The Kearns Team Stapleton Real Estate News - Information On Buying And Selling Real Estate In Stapleton And Denver Colorado

Forest City announced today it will break ground this summer on two new multi-family rental complexes at Stapleton.

The Eastbridge Apartments will be comprised of 118 rental homes on E. 29th Drive at Havana. The new apartments will be within a block of a neighborhood pool and park that opened at Stapleton in 2008 and just minutes west of the major employment center of the Fitzsimons Life Science District and the Anschutz Medical Campus. Units in the two and three story buildings that comprise the complex will include 1 and 2 bedroom units. Rents for the Eastbridge Apartments are expected to range from $1,050 to $1,425.

The second new complex at Stapleton will be the Novella Apartments located north of Martin Luther King Boulevard two blocks north of the E.29th Avenue Town Center along Roslyn Way. The apartments will be within a short walk of the Quebec Square Regional Retail Center, the planned FasTracks multimodal center on Smith Road to the north and Central Park to the east. A new Denver Public Library is scheduled to open in the Town Center in 2012 and the new Swigert-McAuliffe International School (ECE-8) will be opened by Denver Public Schools near the Novella Apartments in August of this year. The 85 units of the first phase of the 220 unit development are expected to include 1 and 2 bedroom apartments with leases expected to range from $1,050 to $1,350.

“The multifamily market has rebounded swiftly,” said John Lehigh, president of Forest City Stapleton, Inc. “The flexible zoning at Stapleton allows Forest City to take advantage of market opportunities and bring product to market quickly in ideal locations. “We have every reason to expect that these new rental developments will receive an enthusiastic welcome from the market and further enhance Stapleton’s image as a community that offers a diversity of housing choices,” Lehigh added.

In a study released today, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that installing solar panles on a home in California increases its value by $17,000 on average. While this is not an exact sicence, and LBNL's study was confined to homes in California, it does show that buyers see value in the photovoltaic systems installation.

The study looked at 72,000 home sales between 1999 and 2009, and found that on average a photovoltaic system increased a home's resale value by about $5.50 per watt.

Locally, in Stapleton we are seeing more and more homes with solar power systems. New Town Builders has offered solar as a standard feature of their Solaris model homes, tor the past two years. Their CEO, Gene Myers, recently told 9News that  he belives the addition of solar, combined with increased overall energy efficiency, has helped New Town prosper in the current real estate market.

Cool news from today's meeting of the Stapleton Master Community Asosciation (MCA) delegates:

The MCA received a grant from the American Red Cross to place five Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in the community. Four will go to the neighborhood's four pools, and the fiftth will be on hand for community events. The grant saved the MCA about $12,000 while providing extra care for residents in case of emergency.

According to the American Heart Association, 'Sudden cardiac arrest and other life-threatening emergencies can happen anywhere... Giving CPR and using an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) can greatly increase the victim’s chance of survival.'

Paula Deorio, Aquatics Director for the MCA, could barely contain her excitement as she talked about the defibrillators while Keven Burnett showed off one of the units. Paula noted that the pool's lifeguards would be trained on use of the AEDs, but the units are designed so that others could use them in case of emergency.

In a sign that the times are improving for home builders in Denver's Stapleton neighborhood, the days of price incentives and negotiations are coming to an end.

For the last few years, buyers have approached builder pricing sheets in about the same way that they view the MSRP on a car - as a quaint but not always relevant number. Whether builders were open to negotiations usually came down to the status of each individual home, but buyers have expected to be in the drivers' seat.  With 240+ new home sales in Stapleton last year, new designs and energy saving features being added to homes in Central Park West, and a smaller supply of available lots, builders have been encouraged to price their homes to avoid offering incentives.

Of course we will probably still see incentives and negotiations on spec and inventory homes that are unsold as they near completion (these are usually homes where the original buyer had to drop the contract). There are also a few deals left to be had where builders are closing out models and styles in areas outside of Central Park West.

Interested in a new home in Stapleton? Contact us today!

Famous Dave's BBQ restaurant in Quebec Square in Stapleton re-opened for business today, just 33 hours after a street sweeper truck crashed through an eterior wall and into the bar area.  The accident occured around 5am Monday morning.  No one inside the restaurant was hurt, and the truck driver was  taken from the scene in an ambulance, with non-life threatening injuries. 

The truck was estimated to have been traveling at approximately 40 mph when it crashed through the restaurant's wall.

Mike Higgins, Area Director for Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que, was quoted on the restaurant's Facebook page as saying, “It’s amazing that things have turned around this quickly. Just yesterday I was standing in a pile of rubble, although optimistic, I thought it would be 2-3 days before we were able to get the doors open again.”

Here's a link to some pretty amazing photos, posted on the restaurant's Facebook page.

After a long courtship, H&M announced this morning that it will be opening its first Colorado location in Denver, at the site of the current Niketown store at the Denver Pavilions on the 16th Street Mall.  An opening date has not been announced, but press reports say it should be sometime this fall.

Gart Proeprties purchased the Pavilions in 2008 and mentioned H&M as a retailer they hoped to lure to Denver. Earlier this month Nike announced that they would be closing their 12 year old Niketown store in the Denver Pavilions sometime in mid-May.  Niketown was one of the Pavilions original tenants.

“Denver is one of the most exciting markets we’re announcing this year,” said Nicole Christie, H&M spokeswoman. H&M currently has 2,200 stores worldwide, 210 in the United States.  

In a Denver Business Journal survey in April 2010, about the same time that IKEA began construction on their Denver-area store, Trader Joe's, In-n-Out Burger, and H&M were ranked as the top three stores that  readers wanted to have open in Colorado.

Okay, so it is just wishful thinking on my part.

I read this morning that Colorado-based Sunflower Farmers Market is expanding into California next month when they open their first store in Roseville Square, near Sacramento. It only seems like a fair trade to me that we get Trader Joe's to open in Colorado in exchange...

...and how about we also get a few In-n-Out Burger restaurants in Denver for good measure?

The Denver Post reported this morning that Ford Motor Company yesterday named Denver as one of the 25 most 'electric vehicle-ready cities' in the United States. In an amazing coincidence, a few months ago Ford had named Denver as one of the 19 launch cities for the late-2011 launch of the 2012 Ford Focus Electric.

The Nissa LEAF, another anticipated electric car, launched in Texas and Hawaii in January 2011 - apparently they didn't share Ford's love for Denver!

David Weekley Homes has announced that one of the first new homes in Stapleton's Central Park West neighborhood is available for sale and scheduled to close in June!

The home, located at 3492 Trenton Street, is 2175 sq ft (plus an 1,100 sq ft unfinished basement) and offers 3 bedrooms plus a loft, 2 1/2 baths, and a 2 car garage on a corner lot with mountain views.  The $416,705 purchase price includes 42' maple cabinets, hickory hardwood floors, granite slab counters in the kitchen and bathrooms, stainless steel appliances, fireplace, tankless water heater, and more!

Contact us today for more information.

All information provided by the Central Park Recreation Center.  Call the Center at 720.865.0750 with any questions.

Easter Bunny at Central Park April 23

Saturday, April 23rd from 10:00 am-2:00 pm the Easter Bunny will be at the Central Park Rec Center to take pictures at no charge. Make sure to bring the camera!

Swim Team - Central Park

Cost is $50 plus spirit gear. Practice days are Mon-Thur 8:30 am -9:30 am or 9:30 am-10:30 am. Ages 17 and under. Must be able to swim length of the pool. Practice starts June 6th.

Summer Baseball/Softball

5-6 Coed T-Ball-$40 6/5-7/30

Practice: Mon & Wed
Group A: 4:30 pm-5:15 pm
Group B: 5:30 pm-6:15 pm
Groups will be combined when games start

7-8 Coed Coach Pitch-$40 6/5-7/30

Practice: Tue and Thur
Group A: 4:30 pm-5:15 pm
Group B: 5:30 pm-6:15 pm
Groups will be combined when games start

9-10 Boys Baseball-$50 5/15-8/6

Practice: Tue & Thur 5:30 pm-6:30 pm
Games: TBA

9-10 Girls Softball-$50 5/15-8/6

Practice: Wed & Fri 4:30 pm-5:30 pm
Games: TBA

11-12 Girls Softball-$50 5/15-8/6

Practice: Mon & Tue 4:30 pm-5:30 pm
Games: TBA

Swim Suit Drive

Please donate new or nearly new (in good condition) swim suits for other kids in need. A drop-off box will be located in the lobby at Central Park. These suits will be distributed to other Denver Parks and Recreation facilities for kids who cannot afford swim suits.

Swim Lessons

Next lottery for swim registration is April 11th-12th. Classes are two days a week for four weeks.

Adult Ultimate Frisbee - CoEd and Men's

Registration Dates: April 4 -April 22, 2011
Season Dates: May 2-June 29, 2011 (8 Games)
Game Nights: Monday or Wednesday Nights
Cost: $450 per team or $65 for individuals
NO registrations will be accepted without full payment

Adult Kickball - CoEd and Men's

Not only is kickball a great way to get some exercise but it's ridiculously fun!

Registration Dates: April 4-22, 2011
Season Dates: May 3-June16, 2011
Game Nights:Tuesday or Thursday Nights
Cost: $350 per team or $55 for individual
NO registrations will be accepted without full payment

Tickets are now available for public tours of the 2011 HGTV Green Home in Stapleton!

Tours will be held Thursday through Sunday,  May 5 through July 3.  Hours are 10am to 6pm Thursday through Saturday and Noon - 5pm on Sundays.  Tours begin every 30 minutes, and leave from the Stapleton Discovery Center at 7706 Martin Luther King Blvd, Denver CO 80238.

Tickets are $20 each and benefit Urban Peak.  Space is limited, and demand is high, so get your tickets early!

Buy tickets at Blacktie Colorado.

The City and County of Denver has provided this update on the Central Park Boulevard and I-70 Interchange.

The Central Park Boulevard Interchange with I-70 has started to pick up in earnest as winter ends and spring begins. The project is nearing the end of the design phase and the construction phase is in full operation. There will be a significant traffic change occurring this coming weekend (Friday April 8 – Sunday April 10). Starting at 6PM Friday night 4/8, I-270 will go down to one lane in the EB direction, just past the I-70 flyover. At that point, traffic will now be diverted, permanently, onto the new I-270 ramp to I-70. This will be a new road for traffic. The old I-270 ramp will be out of service and will be demolished soon. I-270 will be down to one lane for the whole weekend, until Sunday evening 4/10. Please use caution in the work zone during this permanent traffic switch. The next major operation will occur late in the month of May and an update will be provide the specifics of that operation as they become available.

For more information on the construction project, please click here.