Getting your player ready...
At the south end of the DTC a block from Dry Creek Light Rail station, new-urban developer Peter Kudla is luring buyers to his Vallagio project at a pace that’s totally out of synch with the national market and with the time of year.
Kudla’s Metropolitan Homes brought 90 loft-type plans to market at Vallagio in 2009, a year when area condo sales were headed for the tank – but sold out completely this past spring. Now Kudla is underway on nine urban-styled luxury row homes in Vallagio priced from $450,000 – a product that won loads off awards and had modest sales in 2008; but right now, a month when buyers have many things to do aside from house-hunting, four of the new ones are under contract, still two months from finish.
“We’re actually seeing more interest in them now than when the market was strong,” says Julia Sherman, Metropolitan’s Vice President of Sales, showing off the 2,626-square-foot ‘Allos’ row home model you can tour tomorrow…a 3-bedroom plan with a street-level study beside its 2-car garage that not only won a local BAR award, but also a silver ‘Best in American Living Award.’ “It’s wider than anything you’ll find in Cherry Creek,” says Sherman, who recalls the day the national-ranked architects and designers arrived to tour the model before the awards. “I keep waiting for it to show its shortcomings,” one judge remarked as he tried reclining on a divan in a sitting room off the master.
You’ll see custom level appointments – including a seriously-sized, cherry paneled walk-in master closet, hardwood floors, slab granite, Jenn-Air stainless appliances, tile backsplashes, and a designer fireplace flanked by lavish shelving, all included. But Sherman says that Vallagio’s sales this year are less about design pizzazz than about a coming-together of the new-urban concept itself.
With gas prices up dramatically over the last decade, national developers have been experimenting with master plans where dwellers could walk to dining, shopping and transportation, while leaving their cars parked in their garages. Vallagio, where the dining/commercial component is directly across a plaza from these new Series 3 Row Homes, has actually attracted the kind of eateries that designers envisioned at these communities — a cut above the sandwich-wrap carry-outs that are standard fare at some competing new-urban projects.
Tomorrow and Sunday, the first 50 visitors that view Series 3 will receive a $10 gift card good for any of three dining options that’ll be steps from these homes: Russo’s Kitchen & Tavern, with a great bar and alluring dining area splashed by Peter Kudla’s own art collection, operated by Jimmy Lambatos, known for his Footer’s and Baur’s Ristorante operations downtown; also Marco’s Coal-Fired Pizzeria, and Mary Nguyen’s Street Kitchen Asian Bistro, a concept she concocted after touring new operations in the Far East. Alongside you’ll see a wine shop, a spa, a dentist (he has massage chairs with overhead TVs) and ‘District 475,’ an art gallery/event center that’s been booking weddings and bar mitzvahs.
And there’s the footbridge linking Vallagio to Light Rail. “With gas prices this year, Light Rail’s gone from being a minor convenience to a solid value,” says Sherman, who adds that some buyers have kids, liking the Cherry Creek Schools. Vallagio’s sales gallery is just east of I-25 on Dry Creek, then right a block on Inverness Drive.
If you go…
WHERE: Preview of Series 3 Row Homes at Vallagio, 2,200-2,600 sq. ft. with attached 2-car garage; new-urban neighborhood by Metropolitan Homes at Inverness Golf Club, $10 gift certificate for first 50 visitors good for Russo’s Tavern, Marco’s Pizzeria or Street Kitchen Bistro at Vallagio. Take I-25 to Dry Creek Rd., head east 1 blk to Inverness Dr. West, right 1 blk to sales gallery entry
PRICE: Luxury Row Homes from $450s
WHEN: Saturday & Sunday, noon until 4 p.m.
PHONE: 303-222-1370 WEB: Vallagio.com
