REAL ESTATE: Greeley senior complex will break ground

GREELEY — Continuum Health Partnerships Inc. will break ground Dec. 11 on the first phase of Fox Hill Meadows, a $20 million, 16-acre senior retirement complex in west Greeley.
“Weld County is a very large county, and there aren’t enough of these services here,´ said Continuum vice president Lori Briscoe. “There are a lot of people here who need the service, who are moving away from Greeley, and typically away from Colorado, to find the service.”
Fox Hill Meadows begins with The Promenade, a 120-unit, three-story apartment complex that features an indoor swimming pool, hot tub, restaurant, deli, beauty salon, ballroom, greenhouse, convenience store, putting green, exercise room and covered parking.
Depending on how quickly the rental apartments fill, Briscoe said, ground could be broken on 120 units of assisted care and 60 units of skilled nursing care in late 1996 or early 1997.
The idea behind Fox Hill Meadows is to provide consistency for the area’s aging senior population. Briscoe said residents who find they need a little extra assistance, or even skilled nursing care for long or short periods of time, will be able to find it just across the courtyard. The project will also include on-site administration of home health care and physical-therapy programs.
“Typically, people have stayed in their homes until their mental and physical health has deteriorated to the point that a nursing home is the only option,” Briscoe said. By offering a broad range of health-care service and leisure activities, Fox Hill Meadows hopes to “promote independence so people can live at the lowest and most independent level of care and service for the longest period of time.”
The Promenade will consist of one-bedroom, one-bedroom plus a den, two-bedroom and efficiency-style apartments, ranging from 500 to 900 square feet.
Fox Hill Meadows’ contractor is Hensel Phelps Construction Co. of Greeley.
The project, designed by the Denver architectural firm CW Fentress JH Bradburn and Associates, circulates around a paved center pavilion with access from 21st Street Road, 46th Avenue and 20th Street Road. Fox Hill Meadows has easy access to the Greeley Country Club and the Highland Hills municipal golf courses, which has been a strong selling point.
Though Key Bank will finance the project, Briscoe and her husband, Steve Briscoe have formed an investment group for the project that includes the former owners of Major Medical, Doug Coleman and Bob Roehrich, Greeley insurance agent Masoud Shirazi, and Geriatrics Inc. founder Harry Asmus. In the 1970s, Asmus sold his business to ARA Services, which eventually became Living Centers of America, the Houston-based senior-care center that employed both Steve and Lori Briscoe for the better part of two decades. New digs for Ault day careAULT — New digs for the community-supported Highland Day Care Center are under construction at 102 Birch Ave. in Ault. Growling Bear is the contractor for the project designed by Wayne Roberts from Roberts Architects in Greeley.
Executive director Marilyn Fuqua said the almost 6,000-square-foot building will allow the center to expand its license from 75 to 109 children and add infant care to its offerings.
The center, which uses United Way funds to offer a sliding-scale fee schedule, currently operates in the Highland Middle School, where about 45 little kids compete for space with 350 fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth graders. As the only licensed day-care center in the area, Highland provides service to children in Ault, Pierce, Nunn and Eaton, and a few students whose parents live in Greeley or Windsor and work in Ault. Highland also runs before- and after-school programs in Eaton and Pierce.
The new Ault center will house a Head Start program, which means no more bus rides to Greeley for classes.
“This way, the kids don’t have to be traveling. All of the kids will be together and will go on to school together,” Fuqua said. “There won’t be any segregation, and we’re real proud of that.”
Roger Schulz and Weld County donated the property on which Highland is built, and the land adjacent to the center will be converted into a city park. Highland Day Care received a Community Development Block Grant and took out a $350,000 loan for the project.
“Now we’re looking for grant money, and any kind of donations at all would really, really help,” Fuqua said.
The new center is located in the Weld County Urban Enterprise Zone, which means donations made through the Greeley/Weld Economic Development Action Partnership can result in “pretty nice tax credits and tax deductions,” Fuqua said.
Highland hopes to be in its new home by March 1.Poudre Valley Plaza set for ’96FORT COLLINS — Wheeler Commercial Property Services in Fort Collins soon will break ground on the 90,000-square-foot Poudre Valley Plaza at Horsetooth Road and South Shields Street.
Commercial broker Linda Jackson said the upscale retail-office-condo development designed by architect Dana Lochwood will include a bank of upper-end dwellings on the second floor of a commercial building. The 1,300 to 1,600-square-foot units will have up to three bedrooms and two baths, and will include two-car garages.
Jackson said that although the first shovel of dirt won’t be turned until March 1996, Wheeler has already sold two building pads, one to itself for a new 18,000-square-foot headquarters, and the second to Poudre Valley Bank for a new branch.
Jackson described the project as having a French provincial flair, kind of a marriage “between Cottonwood Plaza in Greeley and Lionshead in Vail.”
Poudre Valley Plaza has been on the drawing board for almost two years, but Jackson said it will be worth the wait.
“It is absolutely beautiful,” she said.BlackFox projects move fast FREDERICK ­ MapleWood is a 67-unit single-family home development on the east side of Frederick, where all but a handful of houses have sold over the past two and a half years.
When sales opened in the development, homes were selling in the mid $80,000s. Today the remaining homes are on the market for around $120,000, said Chris Rabenhorst, who markets BlackFox Real Estate Group’s Frederick properties.BlackFox is also working on MapleVillage, an 18-unit single-family neighborhood on the northeast side of town, and a 24-unit townhouse project along Main Street known as The Grove. MapleVillage will sell for between $99,000 and $110,000. The Grove will run between $99,500 and $104,900.More fast food at Del CaminoDEL CAMINO-Two new dining spots have been added to the lineup at Del Camino, and fast food continues to dominate at Exit 240 on Interstate 25.
Look for Pizza Hut and Subs to open in mid December at the already massive Texaco Fuel Stop. The new restaurant is under construction.
Sheryl Maruca, retail manager for Texaco’s 58-store Denver region, said the development represents one of four new partnerships between “quick-service restaurants” and the fuel company.
“It’s the company’s new venture with quick-service restaurants to expand business, increase revenues and offer the customer more,” Maruca said. “I think the public will be pleased with it.”
Texaco will partner with Pizza Hut in Colorado Springs, The Great Bagel Co. at Orchard Road in Denver, and Taco Bell at 104th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard in north Denver. The company also has a franchise agreement with A&W Root Beer.
Meanwhile, across the street, Budget Host owner Stener Carlson of Loveland, said Waffle House will open soon, making waffles available to the public 24-hours a day, 365 days a year.
Carlson said the Georgia-based chain of diners has owned the little sliver of property in front of his hotel since before 1987.
“They put in a water line in 1987 and then just gave up on it,” Carlson said. “They just waited until the time was right.”
According to a Waffle House source, increased development at the interchange spurred the privately held company to move ahead with the Del Camino store. The first Waffle House opened in Georgia in 1955, and the company now operates in 21 states, with stores concentrated in the southeast.Vested interest in ranchLARIMER COUNTY­Rancher and Realtor Derek Roberts has a vested interest in seeing Rennels Ranch remain open ­ for four generations, his family has been running cattle across the property adjacent to their TW Diamond Ranch.
But beyond that, the 1,100-acre ranch about 18-miles north of Fort Collins is jammed with interesting geologic features and significant cultural artifacts, including American Indian tepee and burial sites and two ceremonial dance rings.
Roberts proposes to divide the ranch into nine parcels, ranging from 73 to 148 acres. The remaining 270 acres, including the Indian historic sites, will be protected by a conservation easement in common areas.
“My father, who’s in his 80s, feels its the lesser of several evils,” Roberts said. “But it’s better than 35 homes.”
Roberts, who still lives in a hand-hewn log home built by his great grandfather before the turn of the century, is trying to round up another seven buyers for the Medicine Wheel properties. Lots range from $115,000 to $188,000. The eight-acre home plots have been carefully sited on each lot, and are heavily covenant controlled.
Houses will be limited to a single story or must be earth-sheltered. Builders will be asked to limit exterior materials to natural wood, stone or earth tones. “But we’re mainly concerned about architecture,” Roberts said.
Landowners will be allowed to fence the eight acres around the homes in order to contain domestic animals or livestock. There also will be a common area for horses.
Roberts, who works with Re/Max Advanced Inc. in Fort Collins, said he expects remaining lots to sell quickly. Home sites in other mountain subdivisions have sold out in a flash.
“There’s hardly any land available,” Roberts said.Oddball Properties RR’ UsIf you’ve got an oddball property in Northern Colorado, Re/Max First Associates Realtor Sandie Slafter may be the listing agent for you.
Slafter recently handled the sale of the former Millikin Town Hall and managed to find a buyer for the old Johnstown-Millikin RE-5J School District Bus Barn in Johnstown.
Loveland builder Dennis Severson snapped up the burned out Millikin Town Hall, built in 1920 to house a Studebaker Garage, and will convert the former church and community center to a four-plex. Severson also has plans to build apartment units to the west of the structure.
Severson purchased the property for $22,000 under the $72,000 listing price.
Severson’s check was immediately poured into the Town of Millikin’s community-center building fund. Ground was broken Oct. 10 on that project, designed by Architecture One in Loveland. The new building, located next door to the tiny current town hall, will centralize city functions that were spread out across town after the fire.
Fran Pierson, founder of Pierson Graphics Corp., has mapped out a new future for the circa 1910 bus barn on Charlotte Street in Johnstown, a property Slafter said the previous owner believed would never sell.
Pierson plans to convert the 5,000-square-foot garage into low-traffic retail stores. He also has acquired an adjacent 1.7-acre lot, where he hopes to build townhomes that reflect an architectural style similar to the bus garage.Sales and leasesRealtec Commercial Real Estate Service Inc. has announced several deals, including the sale of a 931-square-foot office condominium at the Stuart Professional Park, 1136 E. Stuart St., No. 2240. Joseph and Sandra Mazur purchased the unit from Philip and Betty Peterson for $89,000 and plan to move the Mazur Insurance Agency there. Realtec’s Rhys Christensen and Chris Wells of Veldman Morgan brokered the sale.
Maxim Healthcare Services Inc. recently leased 904 square feet of office space in the Rocky Mountain Building at 315 West Oak St. in Fort Collins for $14 per square foot. Realtec’s Christensen and Stephen Stansfield brokered the deal.
NSI Home Health Services Inc. leased 1,198 square feet in the same building, for the same price. Christensen and Stansfield brokered the deal.
RLS Management Co. has completed construction on the Rose Tree Village Apartments, 1000 West Horsetooth Road in Fort Collins. The development includes 120 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. The complex is owned by Rose Tree Limited Partners, whose partners are Chevron TCI, Shields Street Corp. and Affordable Housing Ventures LLC. Affordable Housing Ventures is a joint venture of Neighbor to Neighbor Inc., with Shields Street Corp. as the project sponsor. The property is completely leased, with below-market rents indexed to 60, 50 and 45 percent of median income levels. Rose Tree Village is the third low-income housing property that Shields Street and Chevron have developed in Fort Collins. The project cost $6.6 million, with financing provided by Chevron, Shields Street Corp. and First National Bank. The project makes use of Low Income Housing Tax Credits, Community Development Block Grant Funding and City of Fort Collins Impact Fee Rebates.