Powered by Geothermal, Community Changes Hands for $72M

Elements at Prairie Center. Image courtesy of CBRE

The Summit Management Services has purchased Elements at Prairie Center, a 288-unit apartment community heated and cooled by geothermal energy in the Denver suburb of Brighton, Colo., for $72 million. The developer, a partnership of C&A Cos. and Commonwealth Group, sold the asset in an off-market transaction brokered by CBRE.

Located at 3128 Eagle Blvd., the property is the second geothermal community that C&A Cos. and Commonwealth Group have developed in Brighton, after Solaire Apartments just 1.5 miles away. The partners built Solaire Apartments in 2014 and sold the 252-unit community to Inland Real Estate Group for $57.5 million in 2016, according to Yardi Matrix.

Elements at Prairie Center consists of 12 buildings with 264,579 rentable square feet on a 15-acre site. The property has a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units with rents ranging from $1,360 to $1,992 per unit. Community amenities include a fitness center, business center, clubhouse, outdoor pool and spa, plus 280 parking spaces. Apartments have in-unit washers and dryers and fireplaces are available in third-floor units.

Greystar, the prior managing agent for the property—its tenure ended with the sale—described Elements at Prairie Center on its corporate website as an “Ecoluxe community” offering residents a 50 percent reduction in heating and cooling costs. A CBRE team of Dan Woodward, David Potarf and Matthew Barnett represented the seller in the transaction. Brady O’Donnell, Jeff Halsey and Jill Haug on CBRE’s Capital Markets, Debt & Structured Finance team arranged the acquisition financing.

Elsewhere in Brighton, two vintage multifamily properties changed hands for $9.5 million in June 2018. Brighton Terrace Apartments sold the assets with a combined 76 units to a buyer identified as 29th St. Management.