The Daybreak Community received coveted industry honors yesterday as the National Association of Home Builders awarded  them with the 2010 Community of the Year and a Platinum Award for a Suburban Smart Growth as part of the Best in American Living Awards (BALA). The awards recognize developers, builders and architects from around the country who create enduring communities that reduce environmental impacts.

Daybreak’s Smart Growth planning adopts many of the early twentieth century building principals by creating communities that are self-sustaining with jobs, retail spaces, recreation and other life essentials within its space. This approach to community development has proven to withstand the test of time in Utah and around the country as many of these types of neighborhoods such as Sugar House, Harvard/Yale, and the Avenues district in Salt Lake City continue to be popular with home buyers and consistently retain their value over time. Placing schools, shops, restaurants, parks, and transit options closer to home reduces dependence on cars and is part of Daybreak’s smart growth plan. Additional components of this plan include bringing the Mid-Jordan TRAX light rail line to Daybreak  with service beginning in August 2011, and the 2009 opening of the SoDa Row retail district featuring 10 locally owned and operated merchants. Additionally, University of Utah Healthcare will open the South Jordan Health Care Center this fall – a 208,000-square-foot multi-specialty clinic adjacent to the south TRAX station.
“It’s gratifying to be acknowledged as being in a position to deliver on our vision,” said Ty McCutcheon, Vice President of Community Development, Kennecott. “We have found that the decisions we made early to construct homes that save energy and water, offer transportation choices, and provide homes and yards that free up time to enjoy nearby parks, are all things that resonate with home buyers in the current economic environment where we are defining a fullness to life while living within our means.”

These awards come on the heels of other milestones for the mixed-use planned community in South Jordan. The community has seen strong growth during the past few years in retail, commercial, and residential sectors amidst a challenging economy.  Since opening six years ago, Daybreak has grown to more than 2,500 households and nearly 9,000 residents. In 2009, Daybreak was ranked as the sixth best selling master planned community (volume) in the U.S. by RCLCO (Robert Charles Lesser & Co., LLC) a leading independent real estate advisory firm. During the past four years, Daybreak has been the top selling community for new homes in Utah with one in five new homes sold in Salt Lake County located in Daybreak.

Every neighborhood should have its own corner bakery, and its even sweeter when the recipes are homegrown.

The Swirly Girls are Debi Jensen and Amberleigh Farrell, two Daybreak residents who share a passion for all things Yummy! They became friends when they moved to Daybreak,  and quickly teamed up doing catering and desserts for friends and family. Debi has been in the Bakery business for 25 years, and has always dreamed of opening her own shop. She is known in the neighborhood for her wonderful desserts. People swarm her front porch on Sunday evenings just to see what she will have for them to try!  Amberleigh has 10 years experience in the catering and special events field.  She definitely has the entrepreneurial spirit, and has always wanted to have her own store. She learned to love baking in her Grandma’s kitchen as a young girl.

This is the girls’ first location, and they are very excited to be a part of Soda Row and to serve their fellow Daybreak residents.

Swirly Girls offers a plethora of baked goods: cakes, wedding cakes, cupcakes, dessert bars, rolls, cookies, danish and croissants and did we mention the hand dipped chocolates?  They also plan to offer catering with box lunches,  dessert trays, sandwich trays, and some appetizers–all done by special order.  There are a few tables inside the bakery (including a kids table) where you can sit and enjoy a treat after dinner, after a movie, or…anytime really. The girls also offer a selection of gluten free treats and coke products on tap.

Swirly Girls Grand Opening event: Saturday January 22, from 1pm-4pm. Free samples, and prize drawings.

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Empty nesters happily trade custom home for Daybreak’s Garden Park.

Rich and Toni Kener had some explaining to do. They had decided to sell their home on the 18th tee of Willow Creek Country Club and move to Garden Park, Daybreak’s low-maintenance village just for people age 55 and up. “I was having lunch with some friends I went to high school with. They just couldn’t believe we were moving to Daybreak,” Toni says. “But after our Garden Park home was built, we had them over. Then they understood.”
Of course, the Keners themselves hadn’t dreamed of moving to Daybreak until they saw it.
How many times can you say “beautiful”?
It’s a word that comes up frequently and with great emphasis when Rich describes how he first found Garden Park in Daybreak. Rich had spent months “cruising the whole valley,” looking for a home that would give them less yard work and no stairs. “I’d heard about Daybreak, and I thought ‘I’m going to check it out,’” Rich says. “I was amazed. You see these houses in Daybreak … and they are bee-YOO-tiful.”
Rich felt as if he were back in the Avenues neighborhood where he grew up. “I just had to look at every house in Daybreak, they were all so beautiful. Then I found Garden Park. And I started doing some serious thinking about Daybreak.”

Less yard work. More everything else.
The Kener’s former home in Willow Creek had a large yard and a swimming pool. “Which was great ten years ago when the kids were around,” says Rich. “But swimming pools don’t take care of themselves.” Rich explains that their new Patio Home in Garden Park has no stairs. And although it has a private yard, “the yard work averages out to picking about three weeds a week.”
“But you don’t give up anything when you move here,” Toni says. The private Garden Club, just for Garden Park residents, is a mere block and a half from the Kener’s home. It will open next summer with a swimming pool, fitness facility and meeting rooms. A block and a half in the other direction is SoDa Row, a neighborhood shopping district with boutiques, restaurants, a salon, dry cleaners and other shops and services. “It’s so easy to walk over there for something to eat,” says Toni.
The new University of Utah Medical Center is also being built nearby. So is the TRAX light rail station, which begins service next August. And Toni says she can see Garden Park’s community garden from her window. (Rich has already planned out their crops: “We’re growing corn, tomatoes and zucchini.”)

The private Garden Club is set to open in the Summer of 2011

The real difference: community
It’s clear the Keners love their new home. The European styling. The architectural details. A level of quality that Rich says is some of the best he’s seen. And they thoroughly enjoyed working with Ivory Homes, which offers a wide variety of homes in Garden Park, from condominiums to the impressive Estate Homes. But it took more than a beautiful home to inspire the Keners to move away from their beautiful Eastside home.
“We found other places we could have lived,” says Rich. “But they weren’t comparable to Garden Park. Not even close. They weren’t a community.”
To illustrate, Toni and Rich point to Daybreak’s extensive trail system, which they use daily. “The trails go all over,” Rich says. “And the environment here is so pretty, it’s fun to walk.” Toni adds that Daybreak is a powerful magnet for grandkids. “Ours love to come visit so they can use the paddle boats on the lake.”
And as more friends from the Eastside have become acquainted with Daybreak, more of them have become interested in following the Keners. “It’s not too surprising,” Rich says. “This was a great decision we made.”

You can learn more about Daybreak’s Garden Park Village at DaybreakUtah.com/GardenPark

Nightlife is coming to Daybreak for a weekend designed especially for south valley singles. We’re turning one of the buildings at SoDa Row into a club, complete with music, lights, and a spicy mocktail bar, for everyone 18 and older (couples are welcome, too). And the 21+ set can head to a VIP lounge at Wabi Sabi for sushi and bona fide cocktails.

Saturday, October 23 · 8:00pm – 11:30pm
11277 S. Kestrel Rise Rd.

-$10 Cover Charge
-Dry cash bar at Club SoDa
-$20 extra for Wabi Sabi VIP Lounge across the street (includes appetizer buffet & one drink.
-Special extras for Daybreak residents, login to LiveDAYBREAK.com for details.
-Event goes till midnight but for some reason Facebook cuts off the end time at 11:30 (go figure).

Green homes are red hot.

Imagine opening your electricity bill in the middle of summer, a time when most people dread the number at the bottom of the page, to find you owe just $10. This is happening right here in Daybreak. A lot. More people are discovering that going green, saves green. Which is one reason 5 of the 20 solar and thermal-powered Garbett Solaris homes are already under contract. Another important reason for the collection’s popularity is the stylish contemporary architecture by California-based  KTGY Architects. The homes include large, livable floor plans and very functional outdoor spaces. You can check them out online or stop by for a tour of the second, newly opened model in Brookside Home Gallery.

Parade Of Homes awards Sego Homes Parkway Series. Again and again.

Some of Daybreak’s most acclaimed homes are also our most affordable. Starting at just $159,900, the stylish Sego Homes Parkway Series made a clean sweep of its category, winning “Best Architecture,” “Best Interior Design” and “Best in Category” at this year’s Parade of Homes. No wonder. With a variety of available floor plans, the Sego Homes Parkway Series – in the SoDa Row retail district near TRAX light rail and Oquirrh Lake – are versatile, practical and comfortable. Available with main-floor master bedrooms, duel master bedrooms, private ground-level studio spaces for a live/work lifestyle and main- and second-story patios, these homes have huge aesthetic appeal thanks to their eclectic urban design. View them online or stop by for a tour.

The Crossing at Daybreak, our first Apartment Community, is now open.

One-, two- and three-bedroom apartments conveniently adjacent to TRAX light rail station (coming next summer) and University of Utah Medical (coming next fall) are now being leased. Residents benefit from a generous amenity package including a private pool, fitness center, business center and clubhouse with a large theatre room, pool table, foosball, games and free WiFi. Stop by the leasing office for a tour at 4950 Frogs Leap Drive, just past SoDa Row off Daybreak Parkway, call 801-446-6798 or log on to crossingatdaybreak.com.

Want to know more about what’s happening at Daybreak…check out our Fall/Winter Newsletter.