Buena Vista's south main taking shape: new-urbanist community enlivens historic downtown.

• Author: Jackson, Margaret
• Position: REAL ESTATE ROUNDUP - Dialogue with Jed Selby - Interview

FOR A SLEEPY, little mountain town unaffiliated with a ski resort, Buena Vista has a lot going on.

A boutique hotel overlooking the Arkansas River opened at Jed Selby's South Main development last summer, and plans are in the works for a climbing gym, market, more restaurants, shops and condominiums at the new-urbanist community located in the shadow of the Collegiate Peaks.

"Our plan is basically to try to do one project a year, in addition to the five to 10 houses we build," Selby said. "Slow and steady is our mantra."

In the decade since Selby started South Main, he's completed about 50 homes, the 20-room Surf Chateau hotel, the Eddyline Restaurant (a South Main and several shops. At full build out --expected in about 15 years--South Main will have roughly 400 residences and as many as 75,000 square feet of commercial space.

When Selby started South Main, it wasn't easy to convince people that the neighborhood would be a desirable place to buy a home.

"With any project like this, you go through an ugly duckling phase," said Andre Spino-Smith, financial manager for South Main Development. "If you're building row houses and there's nothing else around them, it's hard for people to see what it will be. We're finally overcoming that phase a little bit."

And as the development emerges, South Main will offer a wider variety of price ranges. Now homes range from $300,000 to $2 million, but the company is working on a plan to offer options in the $200,000 range. Unlike many master-planned communities, each home in the development is unique, with local artists and contractors doing most of the work.

"We think having a wide home-value range is important to allow for diversity," Spino-Smith said. "If you have houses that are all worth $400,000 and up, you're limiting your buyers to a certain income level. We see that as a negative. It's important to create a neighborhood that has older retirees and younger people and everywhere in between. If you don't have that mix, we don't think it's a really authentic community."

MOUNTAIN VISION

Selby's next endeavor is just outside of town at base of Mount Princeton, where he purchased a 274-acre organic farm. His vision is to build a farm-to-table market, restaurants and a venue for weddings and retreats. He's also in discussions with a concert promoter about hosting music festivals at the site.

"The land really wants to be something special," he said. "It has nearly a mile of creek frontage on Cottonwood...