The Denver Parade of Homes opened Thursday for a three-weekend run through Aug. 24, with 67 new home models by 23 builders on view, scattered all over the metro Denver area.

But the place to see the most houses and the most variety is out by Denver International Airport.

The annual event sponsored by the Home Builders Association of Metro Denver includes eight models in Windler, a master-master planned community four miles southeast of DIA’s Jeppesen Terminal that’s opening with the Parade’s launch. Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman is scheduled to carry out a ribbon-cutting next Tuesday.

The new 880-acre development, flanking both sides of the E-470 beltway south of the airport, is planned for 5,000 residents. It’s one of several residential components coming together in what planners are calling Aerotropolis — a 33-square-mile expanse that’s showing a vast expansion of commercial logistics and service hubs tied to the airport.

Close to that arriving infrastructure are two more newer master-planned communities along E-470, Painted Prairie and Aurora Highlands — with another five of the Parade’s model homes on view.

Aerotropolis employers

Is the third-busiest airport in the U.S. beginning to lure homebuyers?

“Absolutely,” said Jacob Sherrard with KB Home, who is showing Parade goers a 3-bedroom Starlight ranch as one of the Parade entries. Sales traffic is often from the airport and from new ancillary employers nearby, he said, adding that well in advance of this weekend’s model opening he sold a home to an airline mechanic. 

At a moment when new figures from the Denver Metropolitan Association of Realtors pegs a median-priced single-family home the Denver area at $650,000, Sherrard says KB can deliver this ranch plan at $664,990, with 2,483 square feet of finished space, plus a 2-car garage, a partial unfinished basement, and added crawlspace.  KB also has a series of attached homes on view as Parade entries, starting from the mid-$400s.

Down the street, David Ray, who has a Brimstone Parade model to show by Texas-based Brightland Homes, said that along with the location, developers are pushing early to complete parks and other amenities that add a finished quality to a community that’s on the city’s outer fringe. That emphasis, he said, is a contrast to other new home areas he has sold, including one where he recalls seeing the same “coming soon” on a park site for three years running.

“You can see the investment they’re making, they’re going full bore,” he added.

His Brimstone model can be sized to four-or-five bedrooms, 2-1/2 or 3-2/2 baths, with 2,100 square feet of finished space. It is priced from $563,000, almost $90,000 less than that typically priced resale home in the metro area.

“We’re putting in the improvements up front for people to enjoy from day one,” said Cheryl Schuette, chief marketing officer for Windler, who was busy preparing for a grand opening of Windler’s Discovery Park Thursday evening. Total allocation of the community’s expanse to parks and open space totals 160 acres, she said. To be included with that are some original elements to the Windler ranch, founded on the site in 1881, including a foundation of the homestead house to be incorporated into an outdoor fireplace, and one of the ranch’s silos.

New connection to E470

Schuette added that Windler’s opening corresponds to better access that has been created along the beltway, in what was long an empty stretch of the toll road north from I-70 to East 56^th Avenue.  In May, an additional exit opened at East 48th Avenue that will become an additional exit for residents as connector roads open in coming months. Hotels and other services are expected to arrive along the interchanges, she said.

According to the Home Builders Association, Parade entries across the metro area will be open Thursdays-through-Sundays through Aug. 24, noon until 5 p.m., for self-guided tours. Included among the offerings are condos, no-maintenance townhomes, paired homes, other single-family designs, and a few custom homes. Entries are priced from $429,990 to $2.650 million.

“We offer the opportunity for builders and developers to showcase the latest and greatest of today’s design trends,” said Ted Leighty, the HBA’s CEO in a prepared statement opening the event.

The event is free. A map of all of the communities participating can be downloaded at ParadeOfHomesDenver.com. To reach Windler, with eight designs on view, take E-470 north from I-70 to East 56^th Avenue and turn right (east) to Denali Boulevard. To arrive avoiding the tollway, from Pena Boulevard, the airport freeway, exit at East 56^th Avenue and head east four miles.