Real Estate: Tiny Dacono set to double housing stock

DACONO – Look for Dacono to double the number of homes within its town limits with a burst of growth the likes of which the former coal-mining camp hasn’t seen since the 800-home The Glens of Dacono was developed in 1970.

“We are going to more than double the 985 water taps we already have,” Town Clerk Nancy Elliott said. “We have plenty of water, thanks to the water tank, which was very wisely planned in 1987.”

First out of the blocks is the Sundance Development, planned for the vast, vacant lot that has surrounded Dacono’s town hall for years.

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Developer Tom Huth said he and partner Forrest Charlesworth plan to break ground yet this fall on 40-acre Sundance, where plans call for the 130 single-family, detached homes. Five acres of the property are zoned for multifamily, and about 3.2 acres with frontage along the north edge of the property are zoned for a combination of commercial and residential.

Though the majority of Dacono’s existing housing stock is factory-built, the tradition will not be continued at Sundance, Huth said.

The neighborhood has been carefully laid out for maximum sun exposure, with the majority of the homes facing east or west.

Huth anticipates that the 1,000- to 1,600-square-foot homes at Sundance will range in price from the high $90,000s to as high as $139,000, depending on who does the building.

“We may end up selling off some of the lots to a larger homebuilder, may end up selling some lots to smaller builders, or we may build on the lots ourselves,” Huth said. “Probably a combination of things.”

Ground could be broken on the development yet this fall.

The plans also call for two small parks in the neighborhood totaling about 3 acres.

“They’re not real big parks, but for one subdivision, we think that’s going to be really attractive and nice for the residents there,” Huth said.

Huth and Charlesworth’s partnership, The Dacono Development Co., will also pay $52,000 to the city of Dacono to cover the cost of paving off-site streets.

Huth said he envisions that many of the buyers at Sundance will come from Boulder County, “where entry-level housing is basically nonexistent.

“But beyond that, there is, I think, a growing feeling among a lot of people who live in the city, who would like to raise their family in more of a small-town atmosphere.”

Huth also has had inquiries from people already living in the Tri-Towns, who keep pestering him for a glimpse of the final plat map, so they can pick lots.

More factory-built proposed

Though it has not yet been approved by Dacono’s City Council, a neighborhood called Starlight Acres is being planned for a half-section directly south of the existing town.

Listing agent Tom Sawyer, of Metro Brokers Inc. Garbarini Ltd., said if Starlight Acres gets the go-ahead, about 144 factory-built homes will be installed on quarter- and half-acre lots during the first three phases of development. About 241 acres bounded by Weld County roads 13 and 15 on the west and east and WCR 12 on the south is under consideration for the development. At buildout, there would be about 450 homes in the neighborhood.

Sawyer said he’s had about 40 presales on phase one, even though it is likely that homes will be available until February or March 1996.

He estimated that homes will sell for between $80,000 and $100,000 and will run as large as 2,099 square feet.

Chamber to call depot home

GREELEY – The Greeley/Weld Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitor’s Bureau has been holed up in a location on Eighth Avenue that is so nondescript that even some long-term residents gripe that they have a hard time finding the place.

That will all change in late spring 1996, when the Chamber moves into the old Union Pacific depot at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Eighth Street.

Under terms of an agreement reached with the city of Greeley, the Chamber will commit a minimum of $100,000 to interior renovations of the old, 5,200-square-foot train stop.

Chamber president Lyle Butler and Greeley architect Howard Johnson, who has worked on the exterior renovations, is developing plans that will allow the Visitor’s Bureau to use the historic ticket counter as its primary information distribution point.

“The original lobby is not going to be touched,” Butler said. “We are going to be doing some cleaning, taking out the Coke machines and signage that has no relevance. The original wood and glass is going to remain.”

The tile mosaic inside the building will be restored, and Butler said Johnson has found historically correct light fixtures to replace the existing fluorescent tubes that dangle from the wood-beam ceiling. The existing wooden benches will remain in the depot.

The depot is listed on the State Register of Historic Places, so the entire renovation and restoration will be governed by state and federal standards.

Butler said the Chamber hopes to have a permanent collection of photographs and memorabilia from the depot on permanent display.

“We want to do everything we can to encourage people to come into this living museum,” Butler said. “We want this to be a center of activity, so it’s still the community’s depot.”

Though the current tenants’ leases will not be renewed at the depot, Amtrak is expected to continue to make its thrice-weekly stops at the depot.

Speaking of preservation

FORT COLLINS – About 4,000 square feet of newly renovated office space remains available on the third floor of the Historic Linden building. And look for another 10,000 square feet to come on the market in spring or early summer of 1996, when renovation of the nearby Loomis Building is completed.

Veldman Morgan Commercial listing agent Dan Bernth said that when he first moved to Fort Collins nearly a decade ago, Linden Street “was just nothing.”

After a little TLC from the city of Fort Collins, which helped out by laying infrastructure and repaving the street, things are turning around for the neighborhood north of Old Town Square.

“It’s just been an incredible difference,” Bernth said.

He estimates that the Linden and the historic Loomis building stood empty for nearly two decades before Dave Veldman and Mitch Morgan began renovating the properties.

“Probably five developers tried to do something with that building (the Linden) and just never made it happen,” Bernth said.

Sinnett Builders is the general contractor on the new project. Vaught Frye Architects designed the renovation.