Natural Grocers may be preparing to relocate its headquarters within Lakewood after purchasing a five-story office building in the city for $5.6 million.
The publicly traded grocery chain acquired the 80,000-square-foot property at 3609 S. Wadsworth Boulevard last week, a deal that works out to about $70 per square foot. The company declined to comment on the transaction in response to inquiry from The Denver Post.
The sellers — Amherst Capital Partners Colorado LLC and DDIT Texas LLC — bought the building in 2017 for $8.2 million, according to public records. A representative for the two entities also declined to comment, citing a confidentiality agreement.
City officials confirmed discussions are underway regarding the company’s potential plans for the site.
Lakewood spokeswoman Stacie Oulton told BusinessDen via email that the city is in conversations with the grocery chain about its plans for the building, but that nothing has been formalized yet.
Public records show the office building, constructed in the 1980s, is currently home to 14 tenants. One tenant told BusinessDen that the top two floors are vacant and that Natural Grocers intends to move its corporate offices into that space. A marketing brochure indicates a typical floor plate in the building measures about 17,000 square feet.
Natural Grocers currently lists its headquarters at 12612 W. Alameda Parkway in Lakewood, where it also operates a retail store roughly a 15-minute drive from the newly acquired property. They also operate some corporate offices out of their warehouse location in Golden
Founded in 1955 in the Denver suburb, Natural Grocers has expanded to 168 stores across 21 states.
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