Homes on the range: growing up in the shadow of DIA, Green Valley Ranch could be home to 40,000.

• Author: Lewis, David
• Position: Denver International Airport

Most drivers heading to Denver International Airport round the first big turn going north on Pena Boulevard, hit the gas and zip past the exit sign that says "Green Valley Ranch Boulevard." But around that sign, especially to its east, developers in Denver and Aurora plan to build the equivalent of a sizeable city.

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Green Valley Ranch already is the size of, say, Pueblo West, and its plans likely mean it will more than double in population, to about 40,000 or more, the size of Littleton, or bigger.

Green Valley Ranch Denver, under construction more or less continuously for more than 20 years, now has built about 80 percent of the 9,000-plus homes planned on its four square miles. Estimates of the development's current population range from 16,000 to 23,000. The remaining 20 percent of the homes to be built range from nearly complete to the planning stage.

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To the development's east and south lies another roughly five square miles, including two major recent land acquisitions totaling about 900 acres. Developer Oakwood Homes has slated these tracts before too long to become Green Valley Ranch Aurora, which someday could house another 20,000 or more people.

Bruce Rau, Oakwood Homes' manager of government relations and entitlements, says he expects construction of Green Valley Ranch Aurora to start in 18 months to two years, "maybe a little longer, depending on what the market does. But it's possible it would be sooner if the right opportunity and idea comes up out there."

Oakwood Homes likes to test both ends of its market. At the company's Celebration development, 900-square-foot, single-family homes sell from the mid-$130,000s. On the drawing boards is a tract of upscale homes bounded on three sides by Green Valley Ranch Golf Course. These homes likely will run somewhere above the $600,000s, the price commanded by Green Valley Ranch's now-premiere home product, Fairway Downs.

"There's a big range here," Rau says, especially for a large development consisting solely of detached homes (although town homes are planned for an as-yet undeveloped commercial area near Tower Road).

"There's not very much new development in the City of Denver, which is a huge advantage," says Rau. "And we're only minutes from the airport, which is a huge economic engine up here." The area also is nearly equidistant from downtown Denver, a selling point.

Green Valley Ranch's growth makes it the...