Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Buckeye is positioned for greatness.




I had the opportunity to visit Tartesso this past weekend. Tartesso is the first of the ‘Road to Nowhere’ sub divisions. All I can say is WOW. I was so impressed with the amount of infrastructure already in place. Many roads are in and the entrance looks to be close to completion. Houses in Tartesso will start at $225,000. The average price for a new home in metro Phoenix was nearly $250,000 in January, according to R.L. Brown, who publishes the Phoenix Housing Market Letter. Tartesso, sitting west of the White Tank Mountains on 12,000 acres, has been approved for 40,000 homes.

Tartesso's main thoroughfare will be Sun Valley Parkway, which historically has been called the "Road to Nowhere" after development dreams turned sour in the 1980s. Developers are ready to fill the 160 square miles of desert with 300,000 new homes in one of the last large pieces of undeveloped land in the metro area. Buckeye's Sun Valley area will be metro Phoenix's next big growth corridor. Planners are projecting that 500,000 to nearly 1 million people will move to the area in the next 40 years.

More development along the Sun Valley Parkway is on the way. Stardust Development is partnering with Sterling Centre Corp. to build Tartesso Town Center, a 3.5 million-square-foot project planned for the entrance to the community. Developer El Dorado Holdings is partnering with Sonoran West Properties to develop Douglas Ranch, the state's biggest planned development. Douglas Ranch will cover 35,000 acres, more than twice the size of Manhattan. Douglas Ranch will eventually have 84,000 homes, 250,000 residents, four freeway interchanges, and dozens of office parks and malls.

Pulte bought or bought options on several parcels of land totaling about 4,100 acres east of the Sun Valley Parkway between Missouri and Northern avenues. Pulte will build one of its all-ages Anthem communities there. Pulte is building Sun City Festival in the northern part of the Sun Valley area. Pulte also is developing property in Tartesso.

I’ve posted pictures and information on builders and floor plans on my website.