Victorian cachet; Trinidad finds Economic boost dusting off its past.

• Author: Lewis, David
• Position: FIXER-UPPER WITH - Commercial and Residential construction in colorado

Bill Barns once was like most of us hurrying south on 1-25 to New Mexico.

"I used to make the run between Colorado Springs and Santa Fe a lot, but I just stopped in Trinidad for gas and the restroom and then I'd hit the road again like many people do," he recalls. "I'd never really looked at it before."

Then about eight years back, Barns, business development director of Colorado Springs-based Bahr Verneer Haecker Architects, sat next to three people from Trinidad at a conference in Pueblo.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"They asked what I did, and I told them I worked on old buildings. They said, 'Good, come to Trinidad; we've got a bunch of them,' so I went there the next day. They took me on the grand tour of the place. I immediately found some work there, opened an office there, and I've worked on old buildings down there more or less continuously since then."

1. COUGAR CANYON

   LOCATION: 33 BAT MASTERSON DRIVE

   DEVELOPER: TRINIDAD OPERATIONS LLC

   PHONE: (877) 547-7455

   SIZE: 1,500 ACRES

   PROJECT TYPE: RESIDENTIAL-COMMERCIAL

   COMMERCIAL SQUARE FOOTAGE: 3,000

   SQUARE-FOOT SPA PLUS HOTEL OF UNDETERMINED SIZE

   GROUNDBREAKING: LATE 2005

   BUILD-OUT: ROUGHLY 2020

   Cougar Canyon will feature a Hawthorne Suites-franchised hotel comprising 117 guest suites and a 3,000-square-foot spa, plus recreation center and Western-style equestrian center. At present, 17 homes including five model homes are under construction, and six have been purchased. The city of Trinidad has approved up to 1,729 dwelling units, which includes potential condos and townhomes. Currently under construction are patio homes of about 1,700 square feet, while later homes will be sized 2,000 to 2,200 square feet; prices are to range from $294,000 to $500,000. The development's crown jewel is the (Jack) Nicklaus Design Co. golf course that opened last year. Homes sites adjacent to the course cost $120,000. Management also is looking into the possibility of planting grapes and someday creating "Cougar Canyon Wines."

2. DANIELSON HOUSE

   LOCATION: 509 S. ANIMAS ST.

   PHONE: (719) 845-8489

   SIZE: 2,069 SQUARE FEET PLUS 968-SQUARE-FOOT UNFINISHED BASEMENT

   PROJECT TYPE: SINGLE-FAMILY HOME

   Designed by renowned 19th century and early 20th century architect Isaac Hamilton Rapp, responsible for many of Trinidad's Victorian homes as well as many in Santa Fe and elsewhere. Rapp among other accomplishments is credited with later establishing the "Pueblo-Revival style as the architectural idiom of New Mexico," through...