Home Care In Lone Tree, CO

The Centennial airport reported receiving nearly double the number of noise complaints this year compared to last.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. — The latest meeting of Centennial Airport's Community Noise Roundtable went about the same as they all do.

Neighbors near the airport lined up to complain about the sound of planes flying over their homes. In the latest report, the airport said it is receiving nearly double the number of noise complaints in recent months compared to last year -- averaging about 1,100 grievances filed per month.

So when developers proposed building new condos and townhomes directly in the path of landing planes, Centennial Airport wrote planners objecting to the proposal.

The FAA even got involved, writing a three-page letter outline its objections, including noise issues and concern accidents are proportionally higher in the areas where building is planned compared to other locations.

"The FAA strongly opposes this proposed development," the agency's letter to the City of Lone Tree said.

Despite these objections, Lone Tree approved the plan earlier this month. According to the developer's website, building of the 270 units will begin in 2024. Lyric at RidgeGate will be open for residents to move in, directly under the path of landing planes, in 2025.

News of the approval and proposal was first reported by Colorado Community Media. The development was one of four the airport objected to in recent weeks, it told roundtable members at this month's meeting.

But at least one member of the board didn't have confidence municipalities around the airport would listen to the objections.

"I find it extremely frustrating when the airport, I think for good reason, says this is not a good idea to build here and the cities and towns just say we don't care, it's money," she said, according to a recording of the meeting. "The people that live in those areas are going to be living under the same kind of noise and the same kind of concerns about safety that y'all have. So it's a big circle of a problem."

The builder, Lokal, agreed to add language to inform buyers of the flight path and promised to test the decibel level inside the homes once they finish building, the city said.

In a statement, the city of Lone Tree's senior planner, Chuck Darnell said:

As part of its public referral process, the City of Lone Tree invited Centennial Airport to provide comments on the proposed Lyric Condominiums and Townhomes development. Centennial Airport expressed concerns that the development would be impacted by noise from airport activities and overflights.

This site was zoned for residential use more than 20 years ago. The City of Lone Tree has established development standards for addressing potential airport-related impacts in this area. Developers must obtain Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmation that they have complied with FAA review processes, such as the Part 77 assessment of air navigation impacts. The Lyric Condominiums and Townhomes project received FAA approval, including a "No Hazard to Air Navigation" determination. The developer also committed to meeting interior noise level requirements, which will be verified through post-construction noise testing. Given this information, the City approved the development in accordance with City code and guidelines.

The City of Lone Tree values its relationship with Centennial Airport. The quality of this collaborative relationship was a key factor in the establishment of an Avigation Notice over the entirety of the City of Lone Tree east of I-25. Subdivision plats and site improvement plans in this region must reference this notice, ensuring future landowners are aware of airport-related impacts. Because of this, the Avigation Notice is part of property title work provided to homeowners during ownership transfers.

Lone Tree, like many other communities along the Front Range, needs additional housing. Specifically, Lone Tree needs additional housing options to provide housing opportunities for residents within a wide range of income levels. The proposed development includes both condominiums and townhomes - housing products that will provide home-ownership opportunities at lower price points than many traditional detached single-family housing products. This development will help the City achieve its Comprehensive Plan objective of providing “Residential areas that are safe, attractive, and desirable places, with a mix of housing types and affordability ranges to accommodate a broad range of demographic groups in the City.”

Centennial Airport also issued a statement to 9NEWS saying it has always been proactive in working with surrounding communities to identify issues that could arise from further development.

"Lone Tree has been a good partner with the airport and has responded well to our concerns. We understand the desire to continue to develop Ridgegate and will continue to work with Lone Tree to make sure that any development within our airport influence areas are properly vetted and that future residents are aware of potential impacts and have the necessary construction to counter any increased noise," the airport said.

More from Cole Sullivan:

Omaha, Nebraska-based Kiewit Corp. has sold its Ridgegate campus for $205.2 million, according to Douglas County property records.

The campus is located at 10055 Trainstation Circle near Lincoln Avenue and Interstate 25 in Lone Tree’s RidgeGate community, and consists of two office buildings, a parking structure and surface parking lot.

The new owners of the campus are LLCs associated with CGA Capital and Benderson Development, a Florida-based real estate company with other offices located in Buffalo and Rochester, New York and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Kiewit executed a 20-year lease last month to remain at the campus, according to Douglas County records.

View Slideshow 21 photos

Take a look inside the first phase of Kiewit Corp.'s new regional headquarters, which sits on more than 12 acres in Lone Tree's RidgeGate development.

Benderson Development, whose headquarters are outside Tampa, Florida, is active in approximately 40 states, and also has offices in New York and North Carolina. Its portfolio spans shopping centers as well as industrial, office and hotel properties, according to its website. Maryland-based CGA Capital provides debt and equity capital for property around the country.

Benderson Development did not respond to multiple requests for comment. CGA Capital and Kiewit also did not provide comment regarding the transaction.

Kiewit celebrated the completion of its first six-story building on the 13-acre campus and welcomed its first employees in July 2021. Known as K1, that building features ample outdoor space, a cafe and fitness center.

“This building will finally create opportunities for our current and future employees across different functions of Kiewit’s engineering and construction business to truly become one cohesive team,” Kiewit Senior Vice President Chris Stolzer said at the time.

Kiewit followed with the construction of its second building, K2.

Together, the two buildings contain 400,000 square feet of office space designed for more than 1,700 employees. In addition, the campus features a parking garage for 950 vehicles.

Last month’s sale was recorded in two separate warranty deeds, one for $189.8 million and the other for $15.4 million.

In 2018, the Colorado Economic Development Commission offered tax credits worth as much as $18.65 million for Kiewit’s new regional headquarters, known as “Project Brother.” At that time, Kiewit had 160 employees in Colorado, and was considering a new headquarters in Colorado, Texas, Nebraska or Kansas, according to previous reporting. In 2019, Kiewit announced it had picked Lone Tree for its new regional offices.

Last summer, the Colorado Department of Transportation fined Kiewit after deeming the contractor responsible for an Interstate 70 flood that stranded motorists.

The Denver Business Journal ranks Kiewit as No. 1 on its 2023 list of Denver-area general contractors, with 2022 Colorado revenue of $1.65 billion.

Kiewit has offices in 29 states, according to its website, in addition to Canada and Mexico.

The 3,500-acre master-planned Ridgegate community also includes the office campus of Charles Schwab, the Sky Ridge Medical Center and other commercial and retail development.

P?hotos show cars driving through floodwaters in Lone Tree, Colorado, Thursday after a storm brought high winds, hail and heavy rain to the area.

T?he City of Lone Tree tweeted that there were several accidents reported in the town located about 20 miles southeast of Denver.

R?oads were flooded in Colorado's El Paso County Friday morning as well. Colorado State Patrol warned that several major roads were completely flooded and several cars had become stranded, according to KRDO.com. Colorado State Patrol also said that the bridge at Peyton Highway and Judge Orr was "non-existent."

A tornado touched down in the nearby town of Highlands Ranch and damage was sustained in Lone Tree as well, according to the Denver Post. The tornado, which traveled about six miles on the ground, was given a preliminary rating of EF1 by the National Weather Service.

T?raffic lights lost power, intersections flooded, trees and fences were felled and some roof damage was seen in the tornado-struck areas, however, no significant structural damage was found, South Metro Fire Rescue communications manager Eric Hurst said in a news conference Thursday evening. An elementary school and a fire station sustained some damage. There were also no injuries reported aside from minimal hail-related injuries.

T?he severe weather came just a day after nearly 100 people were injured when a hailstorm struck during a Louis Tomlinson at Red Rocks Amphitheatre west of Denver.

(?MORE FROM WEATHER.COM: Red Rocks Hail 'Felt Like Bullets')

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New parks, commercial and residential projects moving forward as people prioritize home, work and lifestyle amenities

The RidgeGate community in Lone Tree, Colorado, saw significant momentum with the completion of several major development milestones last year and expects to see progress on the east side in the year ahead. New infrastructure, public transportation, extensive parks and open space, retail space, commercial and residential offerings are taking shape to further expand this complete community where people can live, work and play.

“RidgeGate was designed with the goal of helping companies and people thrive, and each year we deliver on the promise of creating a community with lifestyle amenities, connection to work and nature, and diverse residential offerings,” said Keith Simon, Executive Vice President and Director of Development for Coventry Development Corporation, the master developer for RidgeGate. “We are excited for the next chapter at RidgeGate and believe 2023 will be a transformative year.”

Residential

The residential opportunities at RidgeGate are continuing to grow — last year Shea Homes began developing the first phase of Lyric at RidgeGate, named for its poetic approach to Colorado living. Phase 1 comprises 185 acres and 430 homes, and is well on its way to becoming a highly anticipated new neighborhood on the east side. As the master homebuilder, Shea Homes, and other select homebuilders, will build approximately 1,900 homes just east of the RTD RidgeGate Station–with their Phase 1 model homes and sales kicking off mid 2023 and first residents occupying homes before the end of 2023. This year they will also begin site work on Phase 2 – which Shea Homes acquired in late January. Shea signed an agreement with Quantum Fiber, a Lumen Technologies brand, to construct a state-of-the-art all fiber broadband network. With the Quantum Fiber network in Lyric residents will experience the benefits of high-performance, reliable connectivity, including enhanced Wi-Fi, as a standard home amenity to work from home, take online classes, or connect with friends and loved ones—all with unlimited data.

“We are grateful to have a strong partnership with RidgeGate as Lone Tree continues to grow on the east side of our City,” said Jackie Millet, Mayor, City of Lone Tree. “RidgeGate is committed to ensuring that this growth is sustainable, thoughtful, and enhances the quality of life for Lone Tree residents and visitors. We value the expertise and collaboration of RidgeGate as we work to create a vibrant and thriving community for generations to come.”

Several East Side projects have also commenced construction or are scheduled for completion this year, including:

RidgeGate West

On RidgeGate’s west side, numerous large-scale corporate campus projects recently reached completion. Charles Schwab’s mixed-use retail, conference center and parking building is now complete and Kiewit’s New Regional Campus opened last year with the completion of their second building – a 150,000-square-foot building.

Construction was completed at the end of 2022 on the Novus Sky Ridge Station Apartments, a new 240-unit apartment complex situated on the last parcel of land at the Sky Ridge Station transit-oriented development (TOD) site. The seven-story apartment complex, which includes two levels of parking, is adjacent to several large employers in the area including the Sky Ridge Medical Center, Charles Schwab and Kiewit’s regional headquarters.

Living Spaces announced their first Colorado location on the final large retail site on the West Side at RidgeGate Commons (near Cabela’s and Sierra Restaurant) and will start construction in early 2023.

“RidgeGate is a prime example of a mixed-used community that has been successfully attracting large corporate campuses looking to be embedded in a desirable walkable and diverse community in order to enhance their employee retention and recruitment,” said Simon.

About RidgeGate

RidgeGate is a mixed-use community in Lone Tree, Colorado, that is currently home to 6,000 residents. The community began taking shape in 2003 with the Sky Ridge Medical Center and is nearly fully developed on the west side of I-25 with expansion now beginning on the east side of I-25. RidgeGate encompasses a total of 3,500 acres, or six square miles, and is designed to seamlessly integrate urban amenities and residential neighborhoods with beautiful natural open spaces, parks and trails. It is home to three light rail stations, dynamic shopping, dining and wellness as well as several large employment campuses, all joined by a highly connected and walkable UrbanScape ®.

Charles Schwab (NYSE: SCHW) laid off about 2,000 employees this week in an effort to cut costs.

The layoffs impacted 5% to 6% of the company's workforce, Charles Schwab told the Denver Business Journal via email. As of Sept. 30, the financial services firm had 35,900 employees, according to a corporate fact sheet.

The company declined to comment on the number of local workers let go, but at least 24 former employees based in the Denver metro posted about the layoffs on LinkedIn. They worked in product, software, engineering, design, analytics, finance, operations, customer relations and management roles.

"In July, we shared our intent to take certain steps to remove cost and complexity from our organization," a Charles Schwab spokesperson said in an email. "These steps include some changes to our real estate footprint, streamlining our operating model and staffing reductions, largely in non-client-facing areas. ... These were hard but necessary steps to ensure Schwab remains highly competitive, with industry-leading levels of efficiency, well into the future."

Charles Schwab was named the ninth largest Denver-area private sector employer in late July, according to Denver Business Journal research. At that time, the company had 2,500 full-time equivalent employees in Colorado.

It is unclear if any local Charles Schwab locations will close. The company's website currently lists branches in Boulder, Colorado Springs, Cherry Creek, downtown Denver, Fort Collins, Summit County and Lone Tree.

Charles Schwab opened a 650,000-square-foot campus in Lone Tree in 2014. The 47-acre campus quickly grew from 2,000 employees to about 4,500 employees in 2019, surpassing the firm's expectations. Although the number of workers based in Lone Tree has fluctuated over the years, the company still lists Denver as one of its 10 major centers of operation in the U.S.

2023 Denver-Area Private Sector Employers

Number of full-time equivalent employees in Colorado

View this list