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Mystery buyer acquires Sun site on U.S. 36

Confidentiality cloaks deal for 432-acre campus

By John Rebchook, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 26, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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A mystery buyer on Friday purchased the 432-acre campus in Louisville from Sun Microsystems, which for years was the headquarters for Storage Technology.

Neither top economic development officials in the Denver area nor the broker on the deal says they know who the buyer is.

Even Sun spokeswoman Kristi Rawlinson, who confirmed the purchase Friday, said she doesn't know who the buyer is or how much it paid.

Officials close to the deal speculated last fall that the land along U.S. 36 was selling for $60 million.

"I've never seen anything like this," said Stew Mosko, a broker with Fuller and Co., who is co-listing it with Jones Lang LaSalle. "It's like dealing with the CIA."

Rumored buyers have included high-tech companies such as Google or Apple.

Mosko said he gave about 50 tours of the property to potential buyers, all of whom signed confidentiality agreements.

He said he hopes the buyer brings a lot of high-paying jobs to the metro area.

"My first hope is that it is a California company because that would set the stage for many other California companies to follow suit and move here," Mosko said.

"And on a personal level, I would love it to be Google because it is such a great company."

Mosko noted that at its peak, StorageTek employed 7,000 people on the property, which has 2 million square feet of space in nine buildings.

Now it has 700 employees. Sun will lease the buildings on the former StorageTek site this year while it moves its employees to Broomfield.

Tom Clark, executive vice president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp., said he doesn't know the identity of the buyer.

"We don't even know it is a tech company," Clark said. "It could be a tech company, but it could also be a financial services company or an energy company. Who knows?"

He said it could be a company that plans to use part of the site for an office campus and develop the remainder for other tenants, although he added that he was just speculating.

He quipped that he is "thrilled to death" he doesn't know the identity of the buyer, so he isn't forced to play coy with reporters.

Don Elliman, economic development director for Colorado, declined to comment.

Sun, in a statement released Friday, said that as part of the deal, it plans to relocate approximately 700 employees to its nearby campus in Broomfield.

While it confirmed the announcement, it gave no other details.

"As part of ongoing efforts to improve long-term growth and profitability, Sun can confirm that the Louisville . . . campus real estate transaction has closed," Sun said in a statement.

"The terms of the purchase agreement are confidential and require that the buyer remain anonymous. . . .

"Sun has made great strides over the past several quarters to reduce costs and streamline operations, and this sale will allow us to further support those efforts with minimal impact to the business."

rebchookj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5207

Comments

  • January 26, 2008

    6:50 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    flash1 writes:

    I think this is great. Someone got something over on the media, and they weren't the first to know. Great job.

  • January 26, 2008

    9:32 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    jacka writes:

    Maybe it is a colorado company getting ready to jetison an existing lease. But because the state ecodev guy gave no comment he must know and maybe a deal is afoot with the state.

  • January 27, 2008

    4:28 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    SteveM writes:

    I'm dying to find out who it was. Isn't there any way to find out? It's probably not Google. Apple has said they are building an entirely new HQ as they've terribly outgrown their current campus, but it's doubtful they'd leave the area they helped create. I also hope it's a major company and not someone that's planning to do the divide it up plan. Colorado has lost so many great companies and stands to lose a few more: Qwest -- likely takeover target, Coors -- could be moving to Milwaukee (at least HQ), and we just never know about all DirectTV and Dish etc. So, please, let us be scoring some new major company for once.