Getting your player ready...
Terri and Derek Zukosky were committed to Denver and its center-city neighborhoods: They’d migrated from Cheesman to Wash Park and then to Cory Merrill, and along the way did a scrape-and-build house on one of its urban sites. Now, improbably, they’re packing up and moving ten miles west of Wash Park to Solterra, near Green Mountain and Red Rocks Park, where Toll Brothers is finishing off a new home for them.
“It had that community feel; it didn’t feel like the suburbs,” says Terri Zukosky, physician’s assistant at Sky Ridge Medical Center, who’d been driving over to Solterra ever since 2008 when the Parade of Homes was there. Toll Brothers’ Cynthia Considine – she sold 14 luxury-sized homes last year and has four reservations just since Jan. 1 – has muffins and Danish out and will show you an alluring ‘Bella’ model, as well as trails and amenities that helped reel in the Zukoskys.
You may also want to talk to neighbors – something that Terri Zukosky did. “We’ve already met people that had come from Highlands and Wash Park,” she added. “It’s very appealing in terms of everybody is in the same place in life.” That means kids (the Zukoskys have two toddlers and have already checked out the schools), as well as outdoor sports — particularly mountain bikes, a common thread among Toll Brothers’ buyers. With their move to Solterra the Zukoskys shave a half hour off their ski trips in winter and water skiing ventures in summer. Terri Zukosky says she’ll miss little Wash Park restaurant haunts; but already likes the look of places in Morrison – and has been reassured by other Toll Brothers buyers that the trip into LoDo from here is quick and routine.
You’ll also, Zukosky adds, get more for your money out here, revealed in the size and quality of these homes from the $540s. They’re selling fast enough that Considine has only one spec for sale, months from completion: It’s a ‘Bertoni’ 4-bedroom with 3-car split garage and west-facing covered patio, at $590,995. You can see that site and others where you could have plenty of time to pick options and market your old place.
You’ll also see Solterra’s Tuscan-styled ‘Retreat’ pool/community center set against the scenic panorama of Red Rocks and Dinosaur Ridge. Toll Brothers’ is standard with the 3-car garage and can customize any to three, four, or even five bedrooms (one ‘Costa’ 3,200-foot main-floor master design can go to six) without moving into the basement. Take C-470 north from Morrison or south from I-70 to Alameda, then east. You can also arrive from Lakewood on either Alameda or Morrison Road, to Indiana.
If you go…
WHERE: Toll Brothers at Solterra, Tuscan-styled ‘Bella’ model, 3-car standard garage, options for 4 or 5 bedrooms, Tuscan architecture; master planned amenities; coffee, Danish & muffins today. 2157 S. Juniper, Lakewood; take C-470 either north from Morrison or south from I-70 to Alameda Pkwy; head east 1 mi. to Indiana, then south 0.4 mi to W. Evans Pl.
PRICE: From $545,995
WHEN: Today & Sunday, 10 a.m. until 6 p.m.
PHONE: 303-237-3354 WEB: TollBrothersAtSolterra.com
Mark Samuelson writes on real estate and business; you can email him at mark@samuelsonassoc.com. You can see all of Mark Samuelson’s columns online at DenverPostHomes.com
