Reality TV show to film in Berthoud development

BERTHOUD — An 865-acre golf course-centered residential development in Berthoud soon will play host to production crews and contestants in a cable television channel’s popular reality series.

Heron Lakes at TPC Colorado will be the setting for “Rock the Block” Season 4, a show on the HGTV channel that focuses on competitive home renovations.

Windsor-based homebuilder Landmark Homes partnered with Heron Lakes and accepted the challenge to have four homes completely “finish ready” for competitors to kick off the showdown. Each team will have six weeks and a budget of $250,000 to renovate identical properties and transform them into high-end homes that reflect their signature vision and design.

Exactly where and when the teams will do their work under the TV cameras’ eye is not being revealed, said Emily Warren Kupec, chief operating officer of Windsor-based Hillside Commercial Group Inc., developer of Heron Lakes.

“It will get under way very soon,” she said, “but the production team is trying to keep it a little under wraps. A few HGTV stars have a pretty wild following, so we were asked to tone down when it was happening, to have respect for the set and let the project unfold.”

According to an HGTV news release, this season will boast bigger budgets and bigger homes than previously seen on “Rock the Block” and will premiere next March.

Ty Pennington will host the show, and celebrity teams will include Bryan and Sarah Baeumler of “Renovation Island”, Michel Smith Boyd and Anthony Elle of “Luxe for Less,” billion-dollar real estate broker and house-flipping expert Page Turner and contractor Mitch Glew of “Fix My Flip,” and Jonathan Knight and Kristina Crestin of “Farmhouse Fixer.” In the 1980s and ‘90s, Knight was a member of the teen-idol boy band New Kids on the Block.

The winning team will get a street in Heron Lakes named after it.

“We are ecstatic to host a season of ‘Rock the Block’ and have a spotlight shine brightly on our community,” Kupec said. “Northern Colorado is truly one of the most amazing places to live, and this show will reaffirm just that. I can’t wait to see how these teams shape one of our most desirable blocks within this development.”

Planning for the project began quietly in February, when a production team from Big Table Media contacted Landmark Homes. The team visited the development in March, Kupec said, “and they really fell in love with the site and setting. But in the area they really wanted to shoot in, we didn’t have lots available, so we had to add an entire area to our construction schedule to catch it up to our other phase.

“We felt we were constantly behind schedule trying to get utilities going,” Kupec said, “but Berthoud was so gracious to work with and allowed us sort of a ‘prairie build’ permit. It gives you the opportunity to start construction when all the punch-list items are not yet completed — things like sidewalks, curbs and gutters.

“We all wanted to do this, but we knew it was going to be a lot of work and effort.” Jason Sherrill, chief executive of Landmark Homes, said.

“The amount of effort and coordination that has taken place to get to this point is astounding,” he said in the HGTV news release. “We are excited to finally be able to talk about it and can’t wait to see the camera begin to roll.”

Heron Lakes at TPC Colorado is situated along Lonetree, McNeil and Welch reservoirs in northwest Berthoud. The Hillside Commercial Group project will encompass a 2,000-unit master-planned residential neighborhood at buildout, an 18-hole championship golf course, a 65,000 square-foot clubhouse, a resort-style swimming pool and a fitness facility. More than eight miles of walking trails will be included, as well as opportunities for boating, biking, hiking and fishing.

The Tournament Players Club golf course was designed by Arthur Schaupeter Golf Course Architects. While it can be stretched to more than 7,900 yards for tournament competition, multiple tees on each hole will give recreational golfers an opportunity to play the course at any length, ranging from 4,000 yards up to 7,600 yards. The par-72 layout will feature a variance of hole lengths, elevated ridges with views of Longs Peak and the entire Front Range, and holes along the shorelines of the large reservoirs.

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