Landmark paid $34 million for the land. Horizon Bank and Shames Makovsky Mortgage Co. provided the financing, while the Frederick Ross Co. brokered the deal.

"The High Point project has been a regional masterpiece in the making for almost three years now," says Wendy Mitchell, president of the Aurora Economic Development Council. "This mixed-use development will spur new economic activity that will benefit the entire metro area."

The 1,800-acre, master-planned community will include more than 800 acres of commercial land with 10.5 million sf of office, retail and other commercial space. It also will have about 450 acres of residential development and almost 350 acres of parks, trails, open space and golf courses. Several large development deals on the commercial space are being negotiated, according to Ray Pittman, founder and president of Landmark.

High Point will be mostly in Aurora, but also will include land in Denver. High Point will lease about 200 acres of land around Pena Boulevard from DIA for an 18-hole, championship golf course. The golf course will be built around an $80-million, 350-room conference center hotel.

Pittman says he is negotiating with several brands to operate the hotel. He says he is deciding to go with a major national flag or to go with a private, boutique operator. Often, with conference center hotels, guests prefer the boutique operators, he notes.

Landmark also is negotiating with Colorado Springs-based Niebur Golf to develop, construct and operate the golf course. In Colorado, its projects have included the Sanctuary in Douglas County, which is owned by Dave Liniger, the founder of RE/MAX International.

Preliminary designs for the High Point golf course call for a British "links-style" course, replicating memorable holes from famous British courses with pot bunkers and sod wall bunkers and using fescue and other grass that requires limited water. The High Point course will be irrigated from ground water on wells on the site.