Town offers recreation in summer and winter
WINDSOR — Where else along the Front Range could one golf in summer and ski in winter — and not venture into the mountains?
Windsor offers both.
RainDance National Golf Club has been ranked among Golfweek magazine’s 200 best U.S. resort golf courses for 2025. The course in Windsor, part of the recreational and residential complex owned by developer Martin Lind’s Water Valley Co., finished tied for 148th on the list. It was the only course in Northern Colorado to make the list and one of five in Colorado.
Designed by PGA champion Fred Funk, the course boasts 250 feet of elevation changes and unobstructed views of the Front Range peaks.
And speaking of elevation gain, there’s also the 12-acre Hoedown Hill, which has brought skiing, snow tubing and sledding to a hillside overlooking Windsor. The project is the dream of Lind, a third-generation Windsor resident. Hoedown Hill is located at RainDance National, the golf resort that’s part of Water Valley’s residential development project that includes five lakes, two golf courses, restaurants, tennis, biking and hiking trails.
Windsor, one of Colorado’s fastest-growing communities, extends into two diverse counties, Larimer and Weld, and also embraces a diverse base of industries.”
Windsor, one of Colorado’s fastest-growing communities. It extends into two diverse counties, Larimer and Weld, and also embraces a diverse base of industries. Combining small-town charm with consistent growth, it has become the region’s boomtown.
Windsor was created when the area’s first settler, J.L. Hilton, built a house in 1873. Farmers were drawn to the area’s rich alluvial soil, and the Greeley, Pacific and Salt Lake Railway established a depot in the area in 1882, and Windsor was incorporated in 1890. A tornado that struck the town in 2008 caused about $193.5 million in damage from about 24,000 auto and homeowner claims.
Sports and recreation play a key role in Windsor, which works constantly to bring in even more.
The town’s Parks, Recreation & Culture Department maintains more than 200 acres of parks, sports fields and open space, 40 miles of trails, a skate park, and a beach and boat launch on Windsor Lake.
A master plan developed by the Windsor Downtown Alliance calls for growing Windsor’s downtown district from 14 to 19 acres by expanding along Main Street.
It’s been quite a while since Windsor’s only bragging points were its Eastman Kodak plant and its central location as a bedroom community for Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley.
With capital improvements to the town’s infrastructure under way and projects sprouting everywhere, Windsor is poised for continued growth, offering industrial areas such as the 3,000-acre Great Western Industrial Park. Companies there include Vestas Wind Systems, the town’s largest employer.
Intersand America Corp. won an incentive package from the town this year to help it more than double its existing space and add eight to 10 employees. The manufacturer of cat litter and other products, Intersand, a subsidiary of a 33-year-old parent company based in Boucherville, Quebec, plans to build a 68,000-square-foot warehouse on 3.385 acres at 10833 Eastman Park Drive, just south of its existing 48,000-square-foot manufacturing facility that opened in 2020 at at 31880 Great Western Drive.
CPP Wind Engineering and Air Quality Consultants moved its headquarters and wind-tunnel testing facilities from Fort Collins to leased space in Windsor.
Major residential projects include Hartford Homes’ 2,600-home Prairie Song, Journey Homes’ 217 single-family unit Travana, and Lind’s Ravina development.