Central Development Buys Robinson Dairy Site

• April 11, 2018

Local Company Places Itself ‘In The Path of Development’

Local real estate company Central Development acquired the Robinson Dairy property in central Denver for $10.3 million.

The property includes nearly 100,000 square feet of industrial space in four buildings currently on a mid-term lease to Suiza Foods Corp., which acquired Dean Foods, Robinson’s parent company, in 2001. Suiza is sub-letting the property to a few tenants, said Jeremy Records, principal at Central Development.
With about six acres in the center of Denver, the site is increasingly unique in a market where many of the remaining infill sites either have been developed or are in the midst of the development process, in most cases becoming rental housing.

In the short-term, Records said, his company plans to maintain the status quo with the existing tenants.

But in the long-term? The options are open.

“We’re throwing ourselves in the path of development,” Records said.

The former Robinson Dairy is located in Denver’s Sun Valley neighborhood, south of the Denver Broncos stadium, where the Broncos, along with the Metropolitan Football Stadium District and the City of Denver, are in the early stages of development planning for a mixed-use district.

Development on the Robinson Dairy site could feasibly serve as a south anchor to the changes coming to Sun Valley, with the stadium district as the north anchor, Records said.

The buildings were renovated in 1999 and are set up for food production, which Records said would be the “highest and best use” for the facility in the long-term.

The property is a relic of industrial real estate’s roots in Denver. When the structures there were constructed in the 1960s and 1970s, industrial real estate in the heart of Denver was common. Today, industrial development has largely been pushed out to the city’s outskirts and suburbs as residents flock to closer-in neighborhoods and land becomes increasingly scarce.

Robinson Dairy operated on the land at the northwest comer of 1-25 and Highway 6 for more than 125 years before Dean Foods stopped operations there in 2013, moving production to a facility in Englewood. The Robinson Dairy sign that stands guard over the buildings is a well-known site for Denverites.

The site fit well into Central Development’s existing portfolio, Records said, as the company typically prefers infill properties in Denver with competitive advantages such as Robinson Dairy’s high visibility and proximity to the South Platte River.