When Terry TenEyck first bought land for a Colorado development, gas was about a dollar a gallon, milk cost a little more than $1, and the median price of a home was around $65,000.
And the current site developer, Chad Ellington, was only 7 years old.
Today, 45 years later, the development in Arvada known as Canyon Pines has begun to take shape — with two homes completed, one nearly there and more on the way.
The development went from a dream to build one home to a development with 93 lots — and a tree house.
“Originally, we bought a 35-acre piece as a potential home site,” TenEyck said.
Since then, Canyon Pines has ballooned to nearly eight times its size — to 270 acres.
It took a lot to get here
TenEyck, a former pilot and an 80-year-old commercial real estate broker, has walked every inch of the property many times in the past four decades. He explained that he and his wife, Diana, decided to nix the idea of just building their own home after hearing a proposal for Jefferson Center, a nearby master-planned development.
Fast forward to today, and TenEyck and his wife own four lots in Canyon Pines near a tree house he built with his twin grandsons, Cormac and Liam Dunn, back in the summer of 2008. They are still figuring out what to do with those lots, but Ellington has been the majority owner of the overall development since the summer of 2021.
Ellington, who also owns Peak Development Group, said Canyon Pines is a once-in-a-career project. He heavily credits TenEyck as the visionary pioneer. “I would call him the brainchild of it,” Ellington said. “It was his vision and efforts to get the right pieces of land and get it designed … getting it annexed into the city of Arvada and getting utilities up to the site.”
TenEyck went from soaring the skies to landing real estate deals
TenEyck is a Navy pilot-turned-real-estate-professional. After serving seven years in the Navy in Vietnam, he pivoted to real estate, getting his license in 1975. “I studied political science after I could not pass calculus in engineering school,” he said.
His wife's background made them the perfect team to launch a development.
Diana, a math major who earned a doctorate in mineral economics from the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, played a critical role in keeping the Canyon Pines dream alive. Her work in the oil and gas industry provided the financial foundation for the long-term development.
By the late 1980s and early 1990s, the couple had begun exploring and acquiring nearby properties, gradually forming the vision that would become Canyon Pines. In the mid 1990s, they began the process of getting city approval for their project.
That would take 22 years.
Developers jump through decades of hoops
Records show that the TenEycks first requested approval for the project in the mid-1990s, Rob Smetana, manager of city planning and development in Arvada, told Homes.com.
First, it was about the size of the project.
The city would approve only 60 homes, Smetana said.
“At the time, [the council] denied their request for the [93] homes,” he said. “Then the TenEycks sued the city, and that went through the court system for several years, with the court ultimately deciding that the TenEycks should be able to develop their property as they originally intended.”
Then there was the referendum.
In 2001, the city granted initial approval for the property, but then community members called for a referendum to overturn it, Smetana said.
It didn't pass.
Next an unstable economy hindered development from 2008 to 2016, TenEyck said, “so, there were times where we tried to make progress and couldn't and times that the economy was so bad, we didn't really force it."
Through the decades — amid the myriad steps taken to get to shovels in the ground — there was also a series of annexations. In the late 1990s, Arvada annexed the initial 180 acres from unincorporated Jefferson County, Smetana confirmed. In 2024, the city annexed another 90 acres. The city had given its final approval for the development back in 2017.
'I scamper up there and take a look'
With Ellington onboard, what's TenEyck's role now?
“I am an unpaid security patrol that drives up in there looking at things going on, admiring the improvements that have been installed,” TenEyck said. “Chad keeps me advised of when some sort of a construction milestone might be occurring, and I scamper up there and take a look.”
TenEyck said it took time to get people interested in Canyon Pines. Turns out, the pandemic, and the exodus of people from cities, was the catalyst for some interest.
That interest remains a little slow going because it’s a big decision to build a home like the ones in Canyon Pines, Ellington said. “Not everybody wants to go through the process of designing and building a fully custom home, so we've had a lot of folks that are looking for something that's finished or at least started.”
He has done all of the on-site development. “We spent about 18- to 24 months putting in all of the roads, sewer, water infrastructure improvements on site,” Ellington said. “Then we opened presales a couple years ago, and those are the first three lots that were sold and homes that were built. And then we’ve got five or six in design.”
Ellington said he was attracted to the location, the beauty of the property and its woods and wildlife. TenEyck often feeds the wildlife, including several turkeys.
As the initial landowner, TenEyck said it was essential for him to remain attached to the project.
“You have to solve all the problems and keep working until it works,” he said.
Lot prices range from $500,000 to $2 million
Lot prices range from $500,000 to $2 million, with prepped ones ready for immediate construction. Homes are expected to start around $2.5 million, according to Ellington, and styles must pass muster with guidelines set by a design review committee.
Ellington said the risk of architectural repetition is minimal because each home is uniquely designed for its specific lot, and while some styles — like modern homes with flat roofs — may share visual similarities, the overall diversity is preserved.
Two homes have been built, and one is nearing completion. There are also three spec houses in the works, which have already been designed and are awaiting construction permits, he said. The spec houses, “we believe, (are) sort of the next evolution."
These days, TenEyck said he’s "just an interested old guy," but he’s extremely happy with the outcome after 45 years.
“My only interpretation of how Canyon Pines might be was by looking at paper drawings or maybe some sketches," TenEyck said. "But it looks better on the ground than I had ever imagined.”