Steamboat Homefinder Magazine Cover Story

05-24-2009

Jerry and Shelley Stanford, together with their business associates, are trying to take the brain damage out of developing a golf course lot in Steamboat Springs.

Jerry, with David Vandervelde, is a partner in VGS Enterprises, which has recently released the 17 building lots at Graystone on the Green subdivision to the market. Conveniently, Shelley Stanford, with her colleague Sharon Beaupre at Colorado Group Realty, is the listing agent for the lots. Both are broker owners.

However, the Stanfords are willing to take it a step further after retaining KSA Architects to complete construction drawings for four homes that are assured of flying through the design review process at Graystone. Jerry Stanford, through his contracting firm, Colorado Joint Ventures, would be happy to follow through and complete the homes on behalf of the buyers of building lots.

Families who buy luxury home lots in the Steamboat market often are years away from realizing their ambitions of a vacation home here. The Stanfords say they can expedite the process.  "The architectural and structural drawings are completed," Jerry said. "The sites are very flat and buildable, and we could be ready to go. We would be willing to tweak the plans to suit buyers' needs."

The developers are willing to include the completed drawings in the purchase price for the buyers of the first four lots.

Those buyers could choose to build with Colorado Joint Ventures, or not, Jerry said. The plans still come with the lots.  And all 17 lots at Graystone on the Green include the $35,000 membership at Rollingstone Ranch Golf Course.

Bottom line, VGS is developing a subdivision, not a complete neighborhood of custom homes. However, Stanford’s company is prepared to contract to build homes in Graystone and shorten the process for buyers.

They have taken the additional step of pre-arranging financing at Vectra Bank Colorado. The terms can be customized to adapt to customers’ construction schedules.

Shelley Stanford has come up with a play on words to describe the marketing pitch that goes something like this: “You can make a hole-in-one on the golf course, we’re offering a home in one.”

Stanford and Vandervelde have previously developed 18 homes in a subdivision in Steamboat, with tight design controls at Angler’s Retreat. Angler’s Retreat created homes in a European cottage style no larger than 3,000 square feet.

The two partners in VGS purchased the 11.3-acre site for Graystone from the owners of the Sheraton Steamboat Resort in the summer of 2007. In the interim, the name of the golf course has been re-branded from Sheraton to Rollingstone Ranch. And the subdivision developers have built a new entrance to the golf (and Nordic skiing) clubhouse from Steamboat Boulevard.  The former Clubhouse Drive entrance now leads directly to Clubhouse Circle and the home sites in Graystone. Design guidelines for Graystone call for the same post-and-beam flair of Angler’s, Stanford said, but the architecture will move the homes away from the European cottage look to a craftsman style.  As a condition of the subdivision approval, the city of Steamboat Springs has required that homes at Graystone on the Green be no larger than 4,000 square feet. The architectural plans prepared by the Stanfords show three-story homes — with walkouts and walk-ups — that have four bedrooms.

The lots themselves, elevated above the golf course, offer views of Sleeping Giant, Emerald Mountain, the south valley and Steamboat Ski Area. Sizes begin at 0.25 acres and continue up to 1.05, although most are in the range of 0.3 to 0.4 acres. They are within a short walk of the golf clubhouse and Nordic skiing trails.  Prices begin at $799,000 and vary into the $900s, with the most expensive priced at nearly $1.08 million.