Getting your player ready...
Roomy, new 2-bedroom condos at The Reserve at Ten Mile Creek in Granby Ranch cost only around $265,000 – but the couples who buy here have typically been looking at much pricier mountain properties. “Our buyers are people who’ve been coming to Grand County for years, who usually gravitate to resorts like Devil’s Thumb Ranch and Winter Park,” says Jim Houston, who will show you The Reserve’s brand new 2-bedroom and 3-bedroom models, off U.S. 40 20 minutes from Winter Park.
“When they see inside these homes, and absorb the very private setting here, it hits their sweet spot,” Houston adds. “They ask themselves, ‘Why aren’t we doing this? Why should we be paying more when this is everything we want?’” That ‘sweet spot’ for seasoned mountain buyers appeals both to their indoor and outdoor yearnings. At Granby Ranch, a four-season resort with its own ski mountain, 18-hole golf course, cross-country trails and a fishing reserve, residents are only 12 minutes from Devil’s Thumb – a few minutes more from Winter Park and Mary Jane. But they find themselves protected by 100 acres of dedicated conservation greenbelt, along with vast tracts of alpine pasture set against the Falcon Ridge, crested by peaks in the Park Range and along the Continental Divide. “This is a setting that feels private by definition, that would cost well beyond a million dollars in nicer areas of Winter Park and Devil’s Thumb,” Houston adds. That buyer also has expectations for what they want inside a retreat – a place with a grand sense of arrival for guests, but where their owner’s suite will offer privacy and its own connections to the outdoors. That’s much what you’ll experience today when Houston shows you a ‘Treehouse’ 2-story model – with a main-floor entertaining area that shows a blend of timber, granite and rock, set across an expanse of 29 feet from the entry foyer, against alpine views. The staircase to the bedroom level has distressed steel railings that remind of Grand County’s mining days, and bedroom suites get 2-sided views (the master has its own balcony). As with other Reserve homes, classic finishes are packaged in, including a granite kitchen with pendant lights, stone fireplace under a chinked-wood mantel, plank floors, rubbed-bronze fixtures, and covered decks where the outdoor living experience can reach into the winter months with an optional infrared deck heater. The Reserve has homes like that where you could ski this season, then enjoy the mountains through warmer months via Granby Ranch’s lift-served mountain bike trails, golf and fishing – not to mention boating on nearby Granby and Shadow Mountain Reservoirs, and hiking the trails into Rocky Mountain National Park. “Why spend $700,000 or $800,000 for an experience that’s captured by a third of that?” says Houston. Best yet, Granby Ranch is just 90 minutes from downtown – much closer for Front Range residents than Steamboat or Beaver Creek. To explore, call Houston (970-557-3022) or take I-70 past Idaho Springs to U.S. 40 and continue west past Winter Park; 15 more miles to a right at Village Road. Visit Facebook/Lodgeat1OMileCreek or 10milecreek.com.low $300s WHEN: Today and daily 10-6 PHONE: 970-557-3022
