Two years ago, new-urban developer Peter Kudla walked away with Denver’s highest “Community of the Year Award” for his imaginative Vallagio neighborhood beside Inverness Golf Club and a Light Rail station. Now, with a handful of lofts and luxury row homes left, he’s giving Vallagio’s final buyers something back, starting with a little advice.

Metropolitan’s Julia Sherman (left) and Melodie McCuaig look out over the new-urban design of Vallagio from a loft.

“These final homes are a steal,” he says. “People need to know the window is closing; you’ll never be able to build at this price.” more »

Ever since ‘new urbanism’ arrived in the 1990s, Denver builders have tried creating new-urban communities–places where most daily needs are walkable. Many of those projects somehow never generate the actual cafes and grocery shopping that buyers want to have close at hand…but today you can tour one that’s everything advertised: shops, coffee, fitness, a pub or two, groceries, all within 2 blocks.

Distinctive Properties’ Cate Dobson shows off a lavishly furnished two-bedroom-plus-study plan at Luce, re-priced for a reopening behind Lowry Town Center.

Luce…pronounced ‘loo-chay’…is right behind Lowry Town Center, so close that you can actually walk into Albertson’s flagship store within three minutes of leaving your door. This is a project that was set to open a year ago but that’s been totally re-priced now, with some homes 25% lower than they were then. more »

By Mark Samuelson

Whether or not you’re chasing after something in Denver’s Highlands neighborhood, you’re unlikely to tour any house more fun than one in Sunnyside, north of W. 38th, two blocks east of Federal. Beaux Arts-trained architect Eugene Groves began work in 1935 on a 1-bedroom there, two years before he did Johnson’s Corner gas station on old U.S. 85 near Longmont, saved from a wrecking ball in 2002.

Highlands developer Chuck Murphy of Epic Realty restored this all-concrete landmark by Denver architect Eugene Groves.

This house, which spent the 1980s-1990s sheltering jazz percussionist Marc Bertoni, could have easily met a similar fate. Of 40 buildings Groves created (numbers of landmarks on the CSU campus), only a dozen ever gained historic preservation; and when Mr. Bertoni began ailing, this one wasn’t on the list. “It would have been a historical sin if it had been torn down,” says Highlands developer Chuck Murphy, who spent two years restoring 2733 41st Street for the market, preserving all its quirks. more »