Picking up the pieces: home-building recovery fosters revival of Douglas County projects. (Douglas County, Colorado)

Silverado Banking, Savings and Loan's failure five years ago was the end for the thrift -- and the beginning of hard times for Clarke Farms.

The 672-acre residential project near Parker was taken over by federal regulators after Silverado, chief lender on the project, went belly-up in 1988.

While in the government's hands, landscaping in the Douglas County project languished. Greenbelts dried up. Infrastructure, most of which had not been paid for yet, went unused.

Today, the greenbelts at Clarke Farms are lush. Trees, bushes and shrubbery frame well-used roads. Empty lots are filling up, and new homes are being built.

Now owned by U S Home Corp., Clarke Farms for the first half of this year has built 104 homes. During the same period last year, the project introduced 89 new homes into the Parker market, compared with 24 new homes in 1991.

Clarke Farms isn't alone. Douglas County's slumbering real estate has been …