Last Sunday I had the pleasure of meeting some future clients. The brother and sister-in-law of the husband of my wife’s boss (did you follow that?) were in Denver for a long weekend. Martin and Lola currently live in California but are considering moving here in a few years when Martin retires. While in town they got to witness the Nuggets beating the Lakers after 16 straight losses, and they decided they wanted to see what Colorado has to offer in the way of “green” communities.
Back home they currently have solar hot water, they generate solar electricity and have a battery backup to deal with occasional blackouts. They have energy-efficient Bosch appliances, low-e windows, and have made various other improvements to their home in an effort to make it more “green”. So they are educated consumers when it comes to these features in a home.
When I first spoke with Martin over the phone he told me that they had been up to Boulder to look at a few homes, and they were planning a trip up around Fort Collins to look at a few others. But what he really wanted was to live in a community that integrated sustainability and energy-efficiency. I immediately thought of Stapleton!
You can find pocket of green homes throughout the Front Range. McStain has a new development going up along the Boulder Turnpike, on Sheridan Blvd. The even have some homes in the Platt Park neighborhood. There are plenty of custom home builders scraping lots throughout Denver and putting up a "green" house or two. But nothing can compare to Stapleton.
Stapleton is a neighborhood in Northeast Denver that is the largest redevelopment project in the nation. It's 7.5 square mile footprint includes residential, commercial, retail, and parks. Lots and lots of parks. In fact, you can’t go more than a couple of blocks in any direction without finding a park.
The entire community is an example of the concept of New Urbanism: with a mix of housing, an abundance of walking/bike trails and parks, town centers, a well organized neighborhood association, plenty of front porches and alleys. Yet Stapleton has taken New Urbanism to a new level by incorporating sustainability into the planning.
Every new home in Stapleton is now being built to a minimum of Energy Star certified, even though there are some builders that are going even beyond that. For example, Harvard Homes has built a Near Zero Energy Home that will cost the homeowner as little as $700 a year in utility bills. This home is not only Energy Star, but also LEED for Homes certified.
So with my buyer’s needs in mind, this is where I started with Martin and Lola. Sherri, the salesperson at Harvard, was wonderful in explaining all that they do in building a healthy, high quality, energy-efficient home. Also, builders always have such wonderful maps and she helped me explain the current layout of the community as well as the future development.
I also took them to the New Town Builder’s model homes. New Town homes are a little smaller than the Harvard Homes, but are equal in quality. And while New Town does not have a solar option on their homes, they utilized advanced framing techniques and (IMHO) have the highest standards in indoor air quality in Stapleton. We were able to tour another LEED for Homes certified home built by New Town Builders too.
We wrapped up the day by looking at some resale homes and touring the area. Driving by the dog park, through the 29th Ave town center, past a few pools, and the 80-acre Central Park, really gave them a sense of the community.
But Martin and Lola were most blown away by the quality of construction and the energy-efficient features that were standard in so many of the homes we looked at. The thoughtfulness of the master developers, from the incorporation of green space to how the various builders were dispersed among the community, has prevented this planned community from looking like so many other “cookie cutter” neighborhoods and was also a big hit.
So, while it will be a while before I can hope to see a commission, I know that when the tiem is right Martin and Lola will be asking for another tour of Stapleton. As Martin said just before we parted ways, "I'm sold on Stapleton".
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