Fore: Highland Meadows golf project takes flight

WINDSOR — Today’s potential homebuyer wants more than just a house — they want to bring the vacation home.

Local developers are heeding the call, building resort-style communities with posh amenities, often including restaurants, golf, tennis, swimming, fishing, open space and trails.

Resort-style communities have been around since the invention of the vacation, but the latest trend differs because the homes are primary residences.

“More and more customers are concerned as much with the land plan as they are with the floor plan,´ said Larry Kendall, chairman of The Group Inc. Real Estate. “More and more we’re hearing, ?When I come home, I want to feel like I’m living in a resort,'” he said.

Highland Meadows Golf Course is the latest local development to offer home owners more than just four walls and a roof.

Northeast of The Ranch and south of County Road 30 in Windsor, the 619-acre Highland Meadows development includes plans for at least 680 homes, a clubhouse and restaurant, tennis courts, a swimming pool, and a four-acre public park. A par-71 golf course is set to open to the public June 1, offering local duffers a new challenge.

Course architect, Art Schaupeter, describes the Highland Meadows course as “sporting.”

A graduate of Wheat Ridge High School and the University of Colorado in Boulder, Schaupeter’s credits include lead architect for Keith Foster’s Buffalo Run in Denver and the Haymaker golf course in Steamboat Springs.

“Highland Meadows is similar to Scottish and Irish courses in terms of its strategies,” he said.

The fairways are unusually wide, some up to 70 yards, and the course includes several split-fairways.

“It creates a lot of options,” Schaupeter said. “Players get to pick and choose their own line of play, and it’s all about strategy and angles.”

Developers Jon Turner, Dino DiTullio and Chris Frye have spent nearly a decade planning, permitting and moving dirt to get to this point.

The first residential phase of 158 lots is permit-ready, DiTullio said, and homes should start sprouting up over the next month.

“We’ve had overwhelming interest,” DiTullio said, noting that at least a dozen builders have expressed interest in the lots. “We have more demand than supply right now,” he said.

Similar to other resort-style developments, Highland Meadows will offer a wide-range of homes and price points, likely starting in the low $300,000s.

DiTullio said the location could provide Highland Meadows with an edge over other similarly styled developments in the region.

“I describe it as the Golden Rectangle of Northern Colorado,” he said, referring to the land bordered by Interstate 25 on the west, Larimer County Road 5 on the east, Colorado Highway 392 on the north and U.S. Highway 34 on the south.

“It’s becoming the center of activity,” he said. “All the jurisdictions are intersecting in this area.”

Highland Meadows marks the third golf course community in or near Windsor, joining Ptarmigan Country Club — just off the Windsor exit north of Highway 392 — and Pelican Lakes — south of Eastman Parkway and west of Highway 257. All three courses are privately owned, but open to the public.

Pelican Lakes anchors the Water Valley development, which is often referred to as the standard for new residential development in the region. Water Valley developer Martin Lind said he welcomes the competition.

“It’s great for golfers,” Lind said. “It’ll be competition, but it’ll be the best type of competition. They’re developing a well-maintained, beautifully sculpted golf course.”

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