Minding their Manor: Ken-Caryl residents wary of national real-estate firm's purchase.

• Author: Moore, Valarie R.
• Position: National Home Buyers Assistance

National Home Buyers Assistance, a fast-growing, Colorado-based home-financing franchise company, bought a Southwest metro Denver landmark, the Manor House in Ken-Caryl, for its new corporate home last month, but the company's new neighbors are not quite ready to roll out a welcome wagon.

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NHBA not only is closing down a long-popular restaurant to move in its sales force and administrative offices--about 30 of 121 people it employs nationally--but it plans to remake the Manor House into one of the busiest events centers in the region, according to Michael Shinn, founder and CEO of NHBA.

But busy isn't necessarily what the neighbors want. Ken-Caryl is a tightly knit, high-dollar foothills community that, practically speaking, is the south metro-area's gateway to the Rockies. Most of the residents there purchased homes nestled in the scenic foothills in order to escape the traffic, noise, pollution and the frenzy of city life. The Manor House and its quiet restaurant, which has played host to weddings and other family gatherings for years, sits atop a hill on 5.67 acres, and has served as a symbol of the neighborhood.

Shinn thought the home could also stand for a symbol of his company since NHBA, whose board members include former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb and former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros, was founded to help its clients achieve home ownership. Shinn had planned to also live in the home, but he has shelved the idea. "I misread the community," he said. "It's too sensitive a deal to have a family living there now."

To say the neighbors, specifically the Ken-Caryl Ranch Masters Association board of directors, are concerned about the redevelopment of Manor House is an understatement.

Community access, the planned expansion of the home itself, non-restaurant use, visual, noise and traffic pollution, and safety issues were all topics discussed at the board's January business meeting. The association had sent a letter to NHBA stating, "The redevelopment of the Manor House is an emotional issue for this community. The board wishes to express its willingness to cooperate with your efforts, with the understanding that we must work together to preserve this valuable part of our neighborhood and ensure enforcement of the guidelines established to protect the uniqueness of Ken-Caryl Ranch."

Shinn says the Manor House deal has been the ultimate real estate acquisition of his 35-year career...