Developer puts $6.5 million home up for sale

As upscale homes go in Colorado Springs, it’s a jaw-dropper.

There’s a $200,000 Italian crystal chandelier hanging in the entryway, walnut and marble floors throughout the main level, hand-carved fireplaces in several rooms, wood-beamed ceilings, a library with mahogany walls, ceiling beams, fireplace and floors, and his-and-her bathrooms connected to the master suite via an ornate, columned archway.

The house spans 17,226 square feet — about 12 times larger than the typical El Paso County home — and sits on 5.36 acres in Stratton Forest Preserve, a gated community on Colorado Springs’ scenic southwest side. If the seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms, gourmet kitchen, great room, living room, home theater area, exercise room, recreation room, wine cellar and outdoor basketball court get a little crowded when family and friends come over, there’s always the 1,235-square-foot guest house next door to use as an escape.

And it’s all yours for $6.5 million, a record asking price for a single-family resale home in El Paso County that if reached would easily surpass the previous mark of $3.67 million paid for a home across from The Broadmoor hotel last year. Those figures include homes marketed through the Pikes Peak Association of Realtors’ multiple listing service and exclude private sales and newly built homes..

“The house is worth every penny of that,” and its replacement value would be higher, said Becky Gloriod of Gloriod & Associates in Colorado Springs, who’s marketing the property.

National and local housing slumps, however, don’t discriminate. While local real estate agents said early this year the upscale market had weathered the year-old downturn, they say the sale of high-end property has since slowed like much of the rest of the area’s housing industry. The $6.5 million home, owned by Jeff Smith, chairman of home building and development company Classic Cos., has been listed since March, although Gloriod added it’s not unusual for a multimillion-dollar property to take several months to sell.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s $6.5 million or $4.5 million or $3.5 million,” Gloriod said. “The high price range isn’t moving.”

In 2006, 69 existing homes sold with $1-million-and-up price tags; last year, 63 such homes sold. So far this year, 22 million-dollar properties have sold, Gloriod said.

Well-to-do buyers and sellers are in the same position as homeowners in lower price ranges; many are squeamish about the faltering local and national economies, worried about their jobs and investments, and uncertain what effect November elections will have on tax policies, several veteran real estate agents said.

“It you have a $10 million portfolio, and you lost $1 million right now in the stock market, you’re not feeling that wealthy right now,” said Stuart Scott of Stuart Scott Ltd. in Colorado Springs.

Joe Clement, owner of Re/Max Properties in Colorado Springs, said he’s had trouble getting showings for some of the upper-end properties he’s listed. Many potential buyers of upscale homes made their money by smart business decisions, and they’re likely to go slow before plunking down $1 million or more for a house.

“That’s how they got to be wealthy,” Clement said. “They didn’t get wealthy by putting it in silly investments or making mistakes with their money; they got wealthy because they were prudent with their money.”

Also, the number of expensive properties on the market has created stiff competition among sellers, and buyers can take their time, Clement said.

It would take nearly five years to sell the supply of $1 million-and-up properties listed in the Pikes Peak region, according to Gary Beres, a real estate agent with Re/Max Properties. He bases that figure on the number of housing inventories in the four months ending June 30, and at the rate homes sold during that period. A year ago, the supply of upscale properties would have taken 2ff years to exhaust.

Several years ago, most million-dollar properties sold in scenic southwest neighborhoods and around The Broadmoor hotel, Gloriod said. Now, competition extends to areas such as Kissing Camels on the northwest side, Pine Creek on the Springs’ north side, Monument and unincorporated Black Forest, she said.

Other cities provide competition, too. Many wealthy buyers have second homes in places such as Aspen, Naples, Fla., or La Jolla, Calif. But Colorado Springs is less of a second-home city.

“We’re not a ski town, we’re not a beach town,” Gloriod said. “We’re a really nice town, but we don’t have some of those attractions that resort towns have.”

How quickly the $6.5 million home sells is anybody’s guess. Gloriod said she’s had some interest.

Clement, who marketed the home across from The Broadmoor that sold for $3.67 million, predicts a sale will take a while.

“A person who needs that house is somebody who’s got kids,” Clement said. “Well, does somebody who has kids have $6.5 million? Or the ability to buy $6.5 million? It will be a diffcult task to find a buyer for that house or anything of that magnitude. It’s just tough.”

FOR SALE: A $6.5 MILLION CASTLE
A home in the gated Stratton Forest Preserve community on Colorado Springs’ southwest side is for sale for $6.5 million, which would be a record price for a single-family resale sold through the Pikes Peak Association of Realtors’ multiple listing service. Some facts:

• 17,226 square feet on three levels. It’s not the biggest house in town; a home built a few years ago on the city’s southwest side spans more than 22,000 square feet. The median size — or midpoint if all home sizes were laid end-toend — of single-family homes in El Paso County is 1,470 square feet.

• 5.36 acre lot.

• Built in 2001.

• Annual property tax bill of $19,994.71 for 2008.

• Estimated mortgage payment — principal and interest — for a $6.5 million home: $23,067 a month. That’s based on a 30-year, Fixed-rate loan and likely loan criteria in today’s tight lending environment: a jumbo loan interest rate of 8.5 percent and a down Payment of 40 percent.

• Features: Seven bedrooms; nine bathrooms; four-car garage; 1,235-square-foot guest house; six hand-carved fireplaces of wood and marble; walnut and marble floors; Murano crystal chandelier; sculpted, barrel, double barrel, medallion, box beam and dome
ceilings; main level master suite with study, separate sitting area and his and her baths; butler’s pantry; wine cellar; home theater; exercise room; recreation room; air conditioning; flagstone veranda with barbecue grill; outdoor basketball court.

Gloriod & Associates of Colorado Springs; El Paso County Assessor's Office; Adams Mortgage LLC of Colorado Springs