Prineville subdivision gets initial approval

Published 5:00 am Thursday, April 19, 2007

A developer who has spent the past 30 years building assisted-living facilities in North America and England got a big step closer to approval this week of a real estate project that would link Prineville’s downtown with its southern rimrock.

Anglers Canyon would add 877 housing units on a 232-acre site located south of the Crook County Fairgrounds and east of the Crooked River.

It received overall development plan approval Tuesday from the Prineville Planning Commission, said Deborah McMahon, city planning consultant. Barring any appeals, construction could begin after the developer makes sewer and water improvements and receives subdivision approval, McMahon said.

The project features a mix of housing, employment and commercial options that could attract a broad range of interest in a slowing residential housing market, according to Clifford Curry, a partner in Prineville Holdings LLC.

Curry’s partner, William Colson, recently sold most of Holiday Retirement Corp. in Salem, where he led construction on more than 300 retirement-home projects in North America and England, including Stone Lodge in Bend, Curry said.

Colson also has plans to develop a roughly 3,000-acre destination resort on 30,000 acres near Black Butte Ranch, according to Colson’s representative, former Madras Mayor Rick Allen. The project is on hold pending appeals of Jefferson County’s destination resort map.

The Seattle-based developer could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

The housing component of Anglers Canyon, envisioned for buildout over 15 years, would include small-, medium- and large-sized single family homes, cottages and townhomes and an assisted-living facility.

It also would include an employment district, a doctors’ clinic, retail stores, 30 acres of wetlands and a trail system that would connect the whole community, Curry said.

”This is not going to be an over-55 only community,” he said. ”It will attract different types of buyers and a different kind of choice.”

The Prineville project is one of at least four developments under way in the city including White Deer, an adjacent subdivision.

A Portland developer proposed in January a nearly 300-unit, four-story hotel-condominium project called RiverGate Resort on the edge of the city-owned Meadow Lakes Golf Course.

IronHorse, a 15- to 20-year project, would add up to 2,900 homes on the northeast end of town. Home prices are expected to be released by Friday, said Randy Jones, project manager for Bend-based Brooks Resources Corp., which is developing the project.

Brooks Resources has seen a slowdown in Prineville’s market in the last year, Jones said.

”We’ve looked at the last year and what’s been selling and the price point of what’s available,” he said. ”A lot hasn’t sold because it’s been so bloody expensive.”

More development is targeted outside the city, where three destination resorts have either been proposed or approved. Brasada Ranch, Hidden Canyon and Remington Ranch are projected to bring between 5,500 and 6,000 homes to Crook County.

The resorts won’t hurt IronHorse sales, Jones said.

”We are of the opinion that the (destination resorts) are not in direct competition with our product,” Jones said. ”A lot of folks will move to Prineville because they want the small-town quality of life.”

Local real estate broker Mark Southworth, sole practitioner of Mark A. Southworth PC in Prineville, called 2007 a ”regrouping year” for investors who have lost the incentive of lower-priced properties in Prineville compared with other parts of Central Oregon.

”It’s been a feeding frenzy the last two years,” Southworth said. ”Investors were getting 35 to 80 percent return on their money in a six-month period. Speculative buying was a driving force.”

The next step in Prineville’s housing market could be the release of IronHorse homes, Southworth said.

”A lot of people are waiting to see the impact of Brooks because they have the capability of going really low (on price),” he said. ”It’s hard to say what it’s going to do to the housing market because right now people aren’t buying.”

In Crook County, median housing prices rose to $198,000 in the first quarter of 2007, up 14.52 percent from the first quarter of 2006 and up 1.3 percent over the median price for all of last year.

Meanwhile, residential housing has slowed year-to-date from 95 homes sold in 2006 to 40 homes sold in Prineville through Wednesday, according to Southworth, citing data from the Multiple Listings Service.

The slowdown could open up market opportunity for lower-priced homes, said Brooks Resources’ project manager.

”We have a very interesting opportunity to offer lots at a price point that’s very pleasing to Prineville,” Jones said.

Curry, the Anglers Canyon partner, isn’t concerned by the current housing market.

”I can’t say what’s going to happen the next year or two, but we’re confident about the next 15 years,” Curry said. ”Prineville is more about the nice downtown feel and its surroundings. It’s a beautiful place where someone will want to go.”