Long after Stapleton International Airport was bulldozed, two of the last remaining landmarks of the era are giant signs standing a half mile north of the freeway, beckoning truck drivers to stop for food and fuel.

Now one of those sites, TA Travel Center’s 19,000-square-foot operation with gas and diesel pumps, three cafes, restrooms, showers, and parking for 224 big rigs, has sold to a Denver investment firm for $28 million.

That’s money well-spent, according to Ryan Good, founder and managing partner of Good Investment Partners, a private equity firm that describes itself as specializing in high performance assets across multiple sectors.

Trucking industry revenue

But the meat and potatoes of that business is trucking — according to industry figures with 3.2 million drivers who handle 72% of the nation’s freight transport and 2024 revenues of just under a trillion dollars.

“It’s rare to find a 27-acre infill site in any metro area,” Good told The Gazette. He noted that some 60% to 70% of the firm’s holdings were in transportation, including logistics, distribution and storage facilities, much of them concentrated from Denver north to Fort Collins.

The site at 5101 Quebec Street, just across Denver city limits into Commerce City, pops up in the windshield of drivers arriving from east or west along I-70, or north from I-270. Good Investment Partners purchased the land and its facilities and will lease it back to Ohio-based TravelCenters of America, a British Petroleum subsidiary.

Long-term hold

But Good says the location and its zoning for a wide range of uses makes the property valuable as a long-term hold.

“The fundamentals were a large tract of land in a good location, and its highest and best use now is a truck stop, one of the busiest in the country,” Good said.

Formal seller of the property is listed as 27Acre, LLC, which had held the existing lease to TravelCenters.

The other iconic truck stop a quarter mile south, Sapp Bros. Travel Plaza with its three-sided coffee pot sign facing both freeways, is a smaller site. “It doesn’t have the amount of land,” Good noted.

Both sites, Good added, are well positioned for industrial development and redevelopment, as down-an-out industrial facilities nearby reach their endpoint.

Industrial zoning

“We won’t be able to redevelop with the lease in place,” Good added. “From a real estate perspective, it’s still supply and demand, with very few sites with industrial zoning available.”

With the urbanized corridor along I-70 reaching another 12 miles east from the old airport into the city of Aurora’s fast developing Aerotropolis area south of DIA, The Gazette asked Good whether the former Stapleton site is as favorable as new ones arriving out there?

“It’s apples and oranges with Aurora,” Good said, noting that his offices in LoDo were just 15 minutes from the site. “If someone was looking for industrial development, our site is much more attractive. If they were looking to build big boxes that you see out there, it wouldn’t compete.”

Every day, according to the company, some 99,000 vehicles pass the Quebec Street site, with around a million visitors a year stopping in at the Travel Center. In addition to fueling, fast-food dining and showers, it has 9,000 square feet of truck repair bays, a laundry, a lounge, and services that drivers might need while overnighting in its vast parking area, including a pet area, ATM, and two merchandise stores.

The TA facility also had an iconic truck stop café, along lines of the one still operating beside I-25 at Johnson Corners, near Loveland. That café closed several years ago, Good said, but he noted that there were possibilities for it to reopen at a future point, in cooperation with a major diner operator.

Interstate sites

According to Good Investment Partners, TA has operated the center for 25 years. Sapp Bros’ site a few blocks south cites its history back to the 1970s, when it opened its first plaza near an interstate interchange in Omaha. It purchased its Commerce City site in 1986, from an existing operator.  

In a statement on the sale, Good Investment Partners cites over $1.5 billion in transactions and a current portfolio of 620,000 square feet in Boulder, Centennial, Longmont and Fort Collins as well as Commerce City. CBRE commercial brokers Tyler Carner, Jeremy Ballenger and Matt Henrichs participated in the sale, Good said. 

He added that much of the investment firm’s focus will remain on the northern Front Range. “We’re big believers in the I-25 corridor,” Good said. “The best population growth is along the I-25 corridor, and we see good fundamentals from Denver to Fort Collins.”

The Gazette reached out for comment to Sapp Bros’ corporate management in Omaha, but received no reply before going to press.