Getting your player ready...
Exactly a year ago, when builder Michael Alpert opened a gated single-family enclave south of Lowry, there was serious concern whether buyers would be able to find its tucked-away location, versus the mega-sized communities they hear so much about further north. Fast-forward to this holiday season and Alpert Signature Homes has roared through two-thirds of its 66 available sites in Valentia Court, just east of Leetsdale on Mississippi – now looking at its final site opportunities, including a couple of homes that can be ready right away.
“We’ve definitely been discovered,” says Alpert – third generation in one of Denver’s most enduring homebuilding families. The two obvious reasons why, he adds, are price (from the high $300s) and a location that’s three miles east of Cherry Creek Shopping Center – Denver address but Arapahoe County’s Cherry Creek Schools — where Valentia Court now offers increasingly rare new-home availability. Today you can tour Alpert designs from the high-$300s – including a ‘Santiago’ family-sized home with 2,695 square feet finished, four bedrooms, priced from $449,900, including study and 2-car garage. That makes a favorable comparison, Alpert notes, to what buyers see in the big-builder areas that don’t have the access to downtown and to Cherry Creek that this one does. If you like the look of that model, Alpert has a Santiago nearby on a prime site that allowed the builder to create a day-lighted garden-level basement – finished as part of the package with an added guest bedroom-bath suite and rec room with wet bar. The price is $597,566 for just over 3,600 square feet, including slab-granite kitchen with stainless appliances with built-in microwave, 6-burner range top with 42-inch designer hood, and a pantry, surrounded by a sea of hardwood flooring. It shows high levels of trim and finish that have always been Alpert hallmarks. That might sound favorable even if other builders were showing dozens of finished homes nearby along the Cherry Creek corridor – but of course, they’re not. Lowry, the mile-wide master plan created in the 1990s a mile north of here, is largely built out and in a new-home hiatus now; and most other opportunities are on the drawing board, nowhere close to delivery. Andy Sommers and Dee Tickle can also let you tour a ‘Venice’ ranch plan, from $384,900, and a main-floor master suite design that could have you moved-in in time to entertain for the holidays. And they’ll point out the enclave’s gated entry and lower-maintenance streetscape – two features you won’t find anywhere nearby with luxury single-family product. To reach Valentia Court, take Alameda east from Colorado Boulevard two blocks, swing southeast onto Leetsdale and continue 3 miles, past Mississippi, to Valentia and turn north. WHERE: Valentia Court by Alpert Signature Homes, final third of available sites in gated enclave 10 min. from Cherry Creek; homes to 2,600 sq. ft. served by Cherry Creek Schools; ranch tour today; main-floor master suite can deliver December. 1248 S. Valentia Ct., Arapahoe County; from Colorado Blvd. take Alameda east to Leetsdale, bear right 3 mi., past Mississippi, to Valentia and left (north). PRICE: From high $300s10:30 a.m. – 6 p.m. PHONE: 303-288-7777 WEB: 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 at DenverPost.com/RealEstate. Follow Mark Samuelson on Twitter: @marksamuelson
