Getting your player ready...
Berkeley Homes and Harvard Communities, two of Colorado’s most creative builders, could give you a whole new way of looking at the landscape south of Park Meadows this weekend; and a new way of looking at solar energy, too. They’ve joined forces in Lone Tree to design an enclave of 31 single-family residences (ten are already reserved) showcased by an eye-catching, family-sized model with finished walkout basement, and a solar power system that you lease rather than buy.
At ParkSide at RidgeGate, you can visit a ‘Sky’ family sized 2-story that shows a fetching interior in hues of moss and salmon by Barb Decker of Captivating Design, a trendy kitchen with both walk-in and butler’s pantries, and terrific entertaining, office and recreation spaces. Priced for today’s opening from $439,000, the Sky can go five or even six bedrooms with optional finished basement space; a value, along with attractive Douglas County schools serving RidgeGate, that’s luring numbers of family buyers into the mix with reservations here. The solar power systems are just part of the energy extras. ParkSide is being crafted to new Energy Star 3.0 standards – an ambitious upgrade that many national builders are backing away from, according to Berkeley Homes’ Rich Laws. ParkSide doesn’t have a ranch, but the ‘Bluff’ main-floor master suite model has drawn two reservations from empty-nest-type buyers. “I call it a reverse-ranch,” says John Keith of Harvard Communities, who was a pioneer in introducing energy-efficient patio ranches to Castle Pines in the ’90s. “You really have single-level living, but with much more added space upstairs or in the basement for guest suites and other spaces.” That idea is a perfect match for walk-out and daylight garden levels available on half of these ParkSide sites, and for builders who are ready and anxious to finish space for you down there now. You’re also getting 3.0 kilowatts of solar panels from Solar City, a company taking a lease approach to solar. Families receive the system on a 20-year lease paid up-front by the builder, costing buyers nothing for hardware or extended maintenance, and still providing a return against electric costs every month. Everybody gets it, and that, says Keith, will make ParkSide the first all-solar neighborhood in the Denver area. Laws estimates the leased-solar together with the added conservation could save some families as much as $1,000 per year at today’s rates. That’s not counting the gas you could save taking advantage of 3,500-acre RidgeGate’s remarkable walkability – something that will grow even stronger as RidgeGate grows. Sky Ridge Medical Center (getting a $100 million expansion) is a half mile east, and ParkSide is a short walk from new, 500-seat Lone Tree Arts Center; Lincoln Commons with Sprouts Farmers Market; parks and ballfields around Lone Tree’s rec center; and 1,000 acres of bluff open space accessible by two trailheads within two blocks (builder Keith does a weekly climb to its scenic summit – elevation exactly 1,000 feet above downtown Denver). …Not to count the shopping, theaters and restaurant row at Park Meadows; Light Rail in Lone Tree, or a new station in the FasTracks plan that would be walkable from here. To reach the opening today and this weekend take I-25 south past 470 and Lincoln to RidgeGate Pkwy exit; head northwest to Crossington, then left past the Rec Center. If you go…
