It's been more than eight years since Stephen Phinny began collecting land in order to develop Saguaro Ranch, a 1,035-acre luxury residential project in northeastern Marana.
Though it's planned for up to 180 homes, so far only three are complete and occupied.
A sign of the overall national housing market slowdown?
No, says Phinny, CEO of the Saguaro Ranch Development Corp. Rather, it's more a byproduct of the careful and patient planning he expects landowners in his community to undertake.
"These (houses) are three-year projects," said Phinny, who is putting the finishing touches on his own home in Saguaro Ranch.
The lots at Saguaro Ranch, which is nestled in the foothills of the Tortolita Mountains, come with prices starting at $1.25 million, Phinny said, while the average value of the homes themselves is expected to be about $3.5 million.
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The average home price in the Tucson area is $238,500, according to the Tucson Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service.
Six or seven other homes are currently under construction at Saguaro Ranch, Phinny said, while more than 20 are having their plans looked at by the development's design review board.
The board's main focus is to make sure homes within Saguaro Ranch blend in with their surroundings, Phinny said, rather than detract from it by standing out.
"I think we'll get a lot of smaller homes, some as small as 1,500 to 2,000 square feet," he said. "The last thing we want is to make it look like you've parked a B-52 on the hill."
Though every development is different, custom home projects can often take longer than standard housing developments, said Roger Yohem, vice president of the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association.
For example, Yohem said, custom builders who have exhibits at SAHBA's annual home show will discuss a project with a prospective customer at the show, but it can sometimes be two or three years later before a deal is finalized.
"That's probably the norm, rather than the exception," Yohem said.
Custom homes aren't immune to the current housing slowdown, Yohem said, but in the case of high-end projects like Saguaro Ranch, it's likely the people looking to build there will do so regardless of the economy.
"If they've got those kind of resources, they're probably going to be careful," Yohem said. "But they've probably decided regardless of the market they're going to go through with it anyway."
Though Saguaro Ranch has been in the works since 2000, it wasn't until 2003 that Marana approved a development agreement for it. By then Phinny had cobbled together Saguaro Ranch by purchasing 36 parcels of land, only one of which he said was listed as being for sale when he bought it.
In late 2004 workers blasted a 676-foot long tunnel through a mountain at the northern end of North Thornydale Road, providing easier access to the development
Perhaps fittingly, one of the first homes to be completed in Saguaro Ranch is known as the Tunnel House, named for its mine shaft-like entrance.
Built by Tucson-based custom home builder Desert Sage Construction, the house is owned by a couple from Chicago.
