Watt Communities of Arizona is building a new single family home gated community at 16th street and Ocotillo rd called 16 Ocotillo. The move grows the company’s local presence and expands its product offerings to include single-family detached homes and urban townhomes in suburban neighborhoods. The project is scheduled to break ground late 2014 and have models ready by 2015.
“We now have four flags on the map representing two concepts that we are extremely proud of and excited to bring to Phoenix,” says Steve Pritulsky, president and CEO of Watt. “They are all decidedly infill locations and will feature innovative indoor-outdoor living styles that today’s buyers are looking for.”
16 Ocotillo, sits on 2.8 acres at the southwest corner of 16th Street and Ocotillo Road, between Maryland and Glendale avenues in North Central Phoenix. It is within walking distance to the area’s burgeoning 16th Street “Restaurant Row,” a Sprouts grocery store and diverse retail services. The community is being designed as a gated, single-family detached home community and is located near Piestewa Peak, which sits just one half mile away.
Pritulsky says,”Infill projects provide exciting opportunities. Our mindset is: we’re not in it because it’s trendy. We’re in it because we think it’s a big part of housing’s future.”
Pritulsky says it’s very challenging to find infill opportunities. “There are not a lot of sites. The more built out an area is, the harder it gets. Future opportunities for us may include repurposing or tear-down locations, or even looking at repurposing retail for a mixed-use project. There is a lot of price pressure on infill land.”
Creating infill projects like these, he added, helped make the lots useable again.
“Typically, there’s a greater degree of profitability in the infill market,” Pritulsky said. “To some extent, they’re kind of insulated a great deal from direct competition.”
He said infill developments also directly help the community by using resources that already exist.
“So often you hear criticism that the development industry promotes sprawl and the outward march into the suburbs,” he said. “So I think one of the most basic things that it does for the community is that it leverages off of existing infrastructure, and it doesn’t create the need to basically expand the city. You’re filling in the gaps.”
Thats good news for Arizona homeowners who want more options for their home search.