The owners of West Valley Village have taken a chance on Estevan during the tough economic times in the city. The bare land condominium development is located in the southwest corner of the city. Dave Highberg, who is one of the owners of the development, said they have 73 sites in the village. Twenty-six currently have homes in place, and six more sites just need the finishing touches before they can accommodate homes. The remaining sites have some work that鈥檚 needed before they can accommodate homes. Then it will be a matter of selling those lots. 鈥淚t depends how fast the market moves,鈥� Highberg said with a laugh. 鈥淎s they sell, we鈥檒l keep building.鈥� But people who are living in the village are happy to be there, he said. Estevan city council gave the green light for the project to proceed as a bare land condominium development last year. The land where the development is located has also been annexed into the city. As a bare land concept, it differs from a traditional modular home park. Not only will people purchase the home at West Valley Village, but they purchase the lot where the home is聽
located. In a conventional modular home park, residents purchase the modular home and rent the land. Highberg said the West Valley Village approach gives more stability for residents. 鈥淚nstead of paying rent, you鈥檙e buying your lot,鈥� said Highberg. 鈥淲hatever your mortgage cost is today is fixed. It鈥檚 not going to keep going up like rent does in a mobile home park.鈥� 鈥淚f you buy the lot today, and you have it amortized over 15 years, in 15 years you own it,鈥� he added later. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 rent going to be in 15 years? Fifty per cent higher? One hundred per cent higher? It depends on the market.鈥� West Valley Village purchased the land five years ago. At the time, they saw the opportunity that existed in Estevan during the oil boom. At the time, there were a number of old houses that had to be removed and replaced with homes. An old commercial shop was dismantled so that the land could handle more homes. They brought modular homes onto the property, and made the decision a couple of years ago to move towards a bare land condominium concept. It took a year-and-ahalf to get to the point where they were ready to start聽
moving homes onto the property. 鈥淏ased on the way the economy is, I鈥檇 say the response has been quite good,鈥� said Highberg. Homes vary in size. The show suite, which includes a double garage, is about 1,520 square feet, which is about average for one of their units, and is priced at $289,000. Highberg noted the homes generally sell for under $300,000. 鈥淎ll of the new lots that we鈥檝e developed are a minimum of 54 feet wide,鈥� said Highberg. 鈥淓very lot聽
you should be able to put a double garage on your home.鈥� Some of the lots are considerably bigger. 鈥淲e plan on keeping two or three homes ready for somebody who needs a home right away, and you can pick your own plan and we鈥檒l tailor it to your wants,鈥� said Highberg. Operations manager聽
Justin Bourget said it鈥檚 not just modular homes that they can accommodate. They can also have readyto-move homes, and they have been approved for spec homes and custombuilt homes. Highberg said they鈥檙e looking to make improvements on the property. Each year they want to add more trees to enhance the appear
ance. They want to have streets within the development paved by the end of August. They do not want to see West Valley Village become a junkyard. 鈥淲e want a nice subdivision down here, with trees and paved streets and homes that look nice and that people look after,鈥� he said.聽
