'A Great Time to Be Swinging a Hammer'

$100 Million Renovation for Mall in San Jose

The local construction market is a major benefactor of the Coachella Valley's efforts to provide more places to live, work and play for its 350,000 residents. Big projects are in the works from Palm Springs to Indio. In Rancho Mirage, nearly twice as many building permits were issued in the first seven months of this year than in all of 2003.

By Greg Aragon

The Coachella Valley is growing like wild flowers.

From Palm Springs to Indio, construction in the desert community of eight cities and approximately 350,000 people is flourishing in industries such as residential housing, schools, casinos and golf courses.

	Ed Kibbey

"It's a great time to be swinging a hammer," said Ed Kibbey, executive director of the Building Industry Association, Desert Chapter. "Right now, the economy is very good for us."

Citing low mortgage rates and an influx of high-earning people from all over the state, Kibbey said he expects the valley to see more than $2 billion in new development in 2004. And he sees housing as the hottest market for this year.

"People are selling their homes in the L.A. and Orange County areas and purchasing new, larger ones for less money in the Valley," he said. "We're definitely the bargain in Southern California."

The Coachella Valley is about 125 mi. east of downtown Los Angeles and most of Orange County.

This year, the region, with a median home price of about $400,000, is on pace to build roughly 4,000 homes (about the same as 2003) and top $250,000 million in accessed housing valuation.

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New Homes Surging

In Palm Springs this year, where 373 residential building permits had been issued as of July, there are about 7,000 residential units currently under construction or in the pipeline-a 25-percent increase in the city's housing sector over 2003.

"Residential development is booming in Palm Springs," said John S. Raymond, director of community and economic development. "We're getting a lot of refugees from extremely high-priced locations such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orange County and San Diego. To these people, a [Palm Springs] home is a relative bargain."

The average-home price in July in the Valley ranged from a low of $196,819 in Indio to a high of $479,000 in Rancho Mirage. The average-home price in Palm Springs, Palm Desert and La Quinta fell between $350,000 and $400,000.

Meanwhile average-home prices in July in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties ranged from $400,000 to nearly $600,000.

Highlighting the Palm Springs boom are projects such as Palm Springs Village, a $400 million, 1,200-home project at Avenida Caballeros & San Rafael Drive. Scheduled to break ground in the first quarter of 2005, the 309-acre project will take about seven years to complete and feature an 18-hole golf course, clubhouse, pool, spa, tennis courts and park.

The project is being co-developed by Irvine-based Far West Industries (also the general contractor) and San Diego-based TransWest Housing.

"I think there has finally been an acceptance that the Coachella Valley is not just a market place for second homes," said Scott Lissoy, Far West's vice president. "It's finally been accepted like Phoenix and Las Vegas that you can actually live there full-time even though it's hot."

Lissoy, whose company currently has seven projects in the works in the Coachella Valley, said that retiring baby boomers are primarily responsible for much of the area's housing growth.

In nearby Cathedral City, a city of 48,600, Far West broke ground in early September on a 64-home, $25 million project dubbed La Pasada Limited Edition.

Designed by LGS Architects of Irvine, the Spanish, Italian and Tuscany-themed project will be occupied in late 2005.

Permits Up in La Quinta

A few miles east on Highway 111, La Quinta is coming off a record-setting year in which 4,051 building permits were issued for $308.6 million in valuation. With 3,143 permits issued as of July, the city is on track to set a new record. Contributing to the city's growth are a new golf resort and elementary school.

Designed by Florida-based Palmer Course Design and being built by Florida-based Weitz Golf International, the $90 million Silver Rock Resort will represent the 106th golf course in the Coachella Valley and the 23rd in La Quinta.

"The Coachella Valley is a boom area for golf construction," said Erik Larsen, vice president of Palmer Course Design, which also designed the Tradition Golf Course, PGA West and Mountain View golf courses in La Quinta. "I've seen a flattening of golf course [construction] around the country, but [this area] is one of the last strongholds of places where it continues to occur," Larsen added.

	Owned by the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, the expansion of the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio consists of a $20 million, 96,000-sq.-ft. special events center and a $65 million, 12-story hotel that includes a 150,000-sq.-ft. wing with several retail shops, two restaurants, a main kitchen and administration facilities (photos by Greg Aragon).

When it opens in January, the 200-acre Silver Rock Resort will feature an 18-hole, tournament-quality golf course with seven lakes, a driving range, 2,500-sq.-ft. clubhouse and spectacular views of the Santa Rosa Mountains and the All American Canal, which dissects the property. It will also host the Bob Hope Classic golf tournament in 2006.

With an annual student increase of about 4 percent, the $15 million Calle Tampico Elementary School will be La Quinta's third grade school and the 17th in the Desert Sands Unified School District. It was designed by Riverside-based Ruhnau Ruhnau Clarke and is being built by Ledesma & Meyer Construction, a Rancho Cucamonga-based construction manager.

When it opened in September, the 66,397-sq.-ft. Spanish Mission-styled elementary school had an enrollment of 850 students and included 34 classrooms contained in five tile-roofed buildings.

The school's administration building acts as a gateway between the students and community, and a food service building has an adjoining lunch shelter.

In Indio, a city of 65,000 and the largest in the Valley, the 406 building permits issued in the first seven months of this year have already surpassed last year's total of 329.

Fantasy Comes True

One of Indio's largest current projects is the $85 million expansion of the Fantasy Springs Casino.

Owned by the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, the project consists of a $20 million, 96,000-sq.-ft. special events center (being built by Seattle-based Howard S. Wright Construction Co.) and a $65 million, 12-story hotel, with 250 rooms and a 150,000-sq.-ft. wing with retail shops, two restaurants, a main kitchen and administration facilities (all being built by Santa Fe Springs-based Matt Construction).

When completed in December, the casino-located near the Golf Center Parkway exit on Interstate 10-will employ 900 people.

Palm Desert, (population: 42,000) is seeking college students with the $18.5 million Richard J. Heckman Center for Entrepreneurial Management, located on the UC Riverside Palm Desert Campus. Expected to open in the spring, the project will accommodate about 1,000 students. It is being built by San Diego-based Douglas E. Barnhart Inc., and is currently about 70-percent complete.

	Bill Sharp

"I think people are looking more and more to the desert as a place to go," said Bill Sharp, Barnhart president, whose company's revenue in the Coachella Valley jumped from $20 million in 2003 to about $50 million thus far this year. "It's accessible and close, and yet it still has the feel of a resort town."

Barnhart, which began its Coachella Valley work 10 years ago with the construction of the $28 million La Quinta High School, currently has five projects under way in the Valley. Barnhart is considering opening an office in the valley, Sharp said.

It's No Mirage

In Rancho Mirage (population: 15,000), a city that was incorporated in 1973, building permits jumped from 1,506 last year to nearly 2,800 in the first seven months of 2004.

"We've had the greatest amount of growth ever in the city's history," said Randal Bynder, city planning manager, who has been with Rancho Mirage since 1986.

One of the biggest projects currently under way is the new 36,000-sq.-ft, $14.5 million Rancho Mirage Library. Led by Lake Elsinore-based general contractor, Tovey Schultz Construction Co., the project sits on a 9-acre site and is scheduled for a September 2005 opening. It was designed by Marina Del Rey-based Cunningham Group and is currently in the foundation stage.