Boulder Daily Camera

Alicia Wallace
Camera Business Writer

BOULDER--The nine-acre property in Boulder that formerly served as Exabyte Corp.'s headquarters and later was eyed to house another stage of the Peloton condominium project was sold to a local private equity firm for $27.2 million, Boulder County property records show.

Boulder-based Conscience Bay Company LLC, under the entity Pond Path LLC, acquired the six-building property at 1685 to 1775 38th St. from Redstones Land LLC, an entity of Bancroft Capital, a Manhattan Beach, California-based real estate investment firm, according to a deed recorded earlier this month.

Bancroft originally invested in the 155,821-square-foot campus in 1999 for $15 million with Great Point Investors. Three years later, Bancroft refinanced and partnered with Investcorp in a $17.7 million deal on the property. 

In 2006, Bancroft and private investors bought out Investcorp in a $9.5 million property sale.

At that time, construction was underway for The Peloton, a $150 million, 385-condominium development located on a neighboring 10-acre property at 3601 Arapahoe Ave.

At the time, Bancroft officials said they were considering building a similarly sized residential project at 1685-1775 38th St.

The following years, however, did not go according to plan. The Peloton's first 190-unit phase opened in 2008 as the nation slid into a deep recession. 

"Well, of course the economy turned south and we went with Plan B," Joe Lamkin, a principal at Bancroft, said of the 1685-1775 38th St. property. "We were quite successful in taking it from being virtually unleased to 100 percent leased."

During the past eight years at 1685-1775 38th St., the former Exabyte site landed the headquarters operations for the National Ecological Observatory Network, the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, E Source and BiOptix.

The fully leased property and the in-place cash flow made it an attractive buy for Conscience Bay Company, which has built a $100 million portfolio since its founding in 2011.

The acquisition is an investment move as opposed to a development play, said Ben Woolf, Conscience Bay's director of investments.

"Obviously we like the Boulder market," Woolf said. "This is a chance for us to buy a significant property with good cash flow."

Several of the existing tenants have long-term leases, including many with at least five years remaining, he said. 

The 1685-1775 38th St. parcel is Conscience Bay's eighth property and fifth in Boulder.