Southern Luncheon: Banning Lewis Ranch development update

 

Approximately 95 mortgage brokers and bankers heard the latest development news about Banning Lewis Ranch from John Cassiani, project manager of the new 24,000-acre development northeast of the City of Colorado Springs at CMLA’s southern chapter luncheon October 10 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Colorado Springs.

Mr. Cassiani began by sharing a bit of history about the land that is now Banning Lewis Ranch, noting that the land was initially a 38,000-acre cattle ranch, owned by Ruth Banning and Pinky Lewis in the 1920’s. Since then, a variety of interesting people have owned the land. During the mid 1980’s a gentleman named Frank Aries bought the land, master planned it and got it annexed into the city of Colorado Springs. Shortly thereafter, a lot of foreclosures occurred and Colorado Springs was tagged as the “foreclosure capital of the United States.” In 1989, Mr. Aries lost the land as it went back to the RTC. Banning Lewis Ranch Management Company closed on the land in 2001; Mr. Cassiani was brought in to manage the project about a year ago.

Banning Lewis Ranch is the largest development in Colorado, slightly larger than Highlands Ranch. It is ranked in the top ten developments in the United States in terms of project size and has a 40-50 year development timeline. “There is no way this is going to be done overnight. The annexation agreement allows 75,000 to 80,000 homes on the property, which equates to about 180,000 people living within the development.  The annexation allowed 75 million square feet of commercial, industrial, retail, and office buildings. Currently all of Colorado Springs only has 75 million square feet, so this development will double the size of office, commercial and retail space in the City,” Mr. Cassiani noted.

As for residential layout, Mr. Cassiani noted that Banning Lewis Ranch will be comprised of six villages, each encompassing about 2,500 acres and about 10,000 homes. Each village will be connected by trails that will also connect to its own Rec Center and Charter school. “In our first village, we have six different home builders. In general, homes will range from $200,000 to $400,000 - very affordable. There will be a few homes that will be higher-end, but most of the homes will be in the price range that captures 40%-80% of the market. Home building will begin on the northwest corner of the property with 1,000 homes scheduled for groundbreaking next month.

Mr. Cassiani was careful to note that while Banning Lewis Ranch Parkway (which will dissect the property running north/south) will be a major thoroughfare for the city, it will not be a “super slab” toll road.

He also addressed the concern of where the project is going to get its water. “Since our property is within City limits and the City currently owns 27 reservoirs around the area which will supply water for 15-20 years, we don’t have an immediate problem,” he noted. “However, after 15-20 years it will become critical for the City to acquire new water systems.”  He further explained that the City of Colorado Springs wants to create the Southern Delivery System and pull water from the Pueblo Reservoir, pump it all the way up to the Banning Lewis Ranch property and create a 2,000-acre storage reservoir.

As the land was primarily ‘ag land’, infrastructure development had to be brought in. “We brought in a 36-inch waterline four miles to our property, along with gas and electricity,” Mr. Cassiani noted. “Many of you might have read in the news about the sewer plant agreement. Because the Las Vegas plant is running out of capacity, we will build our own sewage treatment facility. No developer has ever built a Sewer Treatment Plant; it will cost about $250 million.” 

Clearly Banning Lewis Ranch will play a vital role in the future of Colorado Springs. It is estimated that within 10 years, one out of every two building permits within city limits will come from this development. Mr. Cassiani projects that Banning Lewis Ranch will be up to 1,000 building permits within the next three years.