“You know,” a writer told Realtor Lindsey Wiseman at a party last month, “everybody claims that they have the best view in the city. But you really DO have the best view in the city.” You can come see that view today, sip a little wine on a rooftop deck, in a place you’d never find without some help: Denver’s San Rafael Historic District, on the northeast corner of downtown, a few blocks from City Park.
Lindsey’s dad Jim Wiseman created these six, dazzling townhomes for an area not as well known as Highland or Wash Park. But since the first of the year the small group of buyers that’s seen St. James Row in San Rafael has bought one ($775,000); gone to contract on a second, with a third being written now. “Their jaws drop at the view,” Lindsey Wiseman says. “We had one visitor that said ‘My husband wants a place in the city, but I want quieter, with a mountain view.’ I said, ‘Here you can have both.'” From the rooftop deck, she pointed to the Flatirons and Indian Peaks behind Boulder, filling the horizon next to downtown and Coors Field’s lights.
Jim Wiseman told me that under new zoning, he’d never again be permitted to build three-level luxury townhomes in San Rafael, with its remarkable stock of historic Victorian homes along Emerson Street. Thirty years ago, Wiseman was driving around here and was smitten by an 1880s Queen Anne, across 22nd Avenue from the townhomes’ site. He rescued it (now his personal home), then went on to restore another 80 residences on surrounding blocks; including numbers along Emerson that will be brimming with garden floral displays when you arrive today.
The other jaw-dropper, Lindsey says, is the price-per-foot. For under $250 (the lowest remaining unit is at $639,000, for 2,600 feet plus 2-car garage and 460-foot deck) Wiseman delivers interiors that are sublime; MUCH more expansive than townhomes you’ve seen in other downtown areas; with a level of trim to match: Brazilian tigerwood floors, glass tile, designer cabs, plenty of low-voltage lighting, sound pre-wire, and an automated dumbwaiter in each home: Push a button and it will carry 200 pounds of luggage or groceries from garage to kitchen (or today, a cooler of ice and a case of wine up to the rooftop deck).
And don’t miss the neighborhood itself. “I went running today over to City Park and ran into nine people from here,” Lindsey said. The city has a new bike lane down 22nd to the park; meanwhile, this is just a 4-block walk from Uptown’s ‘restaurant row’ on 17th. Take Josephine/York north along City Park to 22nd, then turn west 12 blocks; or visit the gallery in St. James Row’s web site at .
If you go…
WHERE:
St. James Row, three-level contemporary townhomes with views of downtown skyline, in San Rafael Historic District, furnished model, rooftop wine party today. 2200 Emerson St., Denver; from Cherry Creek, take Josephine north (becomes York) past Colfax, 1 mi. to E. 22nd Ave., turn left, 1 mi. to Emerson
PRICE:
From $639,000
WHEN:
Today, 11 a.m. until 5 p.m.; Sunday 11-5
PHONE:
303-859-3864, 303-250-8091
WEB:
