With an eye on across-the-board demand in one of Colorado's largest cities, Cushman & Wakefield has brought on a team of brokers to help bulk up the firm's investment services in the region.
To meet soaring interest among investors and developers looking to plant a stake in Colorado Springs, the brokerage has hired Pat Knowlton, Jeff Dimmen, Lee Wagner and Nic Polaski to lead a new multifamily investment team aimed at capitalizing on the region's ongoing expansion. The brokers all come from an affiliate of national investment firm Capstone Partners, where they worked together to close more than 30 multifamily deals totaling upwards of $445 million over the past three years.
“With the growing residential market, Colorado Springs maintains resilient multifamily fundamentals,” Knowlton said in a statement to CoStar News. “Multifamily investors and developers have shown greater interest in Colorado Springs over the last few years — particularly new development in downtown — and we remain encouraged about the future opportunity in this market.”
The Colorado Springs native, formerly a partner and director of Capstone Apartment Partners, will lead the Cushman & Wakefield investment team as its new executive director.
The hirings are the latest building block in Cushman & Wakefield's strategy to expand its stake and offerings throughout Colorado, John O’Neill, the brokerage's president of its United States Multifamily Capital Markets division, said in a statement.
Across the state, high-growth areas such as Colorado Springs has triggered a wave of construction, rent hikes and investment activity, all of which has yet to die down even in the face of a worsening economic outlook.
Located about an hour south of Denver, the multifamily market in Colorado Springs has benefited from its proximity to major employers, including Lockheed Martin, United Health Group, Progressive Insurance, Oracle, T. Rowe Price Group and USAA.
Population growth has triggered a nearly 47% spike in apartment construction in the city, according to CoStar data. Even so, housing demand continues to outweigh available supply. Those fundamentals have meant multifamily developers and investors such as Hamilton Zanze & Co., Greystar, Benedict Canyon Equities, Thompson Thrift, among others have descended on the region, pushing prices as they look to plant or expand their stakes in the mountainous city.
Rents in Colorado Springs have climbed by around 4% over the past year, according to CoStar, settling at an average of nearly $1,500 per month.