Taking a new look across Denver from RidgeGate’s ‘new urban’ vantage point
By Mark Samuelson
Most of the 300 families who’ve bought homes at RidgeGate in Lone Tree over the past three years have come from Denver’s southeast corridor…but among the remainder are some arriving from California, who instantly recognize what the developer is creating here: a community with a suburban address, but with a new urban feel.
Darryl M. Jones, Development Manager for RidgeGate, takes in view toward DTC from a trail up bluffs above Sky Ridge Medical Center. Luxury homes in foreground are sold out.
“We’re calling it ‘Urban Scape,’” says Coventry Development Corporation Vice President Keith Simon, who has a view across the changing landscape from his office near Sky Ridge Medical Center.
One buyer from the Bay Area started exploring their move to the Mile High by Googling “new urbanism Denver.” That turned up web sites of the two, big Denver city redevelopment projects…and RidgeGate’s. The family visited all three…and were probably impressed by the master plan taking shape here. But the clincher, says Simon, may well have been the pretty terrain around Lone Tree.
Last Sunday I took a hike that Simon recommended, starting from Bluffmont Heights, a luxury enclave (already sold out) on the hill to the south. From the trailhead, the route climbs the highest bluff above the new hospital…elevation 6,280 feet…exactly 1,000 feet above Denver. From there (the developer built a Stonehenge monument, and a compass rose that points out the 14,000-foot peaks around Denver, to mark the spot) you can see all of RidgeGate’s components.
…Starting with Light Rail and its current station on Lincoln Avenue at I-25…to three more stations planned, one for Sky Ridge, twho more for a large area of office/residential that will be east of the freeway. You can see work underway on RidgeGate’s own I-25 interchange at RidgeGate Parkway…and at the Sky Ridge complex (five years old, already undergoing a big expansion)…now nurturing 1,000 jobs, plus a huge infrastructure of related medical businesses.
There are trails, linking to a handsome rec center, ballfields, $3.5 million in new parks…and to the site of a Lone Tree cultural center that will seat 350 for concerts at Lincoln Commons. The Target super store is already a draw…and other restaurants and stores are making plans to arrive, walking distance from all homes. All of it–homes, businesses, dining–are being linked by fiber optic cable.
“Master plans always stand the test of time better,” Simon told me, noting that while most new home opportunities at RidgeGate are sold out for now (a townhouse offering is opening pre-sales in the mid-$3s), this is a great weekend to drive the area and imagine how you might want to be part as Colorado’s future takes shape.
TO VISIT RIDGEGATE: RidgeGate, master planned community in Lone Tree designed around Light Rail, parks, trails, Sky Ridge Medical Center, varieties of new homes arriving. Just west of I-25 at Lincoln Avenue.
PRICE RANGE: Mid-$300s to $1 million ON THE WEB: RidgeGateColorado.com
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Tags: Colorado, Denver, economy, Highlands Ranch, homes, master-planned, real estate market, recovery, relocation
