Getting your player ready...
The popularity of retirement ranch plans around Denver is a huge story coming into 2015, and prices are rising rapidly: running around $400,000 and up, according to Realtors and new home marketing people. But Oakwood Homes – 25 years old this new year — can deliver a new single-family ranch in its age-55-plus Fairway Villas at Green Valley Ranch for $100,000 less than that, and you can tour a grand opening of one of those ranch models today, a mile east of the DIA freeway on E. 56th.
The Gleneagle ranch design opening at Fairway Villas today is the largest of three ranches Oakwood is bringing into the new year to keep Fairway Villas’ prices well below the going rate. It has a base price from $321,000 – plus a $10,000 site premium – for a home that delivers over 2,000 square feet of finished space, including a ‘smart space’ above the main level, shown in the model as a loft-library and a home office, and used by some buyers as a third suite for visiting kids. What’s NOT new at Fairway Villas is the lifestyle that comes packaged into these ranch plans: a location tucked into Green Valley Ranch Golf Club, where residents have their own clubhouse and fulltime activities director, who ran Christmas and New Year’s parties last week, and coordinates events ranging from water sports in the indoor-outdoor pools, to a hiking club, to cooking classes, to a knock-around golf group. Residents get reduced green fees and advance tee times on the championship course, and play the par-3 course there for free. If you like the looks of what you see at Fairway Villas, you basically have two options, says Oakwood’s Trishell MacDonald: You can pick from a selection of ranches Oakwood has ready to move in now, from only $349,900 – or you can get going on a personalized version of any one of Oakwood’s ranches from $291,300 – picking how you want to use the upstairs smart space, an option for basement space, and for a ‘smart garage’ (it’s shown in the new model) that can work for a third car, or for a hobby room or shop. “Either way, you need to see these homes and sites and lock in on a plan,” says MacDonald. “Builders are anticipating another very big year, and we’re already scheduling ahead on the start of construction for each new home site. And prices will continue going up.” Along with cookies and coffee, MacDonald will have a fruit platter out to coincide with your New Year resolutions – and will show three homes that can deliver now. She’ll tell you about the two bald eagles she saw last week in the cottonwood open space between Fairway Villas and the golf club, and about the parks and amenities at Fairway Villas – all of them including the clubhouse maintained by a metro district, offered to residents at now additional monthly fee. And as Oakwood marks its 25th anniversary, ask MacDonald about a special incentive Oakwood is offering for its first 25 2016 buyers. Fairway Villas starts from the low $300s – for single-family ranches, not duplexes or townhomes. Take Peña (DIA freeway) north to E. 56th, then east 1.2 miles to Dunkirk and right to 54th Place. WHERE: Fairway Villas, Green Valley Ranch Golf Club by Oakwood, age-55-plus enclave, grand opening of Gleneagle model; residents’ clubhouse with bar, workout area & pool; Oakwood’s 25th anniversary incentive on first 25 homes sold; cookies, coffee, fruit today. 19394 E. 54th Pl., Denver; take Peña Blvd (DIA Fwy) north to E. 56th, east 1.2 mi. (past Tower) to Dunkirk, right to E. 54th; or from Green Valley Ranch Blvd, take Himalaya north