By Mark Samuelson

Builder John Keith has a rare commodity: a series of family-sized luxury homes in Stapleton that, despite the economy, is selling pretty fast. Fast enough, that Keith is taking his award winning Architect Collection plans——each with 2.5 kW of solar on the roof——to a small number of sites where he can offer them in Lowry.

Solar builder John Keith at Lowry’s Wings Over The Rockies Museum.

During 2008, a year that was slim pickings for most builders, Keith’s Harvard Communities sold 25 homes in Stapleton. That was before President Obama came to Denver to sign the Stimulus Bill, giving an introduction during his speech to Boulder-based Namaste Solar, Harvard’s solar contractor. “For the rest of the week,” Keith said, “Namaste was one of the most Googled words on the planet.” more »

By Mark Samuelson
Last week, while a field of solar panels near Alamosa was cranking out 8.22 megawatts of power, enough to run 1,600 homes, builder John Keith was doing the same thing on a small scale…readying a new house at Stapleton that will have 8.5 kilowatts of solar on the roof. It’s a thousandth as much, but looms large for the purchaser.

Builder John Keith shows off Harvard Communities’ Architect Collection at Stapleton, where he includes energy efficient construction and a small solar system with every home built. He’s opening a “Near-Zero Energy Home” there Jan. 24-25.

With the solar, coupled with exceptional energy conservation design, Keith’s Near-Zero Energy Home will deliver nearly all of the energy the family will use…so much that they’ll likely never pay more than a few hundred dollars a year for power and gas. more »

By Mark Samuelson
Fifteen years ago, everybody leaving town on Christmas Eve was crowding into old Stapleton International Airport, five miles from downtown Denver. Weather was frightfully cold…and as the Boeings went into their takeoff roll up two north runways, they crossed a ditch, its frozen waters lined with old tires and industrial refuse.

It was an unlikely setting for what developers like to call a “recreational amenity,” but that’s exactly what Sand Creek Regional Greenway has become–a 14-mile stretch of wilderness in the city, passing directly through the popular new community of Stapleton.

Volunteers from UPS pitch in last summer to pull invasive thistle and tamarisk from the route of the Sand Creek Regional Greenway through Commerce City.
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