Developer touts ‘Black Diamond’ find

By MIKE GARRETT
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

Black Diamond Park developer Richard McEntee, right, and company vice president Mario Alberici look over a map of the new gated residential community.

WALSENBURG - The developers of Black Diamond Park, the first new neighborhood to open in the Walsenburg area in more than 25 years, say they expects to sell all 161 lot sites by year's end, based on the current sales pace.

Richard B. McEntee along with his business partner, Walsenburg native Mario Alberici chose a site next to Lathrop State Park's two lakes and the upgraded 9-hole Walsenburg Golf Course for the gated community.

The startup follows seven years of challenges, all since resolved: local and state bureaucratic red tape, a reduction in the original number of planned lots, legal complications and water availability concerns, McEntee said.

Now utility lines are going in place and dirt roads are getting cleared for paving. Also, construction is done onthe 4-foot-high, quarter-mile-long stone fence that will serve as the gated subdivision's northern boundary.

"It has been a real struggle at times but in the end it has been well worth it," said McEntee. "A lot of people who grew up here and left are coming back because they are seeing what's happening here. We've got country living with city conveniences."

McEntee previously developed and sold 5-acre lots near South Park and Westcliffe.

"People are starting to come down and look," he said. "It's a perfect bedroom getaway and second-home retirement community that's an easy access from U.S. 160 and Interstate 25 and has great views of the Spanish Peaks."

The project will feature McEntee’s favored black granite trim and brown, stucco-color look throughout.

In addition to Hawaii, where he plans to open a satellite sales office, and possibly Europe, McEntee said he plans to market the subdivision in Front Range cities.

"I've sold seven lots out there (Hawaii) already this year. Property is so out of site there, many people are looking to buy second or retirement homes here. Right now we think we're one of the hottest selling developments in all of Colorado."

McEntee said 62 percent of the lots border park areas, open spaces or water.

With all of the nearby recreational amenities, McEntee termed Black Diamond and Southern Colorado as "one of Colorado’s last remaining real estate values. We're now getting people from all over the state and up from Santa Fe scouting for property here. It's about time!"

McEntee said he's working with Colorado Springs and Pueblo homebuilders and hopes to have at least five involved in the project. Construction of model homes could begin in late summer or early fall with home prices ranging from $175,000 up to $400,000.

Richard McEntee sees opportunities for Walsenburg

The real estate agent, a Connecticut native who relocated to Colorado in 1976, setting up shop in Colorado Springs, said his early successes included selling Colorado home sites to military personnel stationed in Europe. (His mother, Evelyn, works as a U.S. Army nurse in Frankfurt, Germany.)

Today, his client base includes a large number of Hawaii residents. To market in Hawaii, he maintains close ties with Hawaii Kai Realty and also uses direct video marketing, stressing Rockies-style living. "My dream is to have Hawaiian village of residents at Black Diamond Park who can have the best of both worlds," he said.

McEntee said he first came to Walsenburg in 1993, lured by the chance to help sell the failed Rio Cucharas subdivision. At the same time he began to envision and lay groundwork for his nearby Black Diamond Park subdivision, now under way. He built his main home on a 110-acre ranch adjacent to Lathrop State Park.

McEntee also invests in downtown Walsenburg properties.

The developer offers no shortage of risk taking - and optimism. Out of high school, he went to work at the Groton, Conn., submarine yards, building fast-attack subs. He was named a ship superintendent by age 22. Bored in Connecticut, he made the decision to move to Colorado - and hitchiked the entire way.

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