Getting your player ready...
There’s no nicer place around Denver for custom building than on the west side of town, Jefferson County, with its well established neighborhoods and interesting terrain. G.J. Gardner Homes, offering custom building solutions all along the Front Range, has one specialist builder entirely devoted to making custom home ideas happen in Jeffco.
“The days are over when you can find new, master-planned areas in Jefferson County devoted to custom sites,” says Bob Shearer, veteran custom builder who is G.J. Gardner’s Jeffco specialist. “Jeffco is highly prized now for its easy access to downtown and Highlands. Any larger tracts end up going to production builders, who will use every site for their one-size-fits-all homes.” Nevertheless, Shearer and G.J. Gardner have four or five projects underway at any one time in Lakewood, Golden, Arvada, Wheat Ridge, and areas of west Littleton – not to count foothills neighborhoods in Lookout Mountain, Genesee, Evergreen, Idaho Springs and Conifer. A typical client may be a couple that’s lived in Jeffco for decades and wants a ranch plan where they can age in place. …Or it could be a younger couple working downtown, wanting to be close to Highland’s dining scene, but wanting more space for their kids than they can find in Highlands. Getting a custom home going is much easier if you already have a home site than if you don’t have one, Shearer says. Although Shearer and his agent, Jim Thomas, are ready and willing to talk with anyone with a Jeffco lot to sell, scarcity of land in these neighborhoods makes locating good sites a major hurdle. “It may be a lot you’ve found, or it may be the one where you’re already living,” Shearer adds. Some customers are well satisfied with their current address and neighbors, and like that their kids and grandkids are close by — but realize that the only way to get the ranch they’re after is to scrape the old place, move out for a few months, and build new. Either way, Shearer says now’s the time to build – citing the fast-rising value of homes, and the transformation taking place particularly in older Jeffco neighborhoods, driven by people wanting that unique access. “We’re seeing lots of scrapes now,” adds Thomas – who points to Wheat Ridge areas close to Lutheran Hospital, many with ridgeline views. “A sign goes up and a sign comes down.” Single-site building in Highlands and Berkeley in City of Denver, he says, is now pushing west into Lakewood and Wheat Ridge. Jefferson County’s schools, notes Thomas, are helping drive that flow westward. Shearer had plenty of experience with national firms before he moved into custom design-build, much of it on ranch and main-floor master suite projects. Meanwhile, his affiliation with G.J. Gardner – a national company that ranks among Colorado’s top-20 builders by volume – gives Shearer added reach in purchasing materials and getting trade specialties – ending in dollar advantages to buyers.