Kentro Group Buys Denver Apartments in Historic Trade

An apartment complex in Denver’s Virginia Village neighborhood has come under new ownership for the first time in half a century.

An affiliate of Kentro Group Real Estate bought the 194-unit Korsakov Apartments for $33.3 million, the Denver Business Journal reported. The seller was a Littleton-based LLC that has owned property since at least 1975.

The residences at 1625 and 1675 South Birch Street are 92 percent occupied with an average per-unit size of 867 square feet. At the $33.3 million price point, Kentro Group secured the property for $198 per square foot. To finance the purchase, the buyer received a $22 million acquisition loan from Fannie Mae and a $7.5 million second mortgage from the City and County of Denver.

The property is eligible for Low-Income Housing Tax Credits if the Denver Housing Authority is involved and the developer is interested in pursuing them. In the past, the Kentro Group has partnered with nonprofit providers to hammer out plans for development.

In August, Denver-based Kentro Group partnered with the Fax Partnership, a nonprofit advancing equitable redevelopment in the area, to build affordable workforce housing at 1801 Colfax Avenue. The firm also has plans to build a 170-unit mixed-use development in the Platt Park neighborhood, complete with a Trader Joe’s location. At the same time, the Kentro Group also recently scrapped plans to build a 12-story tower in Denver’s Belcaro neighborhood.

It’s the latest multifamily transaction in the Denver region following a sale in Aurora in August.

Two Arrows Group, Spark & Halo and OlivePoint Capital joined forces to buy the retail buildings at the Parkside at City Center and the adjacent Stella on the Park apartments for a combined $50.5 million. Parkside Aurora, an affiliate of Milender White Construction, was the seller, having co-developed and built the community in 2021. The 216-unit apartment complex at 14565 East Alameda Avenue has 11,000 square feet of ground-floor retail.

— Chris Malone Méndez