With the promise of 53 upscale homes, a planned Camas subdivision is already attracting buyers with the financial means to pay for views and custom-home features.
And that’s before developers have even started marketing the $8 million Lake Hills community, a city-approved development expected to soon be the focus of a flurry of infrastructure construction on about 25 acres. The sensitive, sloped and wooded site south of the Camas Meadows Golf Club and west of Lacamas Lake took about nine years to plan due to market factors and regulatory hurdles that mandate 7 acres of green-space, said Terry Wollam, a Realtor with Wollam & Associates Real Estate in Vancouver.
“To some extent, it was a matter of timing for the market to support the cost to develop,” said Wollam, who will help promote and pre-sell houses that start at $630,000. Bend, Ore.-based Pahlisch Homes is the project’s primary homebuilder. The Piculell Group of Portland is developing the site.
The work will start with logging activity on about 18 acres of the heavily forested tract.
Developers have the permits in hand to start on the project, approved through a development agreement with Camas, said Phil Bourquin, the city’s community development director.
“I anticipate they’ll be removing the trees here very shortly,” he said.
Next will come infrastructure — roads, utilities, sidewalks and a system of trails. The trails are planned to circulate throughout the development’s green reserve and connect to a trail system on the golf course and around Lacamas Lake, Wollam said. The city of Camas will own the 7-acre open space, he said.
As the developers begin to market the community, Wollam expects to hear from wealthy buyers attracted to the trails, nearby golf courses — Camas Meadows and Green Mountain — and a new Camas Community Center on the shores of Lacamas Lake. A water park and athletic club are planned for the second phase of the center, a redevelopment of the former Moose Lodge on the lake’s southern shore.
Wollam expects construction to start on the first homes in Lake Hills around the end of November or first of December.
“By this time next year, what we hope to see is approximately half the development under construction,” he said.
About six lots are already reserved, Wollam said. He and his colleagues are hearing from an average of one or two potential homebuyers per day searching for houses in the half-million dollar or more price range in Camas.
“Some are people who live in Camas and are looking to buy a newer home. A good portion of them are moving from Portland or California to avoid state income taxes,” he said. Wollam said retirees are drawn to the nearby golf courses, Portland city life and proximity to an international airport.
Camas is home to a vibrant cluster of high-paying tech and financial businesses. They include Fisher Investments, WaferTech and Linear Technology Corp.
Parents with children are attracted to the Camas School District, among a handful of local school districts with consistently high standardized test scores. Students living in the Lake Hills neighborhood would attend Helen Baller Elementary, noted for its technologically integrated classrooms; Liberty Middle School, the recipient of the 2011 Washington Achievement Award for school performance; and Camas High School, which opened as a state-of-the-art facility in 2003.
Wollam expects couples earning at least $150,000 annually will buy homes in the Lake Hills subdivision, located near the upscale houses in the established Lacamas Shores community, one that’s in high demand among high-end buyers. Wollam called the demographics of Camas comparable to another Portland metro-area enclave made up of wealthier residents.
“It is our Lake Oswego, (Ore.), ” he said. Wollam said Lake Hills might also attract tech employees who telecommute.
“For example, if they work for Apple, they can work from their home,” he said.
Wollam expects tracts within the subdivision will sell out within one year’s time.
But the buyers who come along afterward will have a lot more inventory to choose from, according to Bourquin, who said the Lake Hills subdivision only represents a fraction of the new housing being planned for Camas.
“Right now, we’re working on approximately 2,600 lots,” he said.
The projects include a 1,600-lot development and a 400-lot project planned for the nearby Green Mountain area.
“There’s a lot of push on the north side of Lacamas Lake,” he said.
What: Informational presentation on Lake Hills subdivision in Camas. Learn more about the project and its 53 single-family home lots.
