Getting your player ready...
Catherine Ford, a broker with Keller Williams-DTC, is not only one the “preferred” Realtors at Heather Gardens, the age-restricted community in Aurora, but has lived there for the past 15 years.
So she knows first-hand the importance of the new $10.4 million community center in the community off Parker Road near Interstate 225. Aurora Mayor Ed Tauer and others are scheduled to be on hand for the ground breaking of the center on April 8.
Center to jump start Heather Gardens
“I love what they are doing,” Ford said. “The $10 million clubhouse is going to bring new life and excitement to Heather Gardens. It is going to bring up real estate values. I’m really excited about it. I talk to people there every day about it, and I don’t know anyone who isn’t thrilled by it.”
Units in the 200-acre, park-like setting – with its community golf course and views of the mountains – are priced from about $60,000 to more than $300,000, she said. A typical home with 1,200 square feet and two bedrooms, “right now is priced from about $110,000 to $130,000,” she said.
The one missing piece has been a new clubhouse. The first one was built in 1973, along with the community’s nine-hole golf course, in the community targeted at “active” adults, who are 55 years or older.
As the 30,000-square-foot community center got longer in the tooth, Realtors told the marketing committee of the Heather Gardens Association that while the facility was well-maintained, it had become a deterrent, not a selling point.
The clubhouse no longer had a contemporary feel, especially when compared to the centers in competing adult communities, which were as sharp as most privately run health-club centers. Potential buyers ranked having an “exercise facility” and an “up-to-date community center,” as their second and third top reasons for buying there, only topped by 24/7 security.
Home prices hurt
From 2005 to 2010, prices for town homes, patio homes, and mid-rise and high-rise condos had dropped as much as 21 percent, in part because of the “miserable” real estate market. But values also were being hammered by the nearly four-decade-old community center.
In 2003 and 2004, voters narrowly turned down proposals to authorize the Heather Gardens Metropolitan District to build a new community center. There are 2,426 homes in Heather Gardens, where an estimated 4,200 people live.
Overwhelmingly supported
Then, on May 4, 2010, residents voted 1,530 to 499 to build a new 50,000-square-foot community center, about 67 percent larger than the current center. The total budget for the new facility is $10.4 million – $8.5 million in hard costs and $1.9 million in soft costs. The new center, renamed as the Heather Gardens Clubhouse, is scheduled to open in the spring of 2012.
The new center not only will be about 20,000 square feet larger than the current one, but also will feature:
A new indoor pool with lap lanes and an exercise area.
A new golf pro shop.
An updated full-service restaurant near the outdoor pool.
A 1,800-square-foot, state-of-the-art exercise facility.
The center will also provide a larger multi-use auditorium, more class and activity spaces and a lounge terrace with outdoor seating.
BRS architect
Barker Rinker Seacat Architecture designed the project. Previously, BRS had designed he grant Ranch Community Center and the Lone Tree Recreation Center. Weitz Co. is the general contractor.
The new center will be approximately 20,000 square feet larger than the current one, and will feature a new indoor pool with lap lanes and an exercise area, a new golf pro shop, an updated full-service restaurant near the outdoor pool and an 1,800-square-foot, state-of-the-art exercise facility. The center will also provide a larger multi-use auditorium, more class and activity spaces and a lounge terrace with outdoor seating.
Many of the residents of Heather Gardens are expected to attend the ground breaking.
“The great thing about Heather Gardens is that you can be as social or as anti-social as you want,” said Realtor Ford. “But it’s hard to be anti-social at Heather Gardens, because there is so much going on. The new community center will only make it that much better.”
Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com
