When Ray Kuratek looks out over Juniper Ridge, he doesn’t just see the sagebrush, irrigation ditches and debris.

He pictures a community where a university is integrated into the heart of the downtown. Houses are clustered under trees, with views of the mountains. He imagines a public transit system that routinely circles the 1,500 acres of Juniper Ridge.

The vision is based off the principles of new urbanism. It’s a mixture of Bend’s Old Mill District and NorthWest Crossing – combining commercial, housing, office and industrial uses in one development.

”It’s really creating a new district. People live there, work there. They can walk to work or bike to work,” Kuratek said.

As the proposed lead developer for Juniper Ridge, Kuratek’s vision matters.

In October, Bend city staff selected Juniper Ridge Partners LLC – a consortium of companies headed up by Kuratek – as the master developer for Juniper Ridge. The city is in negotiations with the company to form a public-private partnership in developing the 1,500 acres in northeast Bend. Over the next 15 to 20 years, the city hopes to develop a high-technology research campus and a four-year university. The development also would include housing and retail space.

Four years ago, Kuratek and his wife, Pat, chose Bend as a place to raise their youngest of five children. At the time, they lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and were looking for a ”true old-fashioned American town,” Kuratek said.

Bend was the right fit with its vibrant downtown and four seasons.

”We fell in love with the place,” Kuratek.

The move gave the Kurateks a chance to design their ”dream retirement” home at the Crosswater development in Sunriver.

But then, they found an old farmhouse with 20 acres along Knott Road. They bought it and Kuratek has spent the last three years renovating it. Of the two houses, the Kurateks find themselves spending most of their time on the ranch, Kuratek said.

The ranch is home to three horses, a donkey, llama, sheep, goats, turkeys, chickens and rabbits.

Kuratek jokes that in San Francisco he refers to it as a ranch, but, in reality, it’s a glorified petting zoo.

”So far, the only thing we’ve got is a lot of eggs,” he said.

Bend calls at tail end of California project

The opportunity to work on Juniper Ridge was a stroke of luck for Kuratek. Since moving to Bend, Kuratek has been commuting to San Francisco weekly to work on a 175-acre, billion-dollar development project in San Mateo, Calif.

For the last 11 years, Kuratek has overseen the first phase of the Bay Meadows development, which mixes office, retail and residential uses.

Just as Kuratek’s role in the Bay Meadows project was wrapping up, the city of Bend’s request for a development team for Juniper Ridge came forward.

”It’s absolutely perfect. It’s what I do, what I have a passion about. It’s in my own backyard. It’s an opportunity of a lifetime,” Kuratek said.

Kuratek asked the financial backers in the Bay Meadows project, Stockbridge Capital, to put up $30 million for the Juniper Ridge project. He also pulled three other companies working on the Bay Meadows project into the Juniper Ridge Partnership.

When the city picked Juniper Ridge Partners LLC as the potential master developer, Bend City Urban Renewal and Economic Development Director John Russell pointed to the group’s success in San Mateo as one of the key factors for the recommendation.

Kuratek was at the inception of the Bay Meadows project.

More than a decade ago, the California Jockey Club, a real estate investment group, was looking for ways to redevelop its largest asset, the Bay Meadows Racetrack. The group had proposed to the city of San Mateo to move the racetrack and to redevelop the land. It had looked at building a regional shopping mall, expanding the highway and bringing in large office complexes.

”The city wanted something special,” Kuratek said.

So, Kuratek went to meet with Peter Calthorpe at the University of California-Berkeley. Calthorpe has been in the forefront of the country’s new urbanism movement, Kuratek said.

New urbanism is a concept that promotes the creation of diverse, walkable, vibrant and mixed-use communities.

”He got me hooked on this new urbanism concept. We came up with a plan the city liked. It was a mixed-used concept with narrow streets, reduced reliance on the automobile and created jobs,” Kuratek said.

At the time the project started, Kuratek said he was only a half-believer in the new urbanism concept. He spent three years working with the city to get it approved, which finally occurred in 1997.

”I was only half-convinced it could work and it really does work,” Kuratek said.

Construction of the first phase of the project started in 2000. The 91 acres once used for a practice racetrack and horse stables were redeveloped into:

* One million square feet of office space;

* 575 apartments, 135 townhomes and single-family homes;

* 100,000 square feet of retail shops and three public parks. It also became the headquarters for Franklin Resources Inc., a global investment firm.

”It makes money, the people are happy that live there. There is a balance of jobs and housing,” Kuratek said.

Although Kuratek’s first new urbanism project began in 1994, he said the idea of ”creating places” started in the 1960s with his first real estate job under The Rouse Co.

Kuratek, 62, grew up in Connecticut, attending the University of Connecticut to earn a degree in finance. He then went into the U.S. Air Force, ending his 4 1/2- year military career as captain. He was a B-52 crew member who served in Vietnam.

After the Air Force, Kuratek worked with an insurance company, earned a master’s degree in finance and then took a job with The Rouse Co.

At that time, The Rouse Co. was involved in building Columbia, Md., which is considered one of the first ”new towns” in the United States. According to the town’s Web site, the company acquired 14,000 acres of land in 1963 for the purpose of building a new city in rural Howard County, Md.

The intent was to plan the town from the beginning to avoid urban sprawl and spot development. The town was to provide a place for jobs, recreation, shopping and health care.

Today, more than 100,000 residents live in the city’s nine villages and town center.

”It did a lot of things right and a lot of things wrong,” Kuratek said and noted the experience peaked his interest in creating developments that were places where people wanted to work and live.

From there, Kuratek went into the office development business. In 1977, he started the Kuratek Development Corp., a company that built mainly steel-framed office buildings in Northern California.

In 1982, Kuratek made the switch from building mostly office buildings to developing mostly residential units. For 12 years, he was chairman and owner of Intermark Interests Inc., a 300-person, development company that had projects in seven western states.

The company built 150- to 600-unit apartment complexes, custom housing, office buildings and industrial and retail properties.

In the early 1990s, Kuratek said he tried to slow down and ease into semi-retirement. He owned a high-end French restaurant and worked at restoring historic buildings.

”Frankly, after two years, I got bored,” Kuratek said.

In 1994, Kuratek started working with the Bay Meadows project.

Kuratek chooses younger partner

Kuratek said he wanted to bring in someone younger to partner with on the Juniper Ridge project, which some expect could take 15 to 20 years to build out. That partner is Jeff Holzman.

In his mid-30s, Holzman is a Stanford University graduate who has worked for Wilson Meany Sullivan LLC as project manager on the second phase of the Bay Meadows development.

The second phase plans to take 83 acres where the historic Bay Meadows Racetrack now sits and convert it into 1,250 homes, 1.2 million square feet of office space, 150,000 square feet of retail and more than 15 acres of open space.

City approval of the second phase, which has spurred opposition from some San Mateo residents, is still pending.

Kuratek and Holzman both plan to tie up loose ends on the Bay Meadows project, but Kuratek said in the next two to three months, he will be working with the city of Bend on an agreement as master developer of Juniper Ridge.

Once agreements are finalized with Bend, Holzman has plans to move to Bend to work on Juniper Ridge, Kuratek said.

Though Kuratek has a vivid picture of what the land at Juniper Ridge will one day hold, he said, the development process will be one with lots of community input.

”It really is something special,” Kuratek said. ”And I have the right talent here to make it something special.”