Sunflower founder puts roots in town
Sunflower Market founder Mike Gilliland is getting a taste of city life in a downtown loft he recently purchased for $1.3 million.
Gilliland, who also co-founded the Wild Oats natural grocery chain, kept his home in Boulder but purchased the three-story unit in downtown Denver’s Auraria Lofts building so he could have easy access to Sunflower’s Denver stores. The company has a store at 2880 S. Colorado Blvd. and another in the works in the Elitch’s redevelopment.
“It’s good for work, and it seems like a very nice area,” Gilliland said of his new digs.
The loft building dates to 1896 but was redeveloped into housing and offices during the early stages of the downtown loft craze. Gilliland purchased the 4,183-square-foot, three-bedroom unit from Steven and Holly Zeinfeld.
Helton’s home goes to rookie
Colorado’s top-earning professional athlete sold his Thornton home to a newcomer to his team for $1.1 million.
Colorado Rockies first baseman Todd Helton and his wife, Christy, sold the five- bedroom, five-bath house, which had an asking price of $1.3 million, to Dustan and Denise Mohr.
The Rockies last winter signed Mohr, a former backup with Minnesota and San Francisco. But Mohr was injured leaving the dugout to celebrate Clint Barmes’ homer – and the Rockies’ 12-10 victory over San Diego – in the team’s first game. He missed the next 18 games and finished with a .214 batting average, 17 home runs and 38 RBIs in 98 games.
The Mohrs’ new home, on a private 11-acre lake, has extraordinary views of the lake and mountains from a wall of windows.
Want your dream home? Build it!
For years, Barbara Kelley would keep a running list of what her dream home would look like. Earlier this year, she decided to build it.
Kelley, 53, recently helped design and construct a new home on South Grape Street in Denver.
The three-bedroom, 3½- bath home, which sold for $1.72 million, features nearly all of what Kelley wanted: a fireplace in the master bedroom, a large garden to grow vegetables and flowers, and a big dining room to entertain her nieces and nephews.
“It’s been really fun and really thrilling,” Kelley said. “It’s been a memorable project.”
Kelley moved from her Cherry Creek town home and into the new house three months ago. She picked out every item in the home except the kitchen sink but still is waiting for furniture and rugs to arrive.
Kelley, who moved to Colorado in 1963, is a co-owner of the Colorado Container Corp., a box manufacturer that her father, Rollie, founded in Denver in the 1960s.
A proven place to raise a family
Denver banker Bruce Alexander and his wife, Lisa, searched 18 months for a bigger home for their growing family. As the couple were about to leave town one weekend, their Realtor told them about a home that had just come on the market on East Tufts Avenue in Cherry Hills Village.
He suggested they move quickly. The home had two full-price offers on its first day on the market.
“It is in the old part of Cherry Hills Village, which has a real rural character to it,” Bruce Alexander said. “Lots of big trees, smaller, quiet streets, no sidewalks.”
After the first offer fell through, the Alexanders purchased the property for $2.27 million from dermatologist Richard and Elaine Asarch, a designer. They raised five children in the home.
