NAI Highland Commercial Groups Transactions- through June

NAI Highland Commercial Group has enjoyed a good start to 2008. At the end of June, HGC had closed of $32 million covering land, investment and user properties. These sales included 19 acres of ground sold along with 387,717 square feet of improved property.

HCG also completed over $15 million in lease transaction, which represented just under 400,000 square feet of property.

That freaking mouse

Those familiar with El Paso county, specifically, northern El Paso county are well aware of the Preble's meadows jumping mouse aka a really expensive pain in the butt. The mouse has bounced between being an endangered animal to not and now back again. How does this relate to Real Estate? Well, this mouse cost developers millions of dollars every year as they are forced to operate around teh mouse's habitat.

This recent article from the Colorado Springs Gazette outlines the up and down battle between developers, the mouse and environmentalists.

Click link to view entire article

ICSC ReCon 2008

I just got back from the annual ICSC ReCon (Also know as the shopping center convention) in LAs Vegas. It's funny when I tell people that I'm heading to Vegas for a convention, the typical response is "Oh, that should be fun" or "Don't party too much". As much as I would like for this to be a "fun" trip, it's pretty much all business. Sure, there are cocktail parties that clients throw, and a fair amount of rubbing elbows aka networking, but for the most part this convention is a grind. In past years I had noticed that I was sore each time I returned from Vegas. From my feet to my back, I had some aches. This year I decided to wear a pedometer to see how many miles I walked while at this event. Starting from the time we left the hotel Sunday afternoon for our first event until getting back to the hotel after the last dinner Tuesday night we walked alot. The final reading was 28.98 miles in 48 hours. Okay, so that's extraordinarily slow for a marathon but that's a lot of mileage in business attire. All the tread put on these tires aside, it was another sucessful event.

The overall tone of the convention was tempered compared to years past, but the attendance did not suffer as nearly 50,000 people attended. As with everything going on in the business world, there are plenty of retailers that are either slowing down with regrad to expansion, or simply putting things on hold for 2008/2009. Still, there are plenty of retailers that are chasing deals, just not with the veracity of years past.

See ya next year Vegas!

Recent transactions

NAI Highland Commercial Group, LLC is pleased to announce the following recent transactions.

Jim and Jamie Spittler of NAI Highland Commercial Group recently completed a lease transaction with New Cingular Wireless, dba AT&T Mobility (Represented by John Gatto of Crestone Development) at 7158 North Academy Boulevard (Landlord- Rusinak and Rusinak LLC). The 3,100 square foot transaction will be the first of the new AT&T concept stores in Colorado Springs. These new locations are featuring more than just cell phones. This new concept will include the sales of high speed internet, satellite television and mobile phone service.

Jamie Spittler of NAI Highland Commercial Group, along with Chris Wiley of Colliers Bennett and Kahnweiler, represented Edward Jones in leasing 992 square feet at 2950 Professional Place, in the Kissing Camels Office Park. Russell Stroud and Mary Francis Cowan of Grubb and Ellis|Quantum Commercial Group represented the owner, Sullivan Communities Kissing Camels Office Park.

Jamie Spittler of NAI Highland Commercial Group, representing the owner L & W Properties, recently sold 217 East Fillmore. The nearly 4,400 square foot building was purchased by Simon Penner, who was represented by Sam Cameron of Cameron Butcher. The selling price was $333,000.

Featured Property May 5th-May 9th

This weeks featured property is a recently remodeled downtown building at 209 East Colorado Avenue, perfect for either office or retail uses. This 6,000 square foot property was remodeled in 2005 and features all new mechanical systems, new roof and a 3,000 square foot basement/storage area. It's located across the street from the city parking garage and is in the heart of an area of revitalization in downtown Colorado Springs. Please click on the link below for additional information.

209 East Colorado Avenue

Featured Properties for the Week of April 21-25

This week we are featuring two properties.

NAI Highland Commercial Group, LLC has two great sub lease opportunities in downtown Colorado Springs. Both of these office spaces are at well below market rates ($14.99 Gross per square foot for each space) and are situated in Class A office buildings in the heart of downtown. Each property offers a chance to test out the downtown market, prior to having to make a long term commitment.

24 S. Weber Street is one of the newest office buildings in downtown and sits prominently on the corner of Weber Street and Colorado Avenue. Space available is from 2,000 SF up to 4,000 SF. Additional information can be found at the link below.

24 South Weber Street

444 East Pikes Peak sub lease space offers high visibility first floor space. This floor plan is just under 7,000 SF, but could be split into a smaller space if needed. The building features an underground parking garage, workout room and the option of on building signage.

444 East Pikes Peak Avenue