DENVER | Main Development Thread #7

[jhwk]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

260 Units to Replace the Wells Fargo Building at 17th and Grant

Yikes, a 5+1 on a C-MX-12 lot. I guess that's where we are at in the cycle but it's a shame that only 260 units are being built here.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

Other than Populus which is scheduled to open mid-October is there any other other hotels still under construction.

New RiNo Hotel Marks Local Real Estate Company’s First within its Hometown
August 1, 2024 -- Mile High CRE

Highside Companies, a Colorado-based real estate company, has collaborated with Choice Hotels International, Inc. to open the Cambria Hotel Denver Downtown RiNo.

Set against the backdrop of industrial buildings and colorful street art in the River North Art District at 3601 Brighton Blvd...The hotel offers 153 guestrooms with premium bedding, contemporary decor, spa-style bathrooms and Bluetooth mirrors. Guests also enjoy a second-floor rooftop garden with outdoor seating; a full-service restaurant and bar, the “Painted Rino;” a state-of-the-art fitness center; and two event spaces totaling 1,192 square feet of meeting space.

Cambria Hotel
3601 Brighton Blvd

Image courtesy Cambria RiNo/Highside Companies

Click here to see a much better recent photo.

I thought this was completed a couple of years ago but obviously not. Rooms became available about the 20th of July. Phoenix has three Cambria's, two of which I'm familiar with; this looks like the one that's in downtown Phoenix in an area similar to LoDo.

It's across the street from this building.

Rev 360
3600 Brighton Blvd


Image courtesy Anderson Mason Dale Architects

[TakeFive]

We should ELEVATE this conversation

I'm not sure what to think of today's values? Does anybody know anybody who has heard about anybody that during May paid their last respects to the Alameda Bridge over the South Platte River? That bridge has been a Workhorse since 1911; it's the oldest bridge in the state. Apparently it will be discarded like trash and replaced by one of those new fancy multi-modal things. Apparently there will be enough room for two friends on bikes to meet in the middle and share a bag of popcorn er make that Kettle Corn.

Per CDOT

• Reconstructing the South Platte River Trail - there will be improvements in sight distance, increased 12-foot concrete trail, a four-foot finely crushed stone trail, and 3-foot vegetated shoulders for an overall trail width of 22 feet
• Constructing an on-street two-way cycle track on the north side of Alameda between South Lipan and South Kalamath streets with a connection to the South Platte River Trail
• Installing a water quality pond and associated South Platte River outfall
• Improving sidewalks on both sides of Alameda

CDOT Executive Director Shoshana Lew said: "We love historic bridges, we don't want them to be historic while we're driving on them," Lew said. "We have a lot to do to update to make Alameda Avenue work for people for the next one hundred years."

This project should be completed in 2025 or whenever they get around to finishing it according CDOT.

[TakeFive]

Let's ELEVATE some more

Denver breaks ground on $16 million West Colfax improvements designed to reduce pedestrian risk
Jun 7, 2024 by Alexander Edwards -- Denver Gazette

The project got its money from the voter-approved Elevate Denver Bond, the Colorado Department of Transportation’s Safer Main Streets program, as well as other city sources, according to the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure.

The groundbreaking and upcoming construction project are another phase in the agency's efforts to improve safety along the vital economic corridor. Previous improvements have included “adding signage and treatments to make intersections safer” and changing traffic light timing that DOTI said would reduce vehicle speeds to the posted limits.

Earlier they had dropped greenery in the medians due to not enough funding. People in the neighborhood went bonkers.

According to Westword

But it was disheartening. Community members had seen the budget for the 16th Street Mall construction project go from $149 million to $172.5 million in the last year — but the city couldn’t find $2 million more for West Colfax.

Council President Jamie Torres, who represents much of the project area, heard them loud and clear.“ The need for this not just to have transit and pedestrian safety infrastructure but green infrastructure was such an important part,” she says.

Kuhn says DOTI is still working out the exact funding strategy that will make it happen, but on February 22, community members learned that the project would go forward as originally planned.

Just Sayin'

You won't find any so-called 'bulb-outs' down here (that I'm aware of). Phoenix prioritizes 'right turn only' lanes at intersections as often there's enough road width to narrow the lanes at intersections to accommodate this. This cuts down on rear-end crashes. For buses they often provide carve-outs for them to pull over from the main road lanes. NO, it isn't hard for buses to pull back into traffic. For roads as narrow as West Colfax that would be harder to do.

What Phoenix has done is to create a 100 new crosswalks in recent years where they install HAWK or high intensity beacon lights that are pedestrian activated. They might put a cross-walk mid-block or they might put one at a lesser intersection where there happens to be foot traffic perhaps a couple of blocks from a major intersection.

[TakeFive]

Share the Love; Share the Heartbreak

Originally Posted by mhays

Downtowns don't reflect population within city limits. One point is basically irrelevant to the other. Also, Seattle's core downtown stats are worse than its greater downtown or regional stats.

Leaseless In Seattle: Lab Real Estate’s Struggles With Space
July 31, 2024 Patrick Sisson, Bisnow National

Centered in the tech hub of South Lake Union, Seattle’s life sciences real estate market has suffered from the same supply glut hurting other large lab markets across the country. And it’s likely to get worse in the short term.

“It's difficult to identify a lot of trends because there's not much activity,” CBRE Executive Vice President Chris Moe said. “We have a client demand problem. And we're oversupplied with a significant amount of space that has been delivered into a demand cycle that has been extremely restricted at this point.”

Of course you know that the Boston area is like the Mecca of Life Sciences; I recently read where two rather nice projects literally stopped their construction. For one thing there were a couple of other projects that had started ahead of them and they were finding zero interest in leasing their space.

Boulder/Boulder County has built some lab/Life Science space in recent years but most of it was either 'Build-to-Suit' or preleased afaik.

Microsoft Joins Google In Shift To Data Centers, Away From Offices
August 1, 2024 Bianca Barragán, Southern California Bisnow

Microsoft has steadily increased its spending on data centers as tech giants begin investing heavily in the infrastructure that supports growing areas of their businesses and pulling back from occupying office space. “Cloud and AI-related spending represents nearly all of our total capital expenditures," Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said on the company's latest earnings call.

On the same call, Microsoft told analysts it expects its annual operating lease liabilities, which include future rent payments, to drop by as much as 54% in the next few years. The decrease, which translates to about $2.2B, would be the result of Microsoft's earlier decision to move out of millions of square feet in offices near its headquarters in Washington as well as other locations.

For those who are unaware Microsoft's HQ is located in Redmond, WA, 15 miles east of Seattle.

Just for grins

UBS Sells NYC Office Tower Via Online Auction For 97.5% Loss
August 1, 2024 Sasha Jones, New York City Bisnow

Earlier this summer, Swiss bank UBS’ real estate investment arm opted to auction off a Midtown Manhattan office rather than go through the effort of finding a buyer.

In 2006, UBS Realty Investors bought the 920K SF building for $332M. The bidder spent just $8.5M to scoop it up, a 97.5% haircut from the previous price.

[TakeFive]

This should be interesting

Equity Commonwealth Calls It Quits
July 31, 2024 Kayla Carmicheal, Deputy Newsletter Editor -- Bisnow


Google Maps - 17th Street Plaza in Denver, Colorado, one of Equity Commonwealth's properties.

It's curtains for Equity Commonwealth.

After searching to find an acquisition opportunity and coming up empty, the company is liquidating and winding down operations, executives said on an earnings call Tuesday. The sale of Equity's four properties, totaling 1.5M SF, will be the key as it winds down operations, CEO David Helfand said. The company owns two buildings in Austin, one in D.C. and one in Denver.

He noted that since office transaction values are down 75% from prepandemic levels, the timing and returns from the sales are difficult to predict. Three properties are already up for sale and have been since May, said David Weinberg... A fourth asset, a 700K SF Class-A building in Denver, is over 80% leased. It should hit the market in September, following a shareholder vote on the sale.

As a liquidation this property will sell for whatever the market brings.

[TakeFive]

The big office building purge seems to have skipped the Cherry Creek neighborhood as developers continue flocking to the area
Aug. 5, 2024 By Sarah Mulholland -- CPR

Nice Photo by Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite


Construction at the corner of Adams Street and 2nd Avenue in Cherry Creek

Interesting compare and contrast piece by Sarah Mulholland

Everybody has heard about the death of the office in downtown Denver. The pandemic emptied buildings, and it looks like workers are never going to fully return. That’s left
the city’s central business district a shell of its former self.

But about 10 minutes away, in the tiny Cherry Creek neighborhood, builders are adding new offices. Developers in the area contend companies are still willing to shell out
for office space. It just has to be the right space.

And the Cherry Creek fans pontificate.

“What we’ve found since COVID, and [with] the changing landscape of office, relative to downtown, it's kind of a tale of two cities,” said Daniel Huml of Magnetic Capital,
a real estate company that just broke ground on a 100,000 square-foot project a few minutes from the Cherry Creek mall.“Since COVID, tenants want the ability to spend
more time outside and be in a more open-air environment,” Huml said. ... Financial firm Bow River Capital has already signed a lease at the property. Despite the dire headlines
about the state of the office market, Huml said he’s not worried about filling the rest of the space.

It's a Good Read and there's too much to copy here.

I was thinking back to the 1980's

Cherry Creek has always had its allure but back in the 1980's it was the South Colorado Blvd Corridor (from Cherry creek Dr to the freeway) that was the counterpoint to downtown
Denver's skyscrapers being built. I'm now wondering if this area is today's cheaper office space for those who are looking for less. It was inevitable that Cherry Creek would someday
"spread its wings."

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

I was thinking back to the 1980's

Cherry Creek has always had its allure but back in the 1980's it was the South Colorado Blvd Corridor (from Cherry creek Dr to the freeway) that was the counterpoint to downtown
Denver's skyscrapers being built. I'm now wondering if this area is today's cheaper office space for those who are looking for less. It was inevitable that Cherry Creek would someday
"spread its wings."

Eh. It's not exactly cheaper- probably more expensive than downtown at this point. I'd suspect that it's the smaller scale that makes the area attractive to developers. In CC your proposals for office are in the 100K sq ft range whereas in downtown the projects are significantly larger at 250K sq fit plus. 1900 Larimer is equal to seven CC projects. It's just easier for the smaller developers to handle.

I'm highly skeptical that CC West will deliver 600K sq ft of office.


Since the currency arbitrage game is over, thank you Japanese Central Bank, the last vestiges of cheap money just dried up so I'm thinking that the development game is about to hit full stop as we wait for the next cycle.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

Since the currency arbitrage game is over, thank you Japanese Central Bank, the last vestiges of cheap money just dried up so I'm thinking that the development game is about to hit full stop as we wait for the next cycle.

I understand the basics of the carry trade but I never considered that money ended up in real estate. Interesting. BTW, I see where the Nikkei opened up 10% higher now up around 9.5%. Crazy times.

There's also this:

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac To Add More Red Tape In Effort To Crack Down On Multifamily Loan Fraud
August 5, 2024 Sasha Jones, New York City Bisnow

Following a series of scandals and an uptick in ​​falsified financial reporting, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are reportedly planning to add more stringent requirements for commercial lenders and brokers.

This pertains to their multifamily lending. I don't suspect it's a huge problem but I have heard of owners of multifamily running into challenges when their loams come due given the higher rates. Obviously, some were overleveraged.

[TakeFive]

Denver has an advantage over Sun Belt cities

'In The Worst Of The Storm': Sun Belt Oversupply Looms Over Apartment REITs
August 5, 2024 Sasha Jones, New York City

As Americans moved out of cities like New York and Chicago during the pandemic and headed for lower-cost, warm-weather alternatives, developers bet big, putting shovels in the ground from Florida to Arizona. But now, as that construction comes to completion, leasing has slowed and concessions have increased.

I've read the local reports about all the apartments that have come online this year as well as a healthy pipeline of apartments under construction. I sometimes wonder about the accuracy but let's say generally they paint a close enough picture.

Think Migration

You go back to the early 2010's and there was the Great Millennial Migration which benefited Denver Big Time. The pandemic-era migration was more focused on the Sun Belt but Denver benefited as well if not as much.

Just my opinion

We'll always have migration but I suspect that at his point the more rapid growth is behind us; I see a period characterized more by stability than growth and/or migration.

They mention Phoenix for having 'too much' apartment construction. At least down here these generalizations miss the mark although sometimes the market may get a little ahead of demand but that won't last long.

With respect to the city center neighborhoods, last year I tracked about a dozen new projects but they were of varying size and mostly either 'designated' affordable or more workforce type units and generally these won't take as long to build as the more prominent 'standard' luxury projects in recent years.

I will buy the idea that Denver/metro isn't or won't be as overbuilt as many areas and that's a good thing as I'm not seeing much growth either.

[TakeFive]

It's a competitive world out there and getting more competitive
(No income tax in business-friendly Texas)

TIAA closing Denver operations center, putting 1,000 jobs at risk amid move to Frisco, Texas
August 6, 2024 By Aldo Svaldi -- The Denver Post

The massive financial company’s move deals another blow to struggling downtown Denver

TIAA, one of the nation’s largest financial firms, informed its employees Tuesday morning that it is closing its Denver operations center over the next two years, putting about 1,000 jobs at risk.

“We are confident that these decisions are right for the future of TIAA. Our goal is to ensure that our locations best serve our clients, provides strong real estate investments, are cost-efficient, and inspire associates to do their best work,” TIAA’s Chief People Officer Claire Borelli and Chief Administrative Officer Derek Ferguson informed employees in a letter.

Nice of them to give two years notice. /sigh

TIAA will close its Jacksonville, Fla., office in July 2025 and its Denver center,1670 Broadway, in July 2026. A data center in Broomfield, 11525 Main St., will remain open, but limited to “only roles that are critical to data center operations,” the letter said. About two dozen workers are employed there.

Located in the former Amoco building, TIAA was so dominant at 1670 Broadway that the location became known as the TIAA building. The Denver lease wasn’t set to expire until 2029.

This is hilarious; Bye bye equity; Per Wikimedia

In August 2018, Korean asset manager Hana Financial Group acquired the building for $238 million. The company received $78 million in CMBS financing from UBS and $64.8 million in mezzanine financing to fund the acquisition.

1670 Broadway


Image per Wikipedia

[TakeFive]

Where To From Here?

Upcoming DU Event to Discuss Downtown Office Market
August 7, 2024 -- Mile High CRE

On September 25, Mayor Mike Johnston will join the University of Denver and an influential group of real estate professionals and thought leaders for a panel discussion examining downtown Denver’s office market.

“Almost all major cities throughout the U.S. are faced with increasing vacancy rates in Office Buildings,” says Mark Levine, head of the University of Denver’s School of Real Estate. “The damage to cities, related businesses, investors, lenders, and many others is growing daily. Solutions to this enigma must be found. This EO Event is laser-focused on these concerns.”

It doesn't help that in 2025, Xcel Energy and TIAA will leave two more downtown towers largely vacant.

Retrospective

• You go back 15-20 years and 'we' (the USA) lost (guessing) over half of its chip manufacturing business as most of it moved to Asia.
• Over the last 15 years, along came The Cloud which stimulated a huge software business. But it feels like the software bucket done filled up.
• The current phase and rage is all about AI and building Hyperscale data centers.

Starwood’s Barry Sternlicht Says CRE Will Benefit When AI Bubble Bursts
August 6, 2024 Matt Wasielewski, South Florida

Barry, Starwood Capital Group CEO Barry Sternlicht thinks investors’ love affair with artificial intelligence is about to end in a breakup, and commercial real estate will be their shoulder to cry on.

Sounds like wishful thinking to me; Barry you might want to grab a good book or two.

Jamie Dimon says he still sees a recession on the horizon

I appreciate Jamie's cautious approach. Some say the stock/bond markets project 6 months ahead.

Just My Opinion

There's just still too much money being dropped into the economy to expect a recession at this point. Defense spending, IRA spending etc. The consumer-driven activity which makes up over two-thirds of the economy is showing some strain, especially at the margin. But the Holidays are right around the corner and people will always spend for this.

What About Next year

That's a little dicey to predict; there are many risks out there. But with respect to Denver/metro/front range all the current economic indicators while not great are pretty good. Denver, for its part will still be spending ELEVATE and RISE money for a couple of more years. Shoot, my favorite project isn't even starting until next year.

It does feel like Denver et al may be starting to stagnate but it's not likely to drop like a rock.

[kemachs]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

That's a little dicey to predict; there are many risks out there. But with respect to Denver/metro/front range all the current economic indicators while not great are pretty good. Denver, for its part will still be spending ELEVATE and RISE money for a couple of more years. Shoot, my favorite project isn't even starting until next year.

It does feel like Denver et al may be starting to stagnate but it's not likely to drop like a rock.

Seems about right; doesn't Denver usually fare better than other cities in a recession (i.e. 2008)? I suppose it benefits from many federal/aerospace jobs which are fairly steady, in addition to being a state capital...

[mhays]

That's my impression, at least since oil became less of a focus.

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by mhays

That's my impression, at least since oil became less of a focus.

Oil less of a focus? What kind of slander is that?


Denver's diversified economy has helped greatly in weathering downturns. Tech, telecom, aerospace (government cheese), finance, energy, professional services.

It's a nice, multi-layered economic sandwich.

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

I understand the basics of the carry trade but I never considered that money ended up in real estate. Interesting. BTW, I see where the Nikkei opened up 10% higher now up around 9.5%. Crazy times.

Carry trade positions are almost done being unwound. It was surprising to me as well the amount of financing that was being underpinned by these positions- lot of energy projects were relying on this money.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

Eh. It's not exactly cheaper- probably more expensive than downtown at this point.

That makes sense although I suspect we were thinking of different buildings as there's examples of both ends of the spectrum

Originally Posted by wong21fr

I'd suspect that it's the smaller scale that makes the area attractive to developers. In CC your proposals for office are in the 100K sq ft range whereas in downtown the projects are significantly larger at 250K sq fit plus. 1900 Larimer is equal to seven CC projects. It's just easier for the smaller developers to handle.

Definitely agree; well said.

Same applies to the DTC which is going through its own issues but the size of buildings is much more manageable.

DPC Companies Acquires DTC Office Building, Atrium Plaza
August 5, 2024 -- Mile High CRE

DPC Companies (DPC), a privately held, well-capitalized real estate firm specializing in acquiring and developing commercial property in Colorado, Arizona and the Rocky Mountain Region, has announced the acquisition of Atrium Plaza. Located at 5675 DTC Blvd, the building was acquired at $5,030,000 and will serve as the new headquarters for DPC Companies.

That's a nice buy for these guys.

Atrium Plaza
5675 DTC Blvd


Courtesy of DPC

This one is kind of special

Koelbel Acquires Denver Tech Center Office Building
June 24, 2024 -- Mile High CRE

Koelbel and Company, a family-owned, Colorado-based real estate company with a 70-year history, continues to grow its commercial office investment portfolio with the recent acquisition of the Axis Tower, a marquee office property in the Denver Tech Center.

The 228,914-square-foot building, located at 5613 DTC Parkway (just east of I-25 between Orchard and Belleview), was originally built in 1981 and is currently 80% occupied. The previous owner recently completed a $10 million renovation of the common areas...

Courtesy Koelbel

The developer of this property was a guy named Jay Roulier. He and his buddy, Bill Walters had moved to Denver after graduating from KU. Bill, also a developer, built housing in the DTC area primarily.

Can't recall if it was '81 or '82 but I helped Jay with selling an investment property. We would meet in the development office for this building. In one area there was a nice big rectangular table with a mockup of the DTC on it. So I'm looking it over and at one point I said "What is this?" Along the freeway side of the DTC there were train tracks. Turns out even back in the early 1980's they were projecting light rail between the tech center and downtown Denver.

It wasn't that much later as in the mid-1980's RTD started planning light rail after the successful opening of the San Diego Trolley in 1981. Per Wikipedia: "RTD's first line, the 5.3-mile (8.5 km) Central Corridor between the 30th & Downing and the I-25 & Broadway stations" opened in October 1994.

[TakeFive]

How about an Upbeat view of downtown Denver

Originally Posted by wong21fr

Denver's diversified economy has helped greatly in weathering downturns. Tech, telecom, aerospace (government cheese), finance, energy, professional services.

It's a nice, multi-layered economic sandwich.

Some of you may have heard this 10 times before; but just in case.... I am a Big HUGE fan of Denver's convention center and the CCC recently completed a fabulous update and expansion.

By chance you might have missed it, Photog and all-around good guy Ryan Dravitz had a really nice, very impressive 'final update' on this.

2024 Downtown Denver Award Winner: Colorado Convention Center

• Video Link

16th street Mall

• Video Link

Here's a short compilation of downtown improvements

• Video Link

[TakeFive]

One that finished and one just starting

Mixed-Use Residential Development at Fitzsimons Village is Leasing
June 3, 2024 -- Mile High CRE

The development team behind One River North — Uplands Real Estate Partners, The Max Collaborative, and Wynne Yasmer Real Estate — is anticipating a late July opening for The Broadleaf, a mixed-use residential development located within Fitzsimons Village, across from the Anschutz Medical Campus.

The development includes 370 apartments and more than 9,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space lining the boulevard within the master-planned Village. Queen City Collective Coffee has signed on to operate a café space integrated within the residential lobby. Davis Partnership Architects is the architect for the project and JE Dunn is the general contractor. Kairoi Residential has been chosen to be the property manager.

The Broadleaf Apartments
1380 Uvalda St, Aurora

.....


Courtesy The Broadleaf


Rockefeller Group still cooking, venturing around

$107M Mixed-Use Project Set to Revitalize Parker’s Mainstreet
June 27, 2024 -- Mile High CRE

Rockefeller Group, a leading U.S. property developer, and Colorado-based multifamily, senior, workforce and affordable housing developer MGL Partners, have formed a joint venture partnership to develop a luxury apartment community in the rapidly growing Denver suburb of Parker. Dubbed The Juniper on Mainstreet, the property is set on 8.1 acres on Mainstreet in the heart of downtown Parker and adjacent to the Sulphur Gulch Trail. The project will include 264 apartments and 13,900 square feet of highly desirable, pedestrian-friendly retail and restaurant space. Construction is underway now and expected to be completed in Q2 2025.

Courtesy Rockefeller Group / MGL Partners

[TakeFive]

You may recognize the name of BMC Investments

They have had a prominent role in new Cherry Creek projects. But that's not all they do.

Aurora Apartment Community to be Rebranded
August 8, 2024 -- Mile High CRE

BMC Investments, a Denver-based, fully-integrated real estate investment company, announced today the acquisition of Advenir Del Arte, a multifamily property in Aurora comprised of 351 units across 17 buildings. This will be one of eleven workforce housing communities currently owned by BMC, and the fifth in Aurora. BMC plans to rebrand the community to The Joliet at Lowry and invest heavily in renovations.

(Now) The Joliet at Lowry
11135 E Alameda Ave, Aurora


Courtesy BMC Investments

Here's the Deal -- (To quote a Biden-ism)

In recent years many investors have bought older apartment properties in the metro area. They call them "Value-Add" opportunities. Like everything in life it's 'Easier said than done.' It's all in the execution and some are successful while others struggle. It's not inexpensive but it is less than doing a 'new-build.'

“Advenir Del Arte is an excellent opportunity for us to expand our workforce housing portfolio in an area of the Denver market where we have superior market insights and have already had immense success,” said Jeffrey Stonger, chief investment officer and partner at BMC Investments. “BMC is extremely focused on delivering high-quality, affordable workforce housing options in the communities in which we invest, and this acquisition helps us deliver on that goal.”

Originally built in 1986, Advenir Del Arte offers apartments and townhomes ranging from studios to 3-bedrooms. Within Aurora, BMC’s other communities include Aurora Hills, Vista Park, Landon Park and Aurora Meadows, all of which are within four miles of Advenir Del Arte.

Financing? BMC has acquired a good reputation for doing this.

...we are thrilled to partner with Freddie Mac to provide accretive acquisition financing for the transaction,” said Brady O’Donnell... “The asset fits ideally in Freddie Mac’s mission to provide financing for workforce housing

BMC likes this area of Aurora.

Aurora has experienced significant redevelopment in the past decade, particularly around Anschutz Medical Center, and tends to attract renters due to its relative affordability compared the rest of the region.

In more modest areas of a lower socioeconomic demographic, you might find a young family with couple of kids that have no problem living in a one bedroom apartment, especially with older properties that have larger units. Over time they may move to a larger unit within the same property. If the place is nice and well-run ie safe and pleasant then tenants will rent in droves.