City: Denver, CO

Category: Relocation

Telephone: (303) 790-7099

Description: Colorado’s home-­building business thrived during the 1990s and early 2000s before being stalled by the mortgage meltdown of 2008. Based on available space, most new-­home construction—master-­planned communities and tract-­housing developments—occurred in the suburbs. Single units and smaller townhome or condo developments make up the bulk of city infill projects. Perhaps the biggest trends are the growing number of upscale townhomes and row homes being built on vacant city lots and the pop-­top phenomenon in older core neighborhoods, in which new owners remodel small homes into larger modern ones with all the amenities of the suburbs. On a larger scale, redevelopment of both Lowry Air Force Base, a few miles east of downtown, and the old Stapleton Airport site were major projects that included residential, retail, and parks. Work on Lowry is nearly completed, while Stapleton construction will extend well into the future. Another trend hitting Metro Denver is the revival of new urbanism, in which communities are built to look like the days of old, with “vintage” housing and neighborhood amenities just down the street. The Lowry and Stapleton sites include new urbanism, as does development in the Central Platte Valley, just west of downtown. For more information on the hundreds of home builders, call the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Denver at (303) 778-1400.