Cushman & Wakefield Named Exclusive Agent for World's Largest Planned Microgrid

Suite 203, April 28, 2015 (Newswire.com) - Niobrara Energy Development Offers Unique Opportunity in Size and Scope

Commercial real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield has been named exclusive agent for Niobrara Energy Development (NED), a 662-acre, CH2M Hill co-designed, shovel-ready energy and industrial development property in Northern Colorado. Handling the assignment for Niobrara Energy Park LLC are Jeffrey Cole, Jeff Chiate, and Ed Hernandez of Cushman & Wakefield’s Irvine, CA office, and Steve Hager and Matt Trone of the Denver office, in tandem with investment bankers Oakview Advisors of New York and Atlanta.

"We will be marketing this property to investors on a national and international basis."

Jeff Cole, Cushman & Wakefield

“This opportunity is highly unique in its size, scale and scope,” said Cole. “We will be marketing this property to investors on a national and international basis, targeting everyone from data center investors, to users that would require cloud computing, to power company investors, telecom centers, local developers, green energy providers, and even certain Wall Street infrastructure funds.”

According to Forbes, it’s the world’s largest planned microgrid. NED offers investors and users independence from outside energy sources, providing its own energy and backup supplies. “It’s an energy park, with the ability to provide its own microgrid,” said Cole. “The on-site energy sources include natural gas and a major electrical infrastructure, and plans call for a multitude of renewable energy sources. It also has its own water rights, as well as transcontinental fiber connection with access to 21 fiber carriers or providers.

“With special approvals from the state and county in place, it is very rare to have a property of this size with zoning and energy sources already on-site,” he said.

NED is zoned for 52 energy and data center uses, as well as Cloud data centers, energy-consuming manufacturing, natural gas power plants, solar, wind, and energy storage, with environmental waivers. Energy-related zoning includes up to 50 MW of solar, geothermal and wind, and unlimited energy storage, as well as up to 650 MW of natural gas plants and fuel cell power plants, and more.

Strategically located near I-25 and US 85 between the urban areas of Northern Colorado and Southern Wyoming, NED is situated along Colorado’s Front Range in a pro-growth and pro-business region. A large tax incentive agreement is in place, and the location, which has seen a 35 percent declining mill levy over the past 15 years, is the lowest tax location in the growing, 10-county Colorado Front Range region.

“NED represents a unique opportunity to acquire a strategically located shovel-ready site with extraordinary energy and fiber infrastructure along with entitlements and zoning for a broad range of industrial and energy-related development,” said Jeff Cushman, executive managing director, Cushman & Wakefield. “It offers multiple revenue pathways for an investor along with speed to market. There is nothing else like it in the country.

“We are bringing the property to market for sale, and given the scope of this property, we anticipate a great deal of interest in this offering,” said Cole. “The uniqueness of this property speaks for itself.”

Based in Rosemont, Ill., and with local representation nationwide, Cushman & Wakefield's industrial brokerage platform provides global resources and local expertise for tenant and landlord representation, disposition and acquisition services, transaction management, and industrial consulting including labor and demographic analysis. In 2014, globally, this group completed more than 8,200 industrial lease and sale transactions, including Capital Markets transactions, totaling 337 million square feet, with an aggregate value of $16.8 billion.

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