Groundbreaking launches 2 Sun Valley developments

Christine L. Romero
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 11, 2006 12:00 AM

BUCKEYE - Buckeye's massive housing boom continues rolling with the groundbreaking of two neighborhoods in the mammoth Tartesso development.

Tartesso sits west of the White Tank Mountains on 12,000 acres and has been approved for 40,000 homes. It's the tip of the iceberg on developments planned for the sprawling swath of land west of the tanks.

Buckeye's projected housing growth is beyond staggering.

There are now 30 proposed master-planned communities ranging in size up to 36,000 acres, and the town has approved more than 305,000 entitlements for homes.

In 2000, town officials issued 77 building permits. In 2005, the town on average issued more than 650 building permits a month.

This year, Buckeye is expected to issue more than 800 new single-family building permits each month.

Hacienda Builders' Sevilla, with about 250 homes, and Granada, with almost 100, are the most recent neighborhoods to break ground.

The Hacienda sites opened with more than 400 people interested in the projects, said Samantha Robertson, the company's information center director.

When Hacienda opened another Buckeye development, WestPark, Robertson saw a lot of buyers from California.

However, more of this newer batch of interested buyers for Sevilla and Granada are from across the Valley, while fewer are from out of state, Robertson said.

"The response has been quite good," she said.

Observers of the Valley's real estate market say Tartesso is among the places to watch. Consider these latest groundbreakings the early seedlings of a massive forest.

"By 2030 or so, there will probably be over 250,000 new homes (in Sun Valley)," RL Brown projected in his Phoenix Housing Market Letter.

Tartesso sits on Sun Valley Parkway, which historically has been called the "Road to Nowhere" after development dreams turned sour in the 1980s.

It's now turning into a road to somewhere, thanks to the recent development.