After developers tore down the former headquarters of Arrow Electronics in Centennial, work has begun on a new $100 million apartment complex.

Consolidated Investment Group announced it broke ground on a new multifamily complex with 329 apartments on Thursday. It’s located at 9201 E. Dry Creek Road, west of Interstate 25.

The real estate developer bought the 9-acre property last December for $12,250,000, according to property records, a discount compared to when it sold for $40.1 million in 2019.

The former headquarters of Arrow Electronics, currently based in an office across the street, was a 125,000 square-foot building. CIG originally considered retrofitting the old office building of one of Colorado’s largest Fortune 500 companies and build more apartments around it.

But the developers later decided it would be better to start completely from scratch.

The company listed multiple factors that prevented the building from being suitable for housing such as its design and being able to adapt it specifically for “attainable” priced apartments, according to a CIG press release.

“The challenge of converting an office building into a residential property is never an easy equation,” said Kevin House, head of development and construction at CIG, in a press release. “There are multiple obstacles to overcome and if the numbers don’t add up — in regard to the building’s layout, design and cost to convert — the best solution is often to wipe-the-slate-clean and build from the ground up.”

The developers said the cost and timing of construction would have been a risk, as well as convincing renters to live in a building with an “awkward” design.

The new apartment complex catered to a growing number of Centennial workers would be built with “modular” construction, meaning the construction of the building will be done in units in a factory to be later shipped and assembled on site. The units will be stacked and the developers will then add the exterior skin, balconies and interior corridors, House said.

It’s planned to include amenities such as a pool, hot tub, fitness center, club room, dog park, coworking pods, outdoor kitchens and a central lawn.

Modular construction would make the development cheaper and offer Class A apartments more than 10% below the market rate, CIG said.

The cost of an apartment built at the site with modular construction “could never match with a conversion,” CIG added.

The development will cost more than $100 million, House said in an email.

“​​By tearing down the existing building we were able to get more density on the site and lower the overall cost per unit as compared to reusing the office building,” he added.