EVERYONE KNOWS THAT A GRAND-OPENING EVENT FOR A NEW project or phase can be a circus, but that’s just what the team at Everest Development Co. wanted for Landmark, a mixed-use project featuring a 12-story, 122-unit condo tower in Greenway Village, Colo., just down the I-25 corridor from Denver.
Working with a circus expert to plan the acts and book talent, and employing 125 people to pull it off, Everest invited a list of 400 qualified prospects developed from inquiries received from three months of targeted advertising and direct mail to tour its information/sales center and visit a pair of adjacent tents—one set up as a marketplace for the various retailers already committed to the project, the other for a catered meal and a performance inspired by the famous Cirque du Soleil, including past performers in that troupe. “This event exemplified the higher quality and amenities at Landmark,” says sales manager Rike Palese. “It showed buyers that we were going to deliver what we’d promised. The elegance and universal appeal of the show drew the crowd we wanted.”
Of the 400 invitees, 300 attended the event, followed by another 700 from the general public later in the day. Even better, after a month of following up with prospects, Landmark took reservations for units ranging in size from 800 to 2,500 square feet and in price from $200,000 to nearly $1 million from 104 buyers the day it opened for sales, converting them all soon after to contracts. Only eight units remained less than six months later for a residential section that is scheduled for a mid-2007 occupancy.
CAMPAIGN DETAILS Program: Grand opening at Landmark, Greenwood Village, Colo. Developer: Everest Development Co., Greenwood Village; Cost: $10.37 per attendee; Ad agency: Greene & Birnbach Advertising, Denver
Learn more about markets featured in this article: Denver, CO.
