Prospect New Town (Denver, Westminster, Boulder: hair salon, apartment complex, lofts)

[AZHawkeye]

Hi there!

I just read about Prospect New Town, outside of Longmont. I checked out the website for this town and found it interesting. Has anyone been there? What are your opinions on the area? My husband and I have been researching places to move to in the future. We live in Phoenix and are starting to miss the 4 seasons.

Thanks for your help.

[Noahma]

needless to say, coming from someone that designs houses, its wierd! lol

there are neon green homes, some with thick plastic sheathing where siding usualy is. very unusual styles.

if your into architecture of a different flavor try it out. it is a new movement in architecture called new urbanism. there are these types of places all over colorado.
belle creek,
bradburn Village,
Prospect
Dakota Ridge Village
Holiday
and so forth. check em out

[AZHawkeye]

Thanks for the response Noahma. I do not know how much I am into weird architecture as just trying to get away from the cookie cutter homes that are taking over the U.S. We will hopefully venture out there sometime to check it out. I really liked hearing about the family type of environment they seem to have set up there. We have a 1 year old and another on the way.
I appreciate your time.

[Noahma]

ohh, definatly a great place to have children grow up. the whole concept of New urbanism is to bring the comunity back together. in the urban sprawl sub-divisions, people come home, open the garage door, drive in, and you do not see them untill the next day until they do the reverse to go to work. You wont find many of the New urbanism neiborhoods greater than .7 X .7 miles around, you will find smaller streets, and streets that are not set up in a grid type pattern. you will find most homes have large front covered porches, lower 4' tall fences around the yards, Lots of parks, and different price points of homes.
Bradburn Village for example, has an apartment complex, town homes, shops, and single family homes of different price points. We are having a home built in Belle creek simply because I cant see myself living in an urban sprawl sub-division.

Prospect goes a little more beyond in the Architecture department, they are breaking out of the box with the designs. There are some classic styles, and some very industrial styles in the same place. Kind of a neat place.

you can also check out Markel Homes - developer of high quality neighborhoods in Colorado which is a larger builder here in colorado and look at the New West designs they have. We do large custom homes for them, but most of there smaller New West designs are done by another firm.

[AZHawkeye]

Wow, thanks for the website and list of areas to check out! This helps a lot!

[Noahma]

your welcome.

[Bradburn1]

Hi!,

I have several friends who live in Prospect and know it well. They LOVE it! The colors and the architecture, it's unique. People there are very friendly and they have very frequent social events all the time. The only negative I can point to is the prices--Prospect is quite high for single family homes (usually 450-900K), and some people get turned off by some of the crazy modern architecture and wild colors (although I personally love it). You really have to see the place to believe it. Cottage Living magazine had an article about it in their May/June 2006 issue, if you go to their website and search "Prospect New Town" you should find it.

If you don't wish to live in Longmont, there are several other similar neighborhoods (although none as "non-cookie cutter" as Prospect--every house in there is custom) along the Front Range which a prior poster mentioned--they are all new urbanist neighborhoods. There are also some older, established neighborhoods in Denver which have the non-cookie cutter look and are walking distance to shops etc.. (the old urbanism!) such as the Highlands in Denver, Washington Park (called Wash Park here) etc..

If you specifically want a new home in a neighborhood with that feel, then check out the new urbanist communities in/around Denver. I live in one, Bradburn Village, which I love dearly. The architecture is more traditional than Prospect--Farmhouse, Victorian, Craftsman, Praire--although the live/work lofts are more modern. Everyone knows each other and we have tons of social events, you can walk to shops, the houses are different (although we do have production builders in here so the houses are similar in some places but still not cookie cutter--and very few are beige). And there are kids everywhere! About 85% of the homes in here are people age 30-45 with kids under age 6. To give you an idea, we have 20 kids getting ready to attend kindergarten this fall. I don't ever have to arrange "playdates", my kid just opens our front door and runs down the sidewalk with a gang of little girls her age.

Other places you might look include Stapleton in Denver (I like, but is a bit large, you can't really walk to shops from most houses). Lowry in Denver, Holiday in Boulder (more modern but is very cool), Bradburn Village is in Westminster, Belle Creek in Henderson (a bit out of the way, but very reasonable prices).

I'm originally from Phoenix myself (Scottsdale) and have lived in Colorado for 11 years, I think you and your family will love it BUT-no more eating outdoors during the Holidays : )

Good lucky with your search!

[Noahma]

Originally Posted by Bradburn1

Hi!,


although the live/work lofts are more modern.



Good lucky with your search!

hehe, at least you did not have any negative comments on the work/live lofts ;p

The builder was very strict on what they wanted in that design. he did several other homes in the sub-division that were on my desk.

There is a very prairie style about mid way back, next to a denver square that were some of my first houses to design on my own. I was part of the two person team that did a couple of the craftsman homes to the east near the park with homes right on it.

The few spec builders that are in there doing single family homes are very reputable in there building. They do a good job.

Mcstain
and New Town Builders (also building in Belle Creek, and Stapleton)

Bradburn has been my favorite of the New Urban subdivisions. Too expensive for me to live in though

[AZHawkeye]

Thanks, Bradburn for the detailed reply. Sounds great! Thats good to hear that you are from Phx and enjoy it in Colorado. I appreciate all the info.

[bxo]

I own in Prospect, and have for three years. Our abode is located in the town center. It most certainly beats your standard suburban mcmansion development; however, there are negatives along with the positives. If you’re a mellow person you can roll with the craziness, but if not, Prospect may not be the place for you. I’ll go into more detail about that a little later.

As far as New Urbanist developments go, Prospect is the best in the nation, hands-down. Each building is unique and has not been popped off an assembly line by a big housing developer. Even Holiday in Boulder (along with the Steelyards and another NU development off of 28th and Valmont) looks factory made by comparison. Basically, the other NU neighborhoods in most places of the country look like a large developer has backed them.

Anyways, it is an EXTREMELY social neighborhood, which can be a turn-off to some people who would rather not socialize with their neighbors. If you have a dog, you’re sure to make friends in the neighborhood, and the same goes if you have children. The western portion of the neighborhood is predominantly composed of single family houses and mostly families with young and some older children live there. The western area also contains the oldest buildings in the development and the more traditional styles. As soon as you head east or south, things start getting more modern. I think this contrast is what makes the neighborhood so amazing and interesting.

There are new shops opening all the time, although quite a few of them are rather impractical (why does a neighborhood need three clothing boutiques and several hair salons?). The coffee shop and Two Dog Diner are always busy, as is the newly opened Tusk Lounge. We just need a grocery store, and a drycleaners!

Now on to the negatives: there is a LOT of drama in the neighborhood. Prospect is very much like a small town where the gossip swirls 24/7, people complain constantly about silly issues, and friendships end abruptly due to some offense or spat. There is a party crowd that is QUITE interesting, and I’ll leave it at that. We manage to be social, but stay out of that scene, and we’ve found some good people in the neighborhood who are just as drama adverse as we are. So if you don’t mind a little bit of that sort of small town nonsense, you’ll love Prospect. It’s absolutely beautiful in the summer, the views are spectacular, and Denver is only 40 minutes away.

The houses are expensive, but with housing crisis, you can probably get a nice place for a relatively reasonable amount.

Hope that helps!