Families are looking at leisure and vacation time differently in the wake of last spring’s virus lockdown; and you can see a dramatic example in the mountain resort town of Granby. River Run, with loads of family-oriented amenities set alongside the Colorado River, introduced 36 new single-family ‘resort villas’ to the market just as the stay-at-home was imposed; but almost two-thirds of them (they’re priced from $274,900) have already disappeared in just two months as the market reopened.
One of those units — a 3-bedroom ‘Alpine Retreat’ model with well over 1,700 sq. feet of finished space—sold to Katie and Andrew Dowd of Littleton, who with their kids age 6, 9 and 11 had been making trips up to River Run for the past year in their 36-foot RV, staying in River Run’s RV park.
Now the Dowds are spending even more time in the mountains—setting up a home office in the third bedroom that provides a quieter place for Andrew to work from home than the big rig did.
“We kept going back (to River Run) because there’s so much for kids to do—ride bikes, go to the pool,” says Katie Dowd, adding that they expect to use the home extensively this fall, while Littleton Schools are giving them an option to keep the kids home.
The decision to buy followed a ten-day stay at River Run in their RV during July. Katie toured the new resort models and the couple bought one immediately.
“We’re seeing buyers who are quickly rethinking how they want to spend leisure time, once they get a look at these models,” says River Run’s Janelle Yeagley, who can show you those, along with the dwindling number of homes that are still available.
With kid-oriented amenities that include a bowling alley, an arcade, a stocked fishing lake, a gem-mining sluice, and a nice playground, Yeagley says River Run has attracted more than its share of grandparents, wanting to lure grandkids. But lots of younger families are doing this, too.
Owners of the single-family villas pay a resort fee of $850 a month to cover the amenities, including property taxes, maintenance, and some snow removal. River Run offers buyers the option to offset some of that with a rental management program that could rent your home out when you’re not on-site (they rent from $325/night in ski season; $375/night from May to mid-October).
But the Dowds say they’re not planning to do that. “We want to use it whenever we want,” says Katie, adding that they’ll be here during ski season, when River Run is 20 minutes from slopes in Winter Park, closer still to Granby Ranch.
Meanwhile, the couple likes the dining scene in Granby, including their favorites—Maverick’s, Debbie’s Drive In, and Lion Head Coffee & Ice Cream; but have both a tavern and bar-grill right inside River Run.
The news and editorial staffs of The Denver Post had no role in this postap preparation.