French chalet crown jewel at Caribou Springs Ranch Storied ranch property on market for $13.9 million

Just north of Boulder, pressed into a seam between the jutting Foothills and the beginning sweep of the plains, sits Caribou Springs Ranch.
Stitched with history ranging from Colorado’s ranching and pioneering past to present-day living legends and luxury living, the property weaves together a tapestry of agriculture, conservation, community and the lavish, modern character that peppers the Boulder Valley today.
“The whole key here was to preserve this land with the least impact and make a community, with a conservation easement protecting the agricultural usage forever,” said James Guercio, owner of Caribou Springs Ranch.
The ranch includes 600 acres of agricultural property, coupled with residential space for high-end homes. Several multiacre plots already sport privately owned luxury homes, each bordered with stunning vistas and ensconced from the bustle of city activity yet with easy access to Boulder.
Caribou Springs Ranch is listed for $13,895,000 as a complete package, which includes the land, an equestrian center and small ranch home, 150 shares of Left Hand water rights, a common pool and barbecue pavilion, five lots deeded for luxury homes and a pre-built luxury estate known as Maison Caribou.
The 12,000-square-foot Maison Caribou sits on five acres of property. Designed by builder Marcia Kirsh Kohler and modeled after a real French chateau, the home took three years to build.
With a buff-colored stone and dark wood exterior nestled under steeply pitched roofs, Maison
Caribou makes a striking impression. Vaulted ceilings and arched entries give way to an interior flooded with light from expansive banks of windows within. The interior contains one-of-a-kind iron work and imported pieces plucked from mansions across France, said Jeff Erickson, the Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty agent handling the sale of the property along with his wife, Carliss Erickson. After 20 years as a builder in Key West, Fla., Erickson lauds the attention to detail that permeates Maison Caribou.
“I did restoration work on historic wooden structures … and I just appreciate the quality of all this to no end,” he said.

French connection
Details like a nearly 200-year-old, Louis the XV-style, carved walnut armoire built into a main floor bathroom wall. A matching double sink vanity, original woodwork and marble tastefully blends the old work with the new tumbled marble tile and modern bathroom amenities. It’s one of 10 uniquely outfitted and themed bathrooms in the house.  
Authentic French mantels, fireplaces, vanities and carved wooden doors transplanted from France lace the home.
“Marcia (Kirsh Kohler) went to France four different times during the building process and bought pieces”, Erickson said.
Sculpted iron railings set off a spiral staircase near the house’s main entrance, a detailed echoed by a smaller spiral staircase winding from a wood paneled office space up to a Jeffersonian library. All the iron work was custom created by W. X. Kohler, Marcia’s husband.
“All of it is different … and his stuff is super high-end and expensive,” Erickson said.
The main staircase sweeps down to a walkout, lower level and a 900-bottle, climate controlled wine cellar enclosed with glass doors and an arched iron gate covered in bunched grapes and flanked by a mural of a vineyard.
All chandeliers and sconces — even the fixtures for a Control4 security and sound system — were made by Kohler.
Kohler worked the fixtures and sconces for the Caribou Springs Ranch community clubhouse, too, which includes an outdoor pool, pavilion and bathrooms. Some of the sconces use reclaimed metal from old-fashioned plow from the working ranch, Guercio said. The repurposed material enhances the ranch’s conservation character, he said.
“My whole things is recycle and try to do things locally.”
In some ways, Guercio reclaimed the property itself after he purchased it in the 1970s. Once mined for limestone to produce cement, Guercio restored the stripped portions of the land to its natural state using strategic cattle grazing for proper re-growth. He intentionally bordered one edge with a bird sanctuary that now shelters numerous species and attracts bears, native wildlife and researchers interested the region’s biodiversity.

Music in the air
Guercio, known for his storied history in music — he produced  records for The Beach Boys, Chicago and Blood, Sweat and Tears among others — also owns Caribou Ranch near Nederland, which he calls the upper ranch.  That property once housed the famous music studio Elton John, Billy Joel, Michael Jackson and others wrote, played and recorded in until a fire destroyed the hideaway musical outpost in 1985.
Wanting a working ranch, Guercio drove nearly 600 head of cattle from his upper lands to the Caribou Springs location. It took three days to move the animals.
“When it was 20-below it was my daughter, myself and two guys,” Guercio said, but typically 10 to 30 people, mounted on horseback, made the drive. He’s still raising cattle on Caribou Springs Ranch, with plans for a range-fed, antibiotic and hormone-free heard going to Alfalfa’s soon. Guercio wanted the property to blend reclamation and conservation with community, thus luxury home owners share a common equestrian center and the community pool.
Maison Caribou’s current owner, retired investment banker Jim Kreitman, added his own conservationist touch with a complete geothermal heating and cooling system for the estate.
“It makes the utility bills, like next to nothing,” Erickson said. With 10 bedrooms, an unattached 1,200-square-foot guest cottage with a complete kitchen and hickory finished interior plus heated garage space for five cars, Maison Caribou offers room for family, guests and storage. The home includes a theater with stadium seating, a mirrored exercise room and an alcove added by Kreitman containing an exquisitely tiled resistance pool for a hard-core swim workout.
The Maison Caribou estate can be purchased independently for $4,995,000, but ideally Caribou Springs Ranch will go as a package including the French chateau, massive ranch acreage, water rights and all, Erickson said.
“They can have the whole 600 acres plus, and they’d have the house as a home base and then have five other lots that they could develop on spec,” he said. “It’s a very special property; it’s just going to take that right person.”

on Facebook on LinkedIn