Getting your player ready...
The grand opening of elacora’s single-family homes at The Overlook at Wheatlands is later next month; but if you wait that long, you’re likely to miss out on a remarkable single-family deal.
When another builder gave up these 60 sites in The Wheatlands – an area just east of Southlands shopping center that was underway just as the national housing market came apart in 2009 – there wasn’t much to see here. Now Cherry Creek Schools’ new Pine Ridge Elementary has the very highest possible rating at GreatSchools.org, two blocks from elacora’s models; there’s a clubhouse with pool and splash-pool closer than that, and Aurora Reservoir’s nice public beach, where the Air Force Thunderbirds staged their show, is a mile-and-a half north. That’s where elacora – a Colorado-based builder that’s already open in Florida and California – is showing its first Denver-Boulder models, still at pre-opening prices that sound out of sync with the fast-rise of resale homes, particularly close to these schools. Right now Elacora will show you an Aberdeen ranch, with fireplace, front-yard landscaping, hardwood floors in the kitchen-entry, granite countertops, stainless appliances, and 42-inch uppers – from $316,000. “We can actually get you into a home at that price,” says elacora’s Scott Oldham, who was instrumental in finding these sites. That, adds Oldham, would put you in the ranch on an interior lot; but across the street Elacora has other lots directly on an open space along a gulch. For another $20,000 you could be there. Next door, you can preview a big-family Valhalla – four bedrooms, PLUS a big main-floor story, PLUS loft, 2,782 square feet for $394,000. Prices of both homes include a 9-foot partial basement – and you’ll see low cost options for upgrading to a full basement, with attractive finished space down there, if you wish. elacora hadn’t even put these up on the web until this week – but seven buyers are already under contract before this weekend’s preview – possibly nine. All of those are families who found out about this because they happen live within a stone’s throw of Wheatlands and Beacon Point. Buyers and Realtors in the area, Oldham adds, report bidding wars for older homes that sometimes sell in a single day. You’ll see a cleaner, more contemporary look to interior design (the ranch has a well-defined entry space, and the 2-story shows an option for a huge master retreat with fireplace); and you’ll see backyards being landscaped to show elaborate options for outdoor living space. elacora, Oldham says, offers a very personalized system of finish options – standards that everybody wants included in the base price, and loads of options available through the builder’s design studio in Centennial. elacora can deliver homes as early as September, for a good start on the school year – but there are only 60 lots. To tour these models today, tomorrow or Sunday, from E-470 take Smoky Hill east a half mile, just past S. Aurora Parkway, to Wheatlands Parkway and turn north.and business; you can email him at
mark@samuelsonassoc.com. You can see all of Mark Samuelson’s columns online
at DenverPostHomes.com
