Every 3 months, Forest City hosts a nice lunch for all the Stapleton social media folks. We meet to hear from Forest City on new developments, new school updates and best of all to catch up on the latest gossip.

Ready?

Here goes!

New home sales: lots of 'em. 368 new home sales for 2013 through July - that's up 19% from 2012, and 48% of those sales were in Conservatory Green. Homes in Conservatory Green are selling like hotcakes. Stapleton south of I-70 will have just a few more parcels of new construction, then it will be full. Expect some new homes to finish out Bluff Lake, and Wonderland is building some traditional rowhomes along MLK right across from Central Park.

Resales: Booming and hard to qualify because so many home never even make it into MLS before they're sold! I know - I should have taken better notes, but Joe over at Stapleton Scoop can fill you in!

Rentals: The Aster Apartments at Conservatory Green will be move-in ready by September 20 and by December will include some 2-story townhome styles with up to 3 bedrooms. Good news for the families who are relocating within Stapleton but have to wait for the new construction.

The Greenways at Stapleton is an apartment complex for active boomers over 55 coming to Ulster at MLK - right across from the Wine Shop.

Pools: Conservatory Green is getting 2 swimming pools: one in the neighborhood currently under construction, and one just off of Central Park Blvd. and Northfield Blvd. that will be built to house our thriving Stapleton swim team!

Schools: The new High Tech Elementary School will be breaking ground soon and ready to open in fall 2014! Don't let the name fool you: this is a traditional Denver Public School ECE through 5th grade with the core curriculum, Writing Alive, Singapore Math, BSCS ScienceTracks, and Peace 4 Kids -- all within a project based learning model (like expeditionary schools and IB schools.) Best of all, Dr. Amy Gile is the school's principal, and she holds Tuesday coffees at Starbucks in the Stapleton Town Center - anyone is welcome!

The school will share the campus with a new DSST middle school - but they'll only be there temporarily.

School gossip: Did you know there is a committee of brave Stapleton residents who are right now debating about school boundaries? Should we have school boundaries? What about siblings? What about all the crazy bus routes? They'll be making a recommendation to DPS in October.

Roads: Three new roads will open to Aurora in September: Iola Street, which is a one-way out of Stapleton; Fulton Street and Emporia Street. All three connect to 26th Avenue.

Grocery store: Tom Gleason won't confirm the rumor that King Soopers is going to open a "Fresh Fare" store at the Eastbridge Town Center. But he didn't deny it, either. What he will say is that they've been in talks with several unnamed stores, and can't say anything until it's a done deal.

Crime: Lots of crime in the new construction - copper pipes, even windows. Folks: shut your garage doors. Don't give them the opportunity.

Dogs of Stapleton 2014 Calendar: Competition is FIERCE for the Dogs of Stapleton calendars.  Your iPhone snapshots won't cut it: they want high-res photos suitable for print. We enter Maggie every year and I bet they get hundreds of black lab wannabe models, so we're making sure our family photos include her. 2 entries per family, you have until September 30. Go!


And there you have it.