RE Summit: Despite popularity, developing master-planned communities remains a challenge

Northern Colorado’s master-planned communities, with their proximity to businesses and variety of amenities, are a popular choice for the region’s homebuyers, but the neighborhoods present unique challenges for the developers who build them.

“Connections to schools, parks [and] businesses” and “the energy of community” drive demand for such projects, David Crowder, McWhinney Real Estate Services Inc. vice president of development, said during a panel discussion Wednesday at BizWest’s Northern Colorado Real Estate Summit, moderated by NAI Affinity’s Jake Hallauer. 

Still, the complexity of master-planned communities, combined with increasing construction costs and speed bumps from growth-wary local governments, limits the number of players…