Victorian cachet; Trinidad finds Economic boost dusting off its past.

Bill Barns once was like most of us hurrying south on 1-25 to New Mexico.

"I used to make the run between Colorado Springs and Santa Fe a lot, but I just stopped in Trinidad for gas and the restroom and then I'd hit the road again like many people do," he recalls. "I'd never really looked at it before."

Then about eight years back, Barns, business development director of Colorado Springs-based Bahr Verneer Haecker Architects, sat next to three people from Trinidad at a conference in Pueblo.

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"They asked what I did, and I told them I worked on old buildings. They said, 'Good, come to Trinidad; we've got a bunch of them,' so I went there the next day. They took me on the grand tour of the place. I immediately found some work there, opened an office there, and I've worked on old buildings down there more or less continuously since then."

1. COUGAR CANYON

LOCATION: 33 BAT MASTERSON DRIVE

DEVELOPER: TRINIDAD OPERATIONS LLC

PHONE: (877) 547-7455

SIZE: 1,500 ACRES

PROJECT TYPE: RESIDENTIAL-COMMERCIAL

COMMERCIAL SQUARE FOOTAGE: 3,000

SQUARE-FOOT SPA PLUS HOTEL OF UNDETERMINED SIZE

GROUNDBREAKING: LATE 2005

BUILD-OUT: ROUGHLY 2020

Cougar Canyon will feature a Hawthorne Suites-franchised hotel comprising 117 guest suites and a 3,000-square-foot spa, plus recreation center and Western-style equestrian center. At present, 17 homes including five model homes are under construction, and six have been purchased. The city of Trinidad has approved up to 1,729 dwelling units, which includes potential condos and townhomes. Currently under construction are patio homes of about 1,700 square feet, while later homes will be sized 2,000 to 2,200 square feet; prices are to range from $294,000 to $500,000. The development's crown jewel is the (Jack) Nicklaus Design Co. golf course that opened last year. Homes sites adjacent to the course cost $120,000. Management also is looking into the possibility of planting grapes and someday creating "Cougar Canyon Wines."

2. DANIELSON HOUSE

LOCATION: 509 S. ANIMAS ST.

PHONE: (719) 845-8489

SIZE: 2,069 SQUARE FEET PLUS 968-SQUARE-FOOT UNFINISHED BASEMENT

PROJECT TYPE: SINGLE-FAMILY HOME

Designed by renowned 19th century and early 20th century architect Isaac Hamilton Rapp, responsible for many of Trinidad's Victorian homes as well as many in Santa Fe and elsewhere. Rapp among other accomplishments is credited with later establishing the "Pueblo-Revival style as the architectural idiom of New Mexico," through "adaptation of the Pueblo-Mission churches of Acoma and Cochiti," according to the San Diego Historical Society. The Danielson home sits five blocks from Corazon de Trinidad, i.e., downtown Trinidad. Includes built-in butler's pantry, plate rails (for displaying china and plateware), custom balustrade staircase, hardwood floors, linen closet and pantry. Asking price: $315,000

3. MONTELEONE HOUSE

LOCATION: 712 E FIRST ST

PHONE:(719) 845-8489

SIZE: 1,459 SQUARE FEET

PROJECT TYPE: SINGLE-FAMILY HOME

A one-story double adobe home built in 1870, Trinidad's earliest days. Three bedrooms, six rooms in all, one bathroom, on a 16,680-square-foot lot (the typical Trinidad lot measurers about 2,250 square feet). The living room with moss-rock fireplace measures 15.5 square feet by 15.5 square feet; the master bedroom, 15.7 square feet by 17.8 square feet by 17.8 square feer. The owner is moving her medical practice to Arizona, needs to sell in a hurry, and has twice reduced the asking price, which now is $162,100.

4. MCCORMICK HOUSE

LOCATION: 1919 PINON ST.

PHONE: (719) 845-0955

SIZE: 6,752 SQUARE FEET

PROJECT TYPE: SINGLE-FAMILY HOME

Three-story, 12-room Victorian home built in 1889, listed for $185,000. Six bedrooms, 600-square-foot unfinished basement, two baths, 12 rooms total on a two-acre lot. Needs fixing, maybe $100,000 worth or more.

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5. CHICOSA CANYON BED & BREAKFAST

LOCATION: 32391 CR-40

PHONE: (719) 846-9824

SIZE: 64.49 ACRES

Native stone home built in 1900, 12 miles northwest of Trinidad. Asking price: $565,000. More than 4,500 square feet in all, with four bedrooms, including 480-square-foot master bedroom: one full bath, one half-bath, two three-quarter baths; double garage; guest cabin; and barn. Features 400-square-foot "great room," solarium, library, two guest bedrooms. Horses allowed.

It's easy to fall in love with Trinidad, especially if you love architecture. That's because among other virtues, Trinidad boasts the "El Corazon de Trinidad" National Historic District, a collection of mostly magnificent Victorian buildings ranging from Temple Aaron (to the southeast) to the Trinidad Hotel (to the northwest). To be precise, the Heart of Trinidad comprises 104 commercial buildings and 140 Victorian-style houses, all standing above streets lined with picturesque brick that reads "Trinidad." About a half-dozen of these buildings and a small portion of the brick pavement have been renovated.

"Some of the houses are not so cool; some are extremely cool," says Barns, who is compiling a database "to find who owns what-" This is not to mention the numerous Victorians outside the historic district.

The catch is, "They all need renovation. Some are in progress now; there's sort of a real estate bubble forming down there now," Barns says.

Barns' love, the Schneider Brewery, lies near the Denver Hotel, Holy Trinity Catholic Church and the Packer building. Eight years into the project, Barns is still looking for an investor.

But that isn't what has him worried. What concerns him is his perception that Trinidad has been discovered.

People are "buying and fixing old buildings ... it stimulates the market, it creates a bubble and the prices run up. Think of this bubble theory as watching a pot of water start to boil. Bubbles form at the bottom where the heat is, and rise to the top. Trinidad has been discovered, and the prices are so far down, the opportunities are there."

Yet, for the most part, "These buildings are cheap because no one has figured out what to do with them."

And why shouldn't Trinidad be discovered? Especially, perhaps, in the middle of a real estate slump the city offers investors (speculators, if you prefer) an opportunity to buy genuine Western history and architecture cheap. A double adobe home built in 1870 on a 16,680-square-foot lot for $162,300? A three-story, 12 -room Victorian home built in 1889, listed for $185,000? How about an Isaac Hamilton Rapp-designed home near the Corazon for $3 1 5,000? (See info-boxes for more.)

Of course, there's more to Trinidad than history. "My opinion of Trinidad is that it is still a little undiscovered jewel sitting down here," says Danielle Rollo, broker associate with Southern Colorado Realty in Trinidad, "We have beautiful weather, we have lots of outdoor activities, the mountains are right close; we have lakes, and the architecture of all of Trinidad is special. People from out of state are discovering us--more than Coloradans are."

The consensus among real estate professionals seems to be that Trinidad is more or less maintaining in the midst of the nationwide slump.

"Overall, like all markets, real estate is down a little bit if you look at a year ago," says Rick Johnson, co-owner of United Country Scenic West Properties. "But the good news is that prices are going up, and we're getting a lot of new listings, a lot of variety, including a lot of raw land."

Downtown, if not bubbling, is showing signs of life. A couple of highway exits away a new Holiday Inn and a new La Quinta are going up. And about three miles from the historic district is Cougar Canyon, a project that for good or ill will test the theory that the city is ready for large-scale suburban-type development.

Featuring an already-opened Nicklaus Co.-designed golf course, the project could someday contain as many as 1,729 residences, including townhomes and condos, plus 3,000 acres of open space via a conservation easement.

"We're trying to stay a little bit away from being labeled as a resort because we don't want to compete with Telluride and Aspen," marketing director Michael Butcher says. "Cougar Canyon and Trinidad are all about the real Colorado."

Jim Davis, chairman of the Trinidad-Las Animas County Economic Development Board and a native Minnesotan, with his wife traveled back and forth between the borders of Colorado and New Mexico before settling in Trinidad.

"You're always wondering if you made a good decision, but if you are attracted to the amenities in this area of the country, I really found it to be the best dollar value in real estate in the Southwest," he says