ARIZONA CALLS
Ritz-Carleton Residences
Sharon Graystone Ferraro and her husband Joe Ferraro will be shifting into a lock and leave lifestyle in the Arizona desert when they move into a new villa condo in Paradise Valley.
The Calgary couple already owns a home in the affluent small town adjacent to Scottsdale in the greater Phoenix metro area, but have bought in the new Ritz-Carlton Residences now under construction on 122 acres overlooking Camelback and McDowell Mountains.
“We have a yard and a pool now and we didn’t want all that maintenance anymore,” says Graystone Ferraro.
Their new villa — one of 81 onelevel units to sit within seven two- and three-storey buildings — will offer an easier, luxury lifestyle while putting all residents in walking distance of a new upscale shopping and restaurant area (the 15-acre Palmeraie Shops is expected to break ground next year) in a town already known for its culinary scene and its golf courses.
Graystone Ferraro, 55, who consults in the multi-family construction sector, and Ferraro, 62, chair and founder of Calgary’s awardwinning Calbridge Homes, will also be right next door to the business they own, Scottsdale Pilates and Yoga (SPY).
They fully expect their blended family of four children will continue to see the Paradise Valley area, with its spectacular weather, as a place to gather, and to escape Canada’s often bitter winters.
The $2 billion Ritz-Carlton Residences, Paradise Valley will feature, at its heart, a 215-room hotel. Set on 20 of the total 122 acres, the hotel will come complete with one of North America’s longest resort pools at 400 feet, a 16,000-squarefoot spa, health and wellness centre, meeting spaces and citrus orchard and herb garden for its restaurants.
The casita-style Ritz-Carlton hotel (to be set in duplex and fourplex buildings rather than a traditional tower) will be surrounded by the villas and 39 single-family estate residences, all connected by lush gardens and pathways. The hotel and villas are already under construction, with hotel opening and home occupancies expected late 2019, or early 2020.
The estate homes (registrations started this summer) began sales in November.
The villas, ranging in size from 1,700 to 4,800 square feet and in price from the mid-$1 million to more than $5 million, already have seen Canadian purchasers from Calgary, Kelowna, Vancouver and Toronto. Brendan Mann, principal of Solvere Group which is handling sales and marketing for the project, expects to see more of them as the winter season begins, and the estate phase is launched.
The estate single-family homes, priced from the low $5 millions, will range in size from 5,500 to more than 12,000 square feet and include options like having an Auto Showcase Gallery, where an elevator brings owners’ exotic vehicles to be put on display in the lower level. Or Mann says, there can simply be expansive guest space or wine cellars — “it’s about having your dreams come true.”
He says Residences buyers to date have been mostly downsizers who already have homes in Paradise Valley, while also having houses elsewhere.
Mann says the estates have drawn interest from international buyers, not only from Canada, but also Europe, Mexico and South America.
They are attracted by the RitzCarlton brand — “the most recognized luxury brand on the planet” — and by the project’s location “in the heart of everything you could want to do.”
The development is 15 minutes to Sky Harbour Airport, surrounded by golf courses, easy distance to all the professional sports the area holds — basketball, baseball, football and hockey – plus cultural attractions like the symphony.
Owners, in what is the largest undertaking of a new master-planned community to feature a Ritz-Carlton with residences in close to a decade, will also have their own clubhouse with junior Olympic-sized
pool and fitness facilities. Residents have a full-time concierge, and access to all hotel amenities, including in-residence dining, housekeeping and engineering services.
And the full concrete construction was important to Calgary’s buyers, says Graystone Ferraro, particularly her home builder husband.
“The villas offer everything — soundproofing, privacy, secure closed-in garages. That concrete construction plus the outdoor living were key.”
She is also looking forward to the new shopping area and its restaurants but also loves the services the hotel will be offering.
“My husband loves trying restaurants but the in-residence dining from the hotel will be perfect when he won’t move while watching his favourite Pittsburgh Steelers.”
The villas offer everything — soundproofing, privacy, secure closed-in garages. That concrete construction plus the outdoor living were key. Sharon Graystone Ferraro