With Phase 1 almost ready for homes, the group behind The Ridge is already making plans for Phase 2.
Kurtis Dmuchowski, the president of WestD Developments, said the project is almost on schedule with many of the services currently being installed.
"Our first batch of homes will be there in the first two weeks in December. It's exciting. The homes are being built in Estevan, and they'll be ready for us to start installing," said Dmuchowski, who added the earthwork is also progressing along as WestD ensures the land is brought up to the required grade set out by the City of Estevan, which was just above the 1 in 500 year flood level witnessed in 2011.
"We are doing that as we go. As we remove the road base, it goes onto the sites and brings them up. Everybody is under the impression that it is a lot lower than it really is. It is very close to the 1 in 500, so just moving a couple of high spots to a couple of low spots and taking out the road structure and putting that on the sites themselves, that gets us above that."
Located on Estevan's south edge, adjacent to the Willow Park Greens Trailer Park, The Ridge is a modular home park with 85 lots available in Phase 1. Unlike similar developments, The Ridge will allow interested parties to purchase their lots and then pay a condo fee for park upkeep.
With an opening price point of around $250,000, the park is seen as an ideal entry-level home for those who are currently renting in the city or who cannot afford a more expensive home.
The concept has proven popular, as well over half of the lots have already been sold. Dmuchowski said those sales have been made to investors who plan to rent the homes but the remaining lots recently went on MLS, and they have added Century 21 Border Real Estate as the exclusive realtor for The Ridge.
"It's really going well to the investor type people who are looking to purchase a home to help satisfy some of the rental demand in Estevan," Dmuchowski said. "As for the owner-occupied homes, they really need to see the product on the ground. They need to touch it and feel it and see it on the ground.
"Once we've got some product on the ground hopefully we'll get a rush of people. They are very affordable homes; for the price, the square footage is attractive."
Dmuchowski said all of the early interest has prompted WestD to move much quicker than he had anticipated. He said Phase 2 is roughly double the size of Phase 1.
