Getting your player ready...
One model on view in this year’s Parade of Homes (final two weekends!) is seven miles further into the outback than any of the next closest homes – but it’s drawing sizable crowds because of its uniqueness. G.J. Gardner Homes’ Keystone ranch at Elkhorn Ranch, 10 minutes east of E-470 at Smoky Hill Road, lies on five acres of land – more than 20 times the size of average sites that the Parade’s production builders are showing – surrounded by wide open spaces.
“People are really starting to get what we’re doing,” says Scott Moberg, who builds for G.J. Gardner in Douglas and Elbert Counties, and who saw more than 100 visitors last weekend. “They come in wanting to show us plans that they have and home sites where they’ve been waiting to build. They seem ready to get away from the cookie-cutter mold.” The Keystone ranch – sized at 2,500 square feet, plus an additional 1,300 square feet of finish in a daylight garden-level basement — has a side-load 3-car garage, and takes in a panorama of Front Range peaks. The home, says Moberg, is less an example of exactly what G.J. Gardner provides, than a starting point for people to envision their own ideas, and how they might work on other sites like this, with serious elbow room.G.J. Gardner has a second version of the ranch under way on a 5-acre site nearby – priced at $789,000 and on track for move-in before the holidays. But Moberg and Jason August can also show you other possibilities; including sites west of Larkspur, where they have three homes starting construction, all on large, scenic sites, with time available for a buyer to get involved and drive the creative process. Those latter are at Inca Ridge, backing to a cedar-crested ridgeline a mile from Perry Park Country Club. G.J. Gardner plans one ranch there similar in size to the one you’ll tour at Elkhorn, tentatively priced at $689,000; a second ranch slightly smaller at $589,000; and a 2,200-square-foot family sized two-story at $605,000. Inca Ridge is wrapped in ponderosa forest and canyons of the Rampart Range but is only around 40 minutes south of the Denver Tech Center. Contract by end of tomorrow on any home and G.J. Gardner/Douglas County will upgrade you to a designer-quality (Bosch) kitchen. To reach the Parade home at Elkhorn Ranch from E-470, take Smoky Hill Road east 2 miles to Powhaton Road, turn south a mile to County Line Road, then east five miles to Elbert Rd 17. You can also visit G.J. Gardner’s design center just west of Park Meadows, to learn about other sites – one of eight G.J. Gardner Design Centers up-and-down the Front Range where you can review plans, see finishes and features, and talk to builder about sites in your area. The Douglas County Center is at 8220 Park Meadows Drive, Lone Tree; west of S. Yosemite on Park Meadows Drive. Moberg and his team are at 303-805-0644 or 303-660-4467. And you can find other G.J. Gardner Homes builders breaking out from the mold in the city of Denver/Highlands (303-327-6211); Adams County (303-658-0146), Cheyenne (307-638-2030), Colorado Springs (719-495-7664), Lakewood/Golden (303-271-1020), Loveland (970-669-0822); Fort Collins (970-663-4428); and Grand Junction (970-245-7542). WHERE: G.J. Gardner Homes in Douglas/Elbert Counties, ranch model, choice of sites in Douglas, Elbert Counties, 4 homes underway now on acreage sites for late 2015/early 2016 delivery; contract this weekend & upgrade free to Bosch appliances. Elkhorn Ranch; 3973 Eastout Ave, Elbert Cnty; from E-470 take Smoky Hill Rd east to Powhaton Rd, south 1 mi. to County Line Rd, east 5 mi. to Elbert Rd 17 PRICE: From low $500s
Design Center 303-660-4467 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 online at DenverPostHomes.com