REAL ESTATE: Melody Homes shows faith in future of Rigden Farm

FORT COLLINS — Developers of the Rigden Farm subdivision in east Fort Collins have been pecking away at the 310-acre mixed-use project since 1997, when plans were first made public for some 1,100 homes and a neighborhood shopping center.
Construction started late in 1999 and houses have been surfacing in small batches since that time.
But the project took a great leap forward earlier this month when Melody Homes agreed to buy 232 housing lots, a deal that all but assures Rigden Farm will fill out in the next three years.
Rigden Farm has been much watched over the years because it was the first major residential development subject to the revised land-use plan in Fort Collins known as City Plan. (In the minds of some developers and builders, it?s no coincidence that City Plan is a combination of four-letter words)
The most notable characteristic of City Plan was its minimum requirement of five dwelling units to an acre, a feature that caused many developers to declare the city was legislating a lifestyle that nobody wanted.
Nevertheless, the development team led by Bill Neal has shown City Plan can yield a marketable project.
An executive for Melody Homes, which paid $3.25 million for its first 117 lots ? the next 115 are under contract ? called Rigden ?one of the best in-fills in Fort Collins right now.?
?The Rigden project itself has sustained itself very well with the first filings,? said Sandy Newberry, new projects manager for Melody Homes.
?With its proximity to the (Fort Collins) high school and its proximity to I-25, and the ability get to downtown Fort Collins along the Drake corridor, we feel this location is an absolutely fantastic and desirable place to live,? Newberry said.
Melody plans to have its first show homes ready for inspection this fall. Demand should generate at least six sales a month, which means the first 117 lots should be built out by early 2006.
Melody?s construction is part of a flurry of activity at Rigden this year.
The Pioneer charter school is under construction with plans to open this fall. Seven Oaks Academy has also started work on a new daycare facility. And developers of the shopping center at the southeast corner of Drake and Timberline expect to break ground by the end of the year with King Soopers as an anchor tenant. FirstBank of Northern Colorado has also committed to build at the shopping center.
?2004 is going to be a strong year for Rigden,? Neal said. ?Rigden?s going to finally start reaching its potential, we think.?
One of the remaining question marks about Rigden is the portion of land designated for affordable housing units. The developers have planned for about 165 homes on 35 acres, but haven?t been able to secure a builder or investor to execute the project.
?We?ve been under contract twice, but our buyers have not been able to get financed,? Neal said.

Housing market on rebound
In its latest assessment of housing appreciation the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight turned up a grisly statistic for the Fort Collins-Loveland market.
Housing values in the area actually declined in the first quarter of 2004 by 0.95 percent, or an annualized rate of 3.8 percent.
?My guess is that would be the first time Fort Collins-Loveland has had negative appreciation,? said Larry Kendall, chairman of The Group Inc. Real Estate.
Kendall thinks the decline in the so-called repeat sale index ? which calculates price changes for a house as it?s sold or refinanced ? reflects job losses that started to accumulate after 9/11.
?We?ve said for some time that housing tends to be a lagging indicator of jobs,? he said. ?We started to get hit last year and into the first quarter of this year with the impact of all those job losses of the year before that.?
The impact of job losses is typically felt 12-to-18 months later in the housing market, Kendall said.
Another factor is the competition created by the booming new home sector. Last year, one out of every three homes sold in Larimer County was a new home, and one of every two sold in Weld County was new. Collectively, the new construction market made it more difficult to sell existing homes.
?In order to sell, owners have had to lower prices,? Kendall said.
Good news is around the corner, however.
?Looking at the numbers, we?ve had a dramatic increase in sales in April and May,? he said. I?m hopeful that (first quarter) was the bottom.?

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