Steel Ranch in Louisville Celebrates its First Anniversary – Daily Camera – At Home Section – October 19, 2012
Steel Ranch in Louisville Celebrates its First Anniversary
by Judy Finman, At Home Colorado
In November 2011 Steel Ranch, the Louisville community taking shape on the west side of Highway 42 between South Boulder Road and Baseline Road, first welcomed the public to its model homes. Since then Louisville-based Boulder Creek Builders has enjoyed tremendous success with its signature single-family patio homes.
Fifty-four of the homes have sold, out of a total of 68 planned for the community. There are only 14 opportunities left to live in a patio home in Steel Ranch.
Sales Manager Bill Besher says, “We struggle to keep an inventory. The homes are sold before they’re completed. When people go out and look in this price range, they find that at Steel Ranch you can get into a manageable-size home with the finishes they’re accustomed to.”
The patio home lifestyle appeals to a very broad demographic. “We attract people who prefer to relax, travel or enjoy outdoor activities in their free time – empty-nesters and retirees, families with young kids, couples as well as single women and men. Our homes allow people to live the Colorado lifestyle that everyone wants – with lock-and-leave convenience, and a low-maintenance lifestyle with no more weekends mowing the lawn, raking leaves or shoveling snow. Everything they need – bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, dining and living areas – is on the main level. There’s an included finished lower level for company or entertainment.”
The community is a short walk from historic downtown Louisville. It features two parks, open space and trails that connect to the city trails. Families with children are attracted by the Boulder County Schools, including Louisville Elementary, Louisville Middle School and Monarch High School.
Interview with a Steel Ranch homeowner
When Mary Keelan and her husband, Ken, returned to Colorado after several years working abroad, they decided to sell their home in north Boulder and consider other communities.
“We looked at many housing developments and builders between Boulder and Denver,” she says. “Then we saw the Steel Ranch patio homes by Boulder Creek Builders.”
They liked the low-maintenance, “lock-and-leave” lifestyle that Boulder Creek Builders offers at Steel Ranch. “We’re just two people, no children, no pets, and we travel a lot. We don’t need a back yard, and we don’t want to take care of a yard.”
The patio-style home suited their needs perfectly. “We are fans of ranch-style homes. If we need to take care of our aging parents some day, or when we have guests – and we do have a 
lot of guests – we’ve got two bedrooms and two baths on the main floor, and then the lower level besides.”
The Keelans were impressed with the quality of the homes as well. “You see the homes being built and you see the quality of the workmanship and the finishes. So many of their included features here, like the finished basement, are upgrades elsewhere.”
Since they moved in four months ago, the Keelans have gotten to know a lot of people in the neighborhood. “I work from home and everyone here is so nice. And in April, one of the owners invited all the other residents and new buyers to a monthly get-together on Friday afternoons; everyone brings drinks and snacks. So I knew my neighbors before we moved in. We go to a different person’s home every month; it’s fun to see how other people’s homes look.”
The location is another plus for the Keelans. “The majority of my visitors have flown into DIA, and it’s about two miles from the parkway. And people can just hop onto 36 to go to Denver from here.”
They have praise for the builder. “One of the things that’s so impressive about Boulder Creek Builders is they’re small and local. We know just about everyone in the company. There’s a sense of community working with a small builder. They came to a Friday afternoon get-together and answered people’s questions. They listen to our needs.”
Functionality plus style
Boulder Creek Builders has pulled out all the stops at Steel Ranch. Big-ticket items that would ordinarily be considered upgrades are included, like air conditioning, tankless water heater, maple kitchen cabinets, and granite slab or Caesarstone® kitchen countertops.
Six floor plans are offered, with a choice among four architectural designs and nine color schemes. This makes each home unique and adds to the visually diverse streetscape.
All the homes are built to be highly efficient, based on Energy Star and green building technologies. With third-party Energy Star inspections, 2 x 6 exterior wall construction, R-23-wall and R-49 ceiling insulation with advanced insulation techniques, lower-energy-usage furnace, tankless water heater, low-E Argon-gas-filled windows, 50-year roof shingles and more, these homes are built for energy efficiency, durability and comfort.
Lifestyle townhomes from Boulder Creek Builders
“I am very excited about the one-year anniversary of Steel Ranch,” says David Sinkey, principal of Boulder Creek Builders. “Going into the community we felt that it would be successful, but we have been overwhelmed by the response to the patio homes. The quick sale and build out of the patio-home portion of the community provides the latest evidence that these ranch style, low-maintenance homes are in short supply. As we complete the sell-out of our patio homes, we are excited about our upcoming lifestyle townhomes at Steel Ranch. We are so happy to be a part of the Louisville community.”
For more information
Steel Ranch is located on the west side of Highway 42 at Paschal Drive in Louisville. Stop by to tour the innovative model homes. To learn more about Steel Ranch and Boulder Creek Builders call 303.745.1091 or visit www.AtHome.
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Steel Ranch a homebuyer’s magnet – Boulder County Business Report – May 24, 2012
LOUISVILLE — It’s been a long time since developers specializing in single-family housing have had reason to be optimistic.
The companies started building last year, and both are on pace to build out — and sell out — well ahead of schedule.
“We can’t build any faster. We’ve got people on top of people. I’ve never been witness to a community built this fast,” said David Sinkey, Boulder Creek Builders’ principal and managing director. “This is a pace nobody’s seen, especially around here.”
“This is one of anybody’s most successful communities, in any market,” said Ruth Rowley, Ryland Homes’ vice president for sales and marketing.
As of mid-May, Ryland Homes sold 70 of the 84 homes it will build on its 57-acre portion of Steel Ranch, Rowley said. The prices of its homes range from $356,000 for a 1,711-square-foot ranch to about $525,000 for a 3,056-square-foot two-story home.
Boulder Creek has sold 38 of the 68 homes it will build on its portion. Prices range from the low $400,000s to $600,000. The Steel Ranch models have won awards from local and national homebuilders’ associations.
Growing demand for new homes and a sense the economy is improving are two of the driving factors behind the brisk sales, Sinkey and Rowley said on a recent tour of the development. There’s also a lack of existing homes going on the market in the greater Boulder area.
But that doesn’t explain why Steel Ranch is outselling other projects. The major reason for that, the builders said, is its proximity to Louisville, with its charming downtown.
“It’s different in a good way,” Rowley said. “You have the feeling of a small town, which is very big right now.”
The area also has weathered the recession better than have most communities, Sinkey said, and local employers are strong.
“It allowed everyone to feel they could take a chance on the area,” he said.
Louisville has been piling up awards as one of the nation’s best places to live, including taking the top spot on Money magazine’s biennial list of best small towns in 2009 and 2011.
“The Money magazine story is just the cherry on top,” Sinkey said.
Ryland and Boulder Creek benefit from offering homes targeted at different demographics. According to Sinkey, Boulder Creek’s homebuyers are predominantly empty nesters who are downsizing from the homes in which they raised their children. They want smaller homes, and the smaller lots mean virtually no yard work.
Middle-aged single women also find the patio-home concept appealing, Sinkey said.
Ryland’s homebuyers are younger, mainly families who have outgrown their first home, Rowley said: A mom and dad who are professionals in successful careers and can afford a bit extra for a good school district and small-town feel.
“It’s been nice in that regard,” Rowley said. “We don’t really compete.”
Steel Ranch never would have gotten off the ground if the companies had not cooperated in the early days. Another major national homebuilder was looking to purchase the land, but Boulder Creek and Ryland were able to put together a last-second proposal to buy the tract. The deal took two frantic weeks to put together, Sinkey said.
The success of Steel Ranch will help both companies launch new forays into the Colorado market.
Louisville-based Boulder Creek Builders LLC is a privately held company which specializes in patio homes and townhouses. It is building five communities in Louisville, Longmont and Loveland.
Boulder Creek is about to expand its reach beyond its traditional area in Boulder County, Sinkey said. He is not able to disclose the new location at the moment, but he said it will be building in major metro-Denver developments.
Boulder Creek’s growth shows small, locally owned development and building companies can survive and thrive, which seemed very much in doubt at times during the recession, Sinkey said.
Ryland Homes is part of the Ryland Group Inc., a 45-year-old national homebuilder that is publicly traded (NYSE: RYL). The company is based in Westlake Village, California, with its Colorado division headquartered in Greenwood Village.
Ryland returned to the Colorado market in 2010, and its part of Steel Ranch is helping the company regain its foothold in the state, Rowley said.
“It’s a very exciting time for us,” she said. “We’re getting back on the map in Colorado.”
Denver-area construction jobs: not enough workers to go around – Fox31 Denver – May 15, 2012
DENVER — There’s at least one booming industry in Colorado right now, desperately looking for workers: the construction industry. After a decade of doldrums, Colorado construction is hot again.
Between February 2011 and February 2012, the Denver-Aurora-Broomfield area added 6,300 construction jobs, according to the Associated General Contractors of America. That’s more than anywhere else in the United States.
Right now, about 137,000 Coloradans are working in construction. Times are good.
“The first quarter of 2012, we will equal the construction volume and revenue that we had in all of 2011,” said David Sinkey, managing director for Boulder Creek Builders. His company is hard at work developing the Steel Ranch neighborhood in Louisville. But there’s a problem. He can’t find enough construction workers.
“We’re very concerned about the labor force. We’ve already reached a point in our construction that there’s a limitation on the number of framers and trades-people that are available,” he said.
The problem? When the economy tanked, and building in Colorado all but stopped a few years ago, lots of construction workers moved away, or got out of the business entirely, because times got so tough.
“Extremely tough,” said Robert Lazarony, a construction workers who was out of work for six and a half months, after the construction company where he’d worked for more than a decade folded during the downturn.
“You’re not always sure what the outcome is going to be,” he said.
But now, he’s back to work, overseeing the building of Steel Ranch homes, and he’s desperate to hire good construction workers. It’s tough to do, because they’re being snatched up by other builders.
His advice? If you’re looking to reinvent yourself… a job in the construction industry might be the way to go. There are plenty of openings. Just make sure you have a passion for building. And make sure you learn how to do it right, before you apply.
“Let them get trained somewhere else and then send them my way,” he joked.
To learn more about jobs in construction jobs, click here:http://www.constructionjobs.com/index_eng.cfm
To learn more about the 6300 construction jobs in the Denver-Aurora-Broomfield area, click here: http://www.agc.org/cs/news_media/press_room/press_release?pressrelease.id=1063
Article courtesy of Fox 31 News
1 commentYoung at heart: Designing homes for the new 50+ market – Professional Builder, March 12, 2012
Discard old-hat approaches to home and community design. Aging baby boomers are more active, independent, and youthful than the preceding Eisenhower generation.
Whether you call them aging baby boomers, empty nesters, or active adults, 50+ home buyers are a powerful market segment that many builders would love to tap — although getting them to buy is more difficult nowadays. The economy is largely to blame; according to a study of the 55+ market by the MetLife Mature Market Institute and the National Association of Home Builders, the housing downturn and the recession of 2008-09 made buyers more practical, with increased importance on financial rather than aesthetic reasons for choosing a new home. Read More…
No commentsSteel Ranch receives national housing award – Colorado Hometown Weekly, February 29, 2012
Steel Ranch receives national housing award
50+ Housing Council recognizes the builder for floor plans, renderings and design
Louisville’s Steel Ranch development received the Silver Achievement Award for “Best Detached Home On the Boards” from the National Association of Homebuilders earlier this month.
The NAHB 50+ Housing Council awarded Boulder Creek Builders, in conjunction with KGA Studio Architects and Osmosis Architects, with Steel Ranch’s award during the 2012 NAHB’s International Builders’ Show Feb. 8-11 at the Orlando Convention Center, in Orlando, Fla., according to a Boulder Creek press release.
No commentsSteel Ranch In Louisville Wins Prestigious 50+ Housing Award from National Association of Homebuilders
STEEL RANCH IN LOUISVILLE WINS PRESTIGIOUS 50+ HOUSING AWARD FROM NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF HOMEBUILDERS
50+ Housing Council Awards local Builder and Architect with “Best Detached Home On the Boards”
(Louisville, CO)—Boulder Creek Builders www.livebouldercreek.com in conjunction with KGA Studio Architects http://kgarch.com and Osmosis Architects http://www.osmosisarchitecture.com are proud to announce that Steel Ranch www.livesteelranch.com, in Louisville, has won the prestigious Silver Achievement Award for “Best Detached Home On the Boards,” by the 50+ Housing Council during the 2012 NAHB’s International Builders’ Show. The winners of the 2012 Best of 50+ Housing Awards are recognized for building stellar communities during incredibly challenging economic times. The homes at Steel Ranch fit this criteria—offering right-sized, single family patio homes, with main floor living and generating incredible interest and demand from buyers across the front range.
“This award celebrates the best homes in the country for people over 50 and we are proud that Boulder Creek at Steel Ranch is being recognized nationally for its strong innovation in the category,” said David Sinkey, Principal of Boulder Creek Builders. “Boulder Creek worked closely with the community to identify their wants and needs in their next home and to provide living and style choices in response to this input. Our unparalleled success indicates that we’ve pinpointed the right combination of home style and exceptional location.”
The 50+ Housing Awards enable builders, developers, and other industry professionals to gain recognition as the “best of the best” in the 50+ housing industry. Boulder Creek at Steel Ranch won the Silver Achievement Award for “Best Detached Home on the Boards,” which considers the individual floor plans, renderings, and design of the community when selecting the winners. KGA Architects designed three of the five floorplans for the community and Osmosis Architecture designed the other two.
Steel Ranch will be the last large scale residential development in town. Boulder Creek Boulders will be building 68 patio homes in the community, which are in short supply in the area. The lack of patio home inventory available has resulted in numerous sales, significant interest and the need to release lots far more quickly than originally expected. .
About Boulder Creek Builders
Boulder Creek Builders www.livebouldercreek.com is an award winning, Louisville-based homebuilder that creates innovative communities across the Front Range of Colorado – communities that embrace green building practices, energy efficiency and a true sense of place. Boulder Creek’s mission is to build homes that are more than just bricks and mortar, homes actually modeled around how people aspire to live, thus appealing to the active lifestyle. Each of Boulder Creek’s communities varies in size, price and concept, but has one common thread: they embrace quality craftsmanship and green building techniques and provide an unmatched low-maintenance lifestyle.
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No commentsBoulder Creek Builders, in Louisville and Longmont, hits pay dirt with low-maintenance ranches and townhomes
Courtesy of Mark Samuelson, The Denver Post
Two years ago, builder David Sinkey of Boulder Creek Builders was on the phone to the big Denver developers, trying to convince them to work some of his low-maintenance patio ranch designs into their large master-plans. Now a half dozen of those developers are talking with him, wanting to rub some of the same magic into their own communities that just since November has attracted 18 sales in the $400s and $500s.
You can see those sharp, traditionally styled patio models (from the low $4s) today at Steel Ranch in Louisville (they were packed with visitors when I toured Wednesday). And you can tour some Boulder Creek townhomes near the Longmont Diagonal Highway that offer the same low maintenance and high energy efficiency, at half the price.
Kingsbridge Townhomes, off Airport Road in Longmont, is a little hard to find and gets a fraction of the traffic that Steel Ranch does – but has such a high conversion rate that Boulder Creek has already gone through well over half of the 109 townhome sites it took over there from a California builder in 2010.
“We don’t restrict any of our communities to 55-and-older,” said Sinkey — one of four principals in a company that dates from one his father launched in Boulder in 1976. We left headquarters in Louisville’s scenic downtown, surrounded by shops and dining that helped earn Louisville the number-1 national ranking in Money Magazine’s annual ‘Best Places to Live’…and headed for Steel Ranch, a mile north.
Nevertheless, Boulder Creek’s buyers seem to ‘self-restrict’ into that older, downsizing demographic. Along with a few single females, empty-nest buyers dominate sales at Steel Ranch (and are catching the attention of those large developers, anxious to tap into that market).
Those downsizers are also a factor at Longmont’s Kingsbridge (it has four 2-story townhome plans, including one that could go main-floor master)…however, buyers there also find three schools within walking distance including Longmont’s Silver Creek High, rated 9-for-10 stars at GreatSchools.net. The schools and the prices (from the very low $200s for 2- and 3-bedrooms that are nine miles from Boulder, four miles from IBM) also lure single moms and dads, and another demographic you don’t hear much about: ‘never-nesters’ – ones who have rented for years and years, and now have plenty of cash to make a purchase.
What Boulder Creek DOESN’T see at Kingsbridge are first-time buyers; and that, says Sinkey, doesn’t make any sense. After all, these large plans have attached 2-car garages, roomy storage spaces, extra-outdoor private storage for bikes; and optimal energy features (blown-Fiberglas insulation that earn HERS scores under 60, so low they were featured by Channel 9 News). The smallest, a 2-bedroom ‘Florence,’ delivers 1,490 square feet for $205,000 – with a bright-and-light interior that comes standard with wood kitchen floors, nicer birch cabinets in a choice of colors, and ceramic tile bath surrounds.
They also show something all Boulder Creek’s buyers, young and old, agree on: Despite the low-maintenance, they want manageable HOA fees. “Our people say, ‘Give us walking-biking trails; but not a pool, that means higher dues,’” Sinkey added. Boulder Creek keeps track of its buyers’ preferences through a ‘Founders Group’ that reviews new models. When the group was asked what they’d be willing to pay for the new Steel Ranch patio plans, their estimates were so high, Sinkey says, that company planners knew they had a winner on their hands.
You can see Steel Ranch off 95th Street in Louisville; from the Turnpike take Northwest Parkway north, jogging onto 96th, and continue north 5 miles, just past Baseline. Kingsbridge in Longmont is off Airport Road between Diagonal and Nelson Road; from Boulder take the Diagonal north 6 miles to Airport, then left a mile to Venice Lane.
If you go…
WHERE: Kingsbridge Townhomes in west Longmont by Boulder Creek Builders, low-maintenance 2-&-3 bedroom townhomes near trails, 4 miles to IBM. 1656 Venice Lane, Longmont; take I-25 north to Exit 240, Colo. 119; west 7.6 mi., continue west on Nelson Rd. 1.9 mi to Airport Rd.; left 1 mi. to Venice Lane. Or from Boulder’s Foothills Pkwy take Diagonal north 6.6 mi. to Airport Rd, left 1 mi. to Venice
PRICE: From $205s; Steel Ranch from the low $400s
WHEN: Today & Saturday 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.; Sunday 11-5
PHONE: 303-772-3063 Steel Ranch, 303-745-1091 WEB: LiveBoulderCreek.com
No commentsPatio Homes Draw Buyers to Steel Ranch in Louisville
Patio Homes Draw Buyers to Steel Ranch in Louisville
By Judy Finman for At Home
Article courtesy of Boulder Daily Camera – At Home
Nancy Patch was doing what she loves – riding her bicycle in Louisville – when she discovered the single-family patio homes designed and built by Boulder Creek Builders at the new Steel Ranch community. “I had no intention of moving at that time. I was planning to wait until my youngest son graduates from high school, and then right-size,” she says. “But I was so impressed with their floor plans – as an interior designer I am very familiar with floor plans.”
An advocate of the “not-so-big-house” philosophy, she related to the builder’s use of “well thought-out spaces that are functional – the opposite of McMansions. I liked that it was aesthetically pleasing, with taller ceilings and how the spaces worked together.”
Before committing to a move, Patch had to sell the Louisville house she was living in. She staged it and worked with a Realtor® to price it right. “I had a contract in less than two weeks. The success of my being able to move on this house at Steel Ranch was my Realtor pricing my home right. [You have to be] realistic and willing to stage your home, and put a little money into fixing it up.”
Patch loves the Louisville area. “It’s so well located to get on the highway to Denver, to the airport, to Boulder. I’m a biker, and there’s great riding here.
“The people at Boulder Creek Builders have been so great. You feel you really matter to them, that they genuinely care about getting you a home that works for you. As a buyer, you get a lot of flexibility in choosing your finishes.”
She chose the Harmony floor plan for her home. “I love it because the common areas – the kitchen and living room – look out on to the park. It’s a good value, especially because of its phenomenal location.”
Low-maintenance lifestyle
Another reason Patch was motivated to buy a patio home at Steel Ranch was that the house requires so little maintenance. “I can do something with my Saturdays other than take care of the yard,” she says. Sales Manager Bill Besher agrees. “Our homes allow people to live the Colorado lifestyle that everyone wants – with lock-and-leave convenience, and a low-maintenance lifestyle with no more weekends mowing the lawn or shoveling snow. All our homes at Steel Ranch are single-family patio homes – everything people need day to day is on one floor, with a finished lower level for company or entertainment.
There’s a shortage of these lifestyle homes in Louisville. “We will have only 68 patio homes at Steel Ranch, and, without doing any marketing, we have hundreds of people with very strong interest. We have written several pre-sales contracts for people who asked early about Steel Ranch, some a year ago.”
The patio homes are priced in the high $300,000s to low $400,000s.
Functionality plus style
Boulder Creek Builders has pulled out all the stops at Steel Ranch. Big-ticket items that would ordinarily be considered upgrades are included, like air conditioning, tankless water heater, maple kitchen cabinets, and granite slab or Caesarstone® kitchen countertops.
Six floor plans are offered, with a choice among four architectural designs and nine color schemes. This makes each home unique and promises a visually diverse streetscape. All the homes are built to be highly efficient, based on Energy Star and green building technologies.
With third-party Energy Star inspections, 2 x 6 exterior wall construction, R-23- wall and R-49 ceiling insulation with advanced insulation techniques, lower-energy-usage furnace, tankless water heater, low-E Argon-gas-filled windows, 50-year roof shingles and more, these homes are built for energy efficiency, durability and comfort.
Steel Ranch is located on the west side of Highway 42 at Paschal Drive in Louisville. Stop by Boulder Creek on November 5th to tour the brand-new model home. For more information call the sales office at 303.745.1091 or visit AtHome.LiveBoulderCreek.com.
You’re Invited! Boulder Creek Life and Home invites the public to its Grand Opening and Open House at Steel Ranch in Louisville on Saturday, November 5. Tour the neighborhood and new model home. Boulder Creek will make a contribution to the Louisville Senior Foundation for every person who attends.
No commentsBoulder County Still A Regional Business Hub
We love to point out the benefits of Boulder County life…and great jobs is one of the best reasons to make our beautiful county home. The Boulder Daily Camera just published an article on the area’s 50 top businesses, which include IBM, Ball Corp., Level 3, Oracle, and other nationally-recognized businesses in tech, pharma, and so much more. It’s a great reminder of the prosperity and prospects of a community that’s not just another pretty face along the foothills.
New to Boulder County? Ready to own instead of renting? Boulder Creek has many great options, from breezy townhomes in Longmont to ranch-style patio homes in award-winning Louisville and so much more. Click here to learn more about our Boulder County offerings and the benefits of Boulder Creek’s green, right-sized homes.
No commentsLouisville Street Faire…In Fast Motion
Recognize the view from this time-lapse video of the Louisville Downtown Street Faire? That’s right…it was filmed at Boulder Creek’s Louisville offices! We’re proud to be a sponsor of the Street Faire, which runs Friday evenings right in front of our office!
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