In 1981, when the first earth was moved for a residential community east of Tower Road at E. 48th Avenue, nobody could have imagined how well-situated Green Valley Ranch would one day come to be.
Now as the master-planned community marks its 40th birthday, Green Valley Ranch is pushing east from its Denver origins into the city of Aurora, where itap surrounded by some of the area’s most precious amenities—the Anschutz medical campus, the E-470 beltway, and the new airport and its ‘Aerotropolis’ infrastructure.
A new airport wasn’t even on the horizon when Green Valley Ranch saw its first homeowners move in, who became part of one of Colorado’s first ‘master-planned communities’—to have parks, trails, schools, shopping, and other amenities that were otherwise miles distant across farmland.
Oakwood Homes, now Green Valley Ranch’s master developer, is at work now on the newest amenities that will serve Aurora neighborhoods in the community, east across Picadilly Road from already-completed areas that are in the city of Denver.
“Our newest residents still have great access to Green Valley Ranch Golf Club and to community events that have become part of life for residents in the older areas of Green Valley Ranch,” says Rhett Nelson Regional Sales Manager. He oversees sales of Oakwood’s newest Meridian, Horizon and Carriage House Collections of homes in Green Valley Ranch, starting from the low $400s.
Just north of where you can tour those models at Green Valley Ranch Boulevard and Picadilly, you can see a Farmhouse styled pool and clubhouse already taking shape to serve Oakwood’s earliest move-ins at The Reserve, its newest age-55-plus community in Green Valley Ranch.
Meanwhile, says Nelson, those newest Oakwood neighborhoods lie at the center of the most prominent infrastructure developments happening now in Aurora and Adams County.
Twenty-six years ago, Green Valley Ranch moved from being an urban outlier to becoming a midpoint on the route to Denver International Airport. The new air hub brought along a freeway (Peña Boulevard) to serve Green Valley Ranch, followed nearby by the E-470 Beltway that now puts residents within commuting reach of tech campuses in Boulder and Broomfield Counties, and south at Buckley AFB, Lone Tree, and the Denver Tech Center.
DIA’s arrival also led to a host of related employment sites that are integral to the 52-square-mile airport, including the recently completed Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center, two miles north of the new neighborhoods.
Oakwood’s Kara Svendson, who will show you those Meridian and Horizon model homes today, notes that E-470 is very convenient for residents; but they also have great access to numbers of arteries that don’t require using a toll road. Major grocery shopping and other conveniences are already close by as part of Green Valley Ranch’s existing infrastructure.
Oakwood’s newest neighborhoods at Green Valley Ranch are just east of Picadilly on Green Valley Ranch Boulevard. Take the DIA Freeway/Peña Boulevard to Green Valley Ranch Boulevard and turn east three miles; or from E-470 exit at E. 56th, turn west to Picadilly, then south.
The news and editorial staffs of The Denver Post had no role in this postap preparation.