Golf development to offer southern exposure

WINDSOR — Outside of his front porch, Geoff Smith has a distinctly Colorado view: a farm field in the foreground and the towering Front Range in the distance.
In two years, the view will include a touch of old Virginia.
Smith, a developer and owner of C.G. Smith Construction, has teed up plans for an upscale 18-hole golf course and mixed-use community on 300 acres near the Larimer-Weld county line. The symbol for the $15 million Shiloh Creek Community and Golf Club will be a swanky 45,000-square-foot clubhouse with the look of a Virginia plantation.
Smith, who will own the development with his wife, Cheryl, hopes to begin construction by early next spring, which could make the course ready for play by spring 2006.
In addition to the golf course, clubhouse and housing, Shiloh Creek will feature a 12-acre commercial corner, which could include a swimming and tennis center, convenience store, restaurant, hotel and office park.
?We?re assuming the project at buildout will provide 200-plus jobs and hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in tax revenue for the town of Windsor,? Smith said.
It will also provide a golf course unlike any other in Northern Colorado, Smith believes.
Smith recently acquired farm ground at the northeast corner of Weld County Road 13, also called County Line Road, and Weld County Road 74, which becomes Harmony Road in Fort Collins. The site includes a long-time trap-shooting range.
Plans call for the planting of up to 1,800 trees to line the fairways for a park-style course, which has been designed by renowned Evergreen-based designer Rick Phelps.
Park-style typically refers to courses carved out of existing trees and resulting in narrow fairways. The links-style or prairie-style, more common to Colorado, have few trees, and the roughs include natural grasses.
?This course will be different in that the fairway widths and corridor widths will be plenty wide, and the trees will be planted outside of that,? Phelps said. The trees ?will not play a strategic role in the golf course as much as it will play an aesthetic role.?
Like Smith, who opted for the Virginia-style clubhouse, Phelps is looking south for inspiration. He said he?s drawn ideas from courses such as the Augusta National in August, Ga., and the courses in North Carolina?s Pinehurst region.
?The whole attitude of this project is one that it?s going to stand out,? Phelps said. ?The key to it will be the market niche we?re focusing on, and making certain from Geoff?s standpoint that market is there to support the project and he feels comfortable.?
Smith said he is comfortable that, despite the surge of new courses opening in Northern Colorado, Shiloh Creek will be successful.
First, the ongoing demand for golf-course living could generate significant revenue for Smith while he builds the golf club.
?To make the course successful, it?s important to make the residential happen at the same time,? he said.
Shiloh Creek?s housing plans include lots for 118 patio homes, 80 single-family estate lots and 202 townhomes.
Smith is negotiating with different builders interested in acquiring all the patio-home lots, all the townhome lots and all the single-family lots.
High interest in the 12-acre commercial corner makes it likely that it will develop simultaneously with the residential lots ? which runs counter to the standard formula that retail follows rooftops.
The designated commercial site fronts on the north side of Weld County Road 74, which has become a key traffic carrier between Fort Collins and Windsor.
?There?s a pretty strong push by people to become involved in the commercial,? Smith said.
The clubhouse itself is a significant enterprise.
Smith has hired Broomfield architect John Williams to design the facility, which will include a ballroom big enough to accommodate 550 people.
?It will be great for weddings and club events,? he said.
Plans also call for public restaurant and bar, members-only dining room and club room, indoor-outdoor swimming pool, locker rooms, exercise room, snack bar and conference room. The latter, Smith hopes, could be used for press conferences for golf tournaments the club might attract.
In addition to the clubhouse, 102 executive bed-and-breakfast units will be constructed near the clubhouse.
Smith estimates that the club will take on about 400 members, which he expects to draw from a region between Cheyenne, Wyo., and Denver?s northern suburbs.
Despite the high-end character of the Shiloh Creek development, Smith said he intends to keep the club accessible for youths.
?Our inspiration is Augusta for the club and the fact Matt (Geoff?s son) has a seventh-grader and a first-grader going to school in Windsor,? he said. ?We want their friends to have access to this type of facility.?
Smith?s considering aligning with Windsor?s parks department and Windsor school district to set up a recreational program for kids at Shiloh Creek.

Golfing buddies
In its bid to attract golfers Shiloh Creek will have company.
Smith?s course is located immediately east of another previously announced golf-course community, planned by Fort Collins-based developer Byron Collins.
Collins expects his 640-acre project, currently owned by the Nelson family, to be annexed into Timnath in the near future. He hopes to break ground by late next year on an 18-hole course and 400 residential units.
Collins said he?s investing at least $10 million, not counting the construction of the course and clubhouse, and he?s also setting aside 70 acres for a park.
The side-by-side courses raise some concern for saturation in the golf-course market, but Collins thinks the benefits outweigh the negatives.
?I guess one has to choose his neighbors,? he said. ?I guess having a golf course next to me, and having open space and a farm (which also border the Nelson land) ? those are pretty good choices.?
Like Smith, Collins doesn?t seem to have any shortage of interest in his residential product.
?I have a list of buyers for real estate ? interest has been real high,? he said.

on Facebook on LinkedIn