Missoula Housing Mole

Work Continues on East Missoula Golf Development

By Dana Green, 5-21-06

Enter Canyon River, and you see a bustle of activity: 20 homes already built, and others half-done, with construction crews hard at work. The 288-acre parcel is tucked into a deep bend in the Clark Fork River, surrounded by river and peaceful canyon walls. 270 homes, in five phases, are going in around an 18-hole, public golf course, opening on July 1.

Tori Dailey of Lambros Realty, a real estate agent on the project, said most of the 20 Phase I “meadow” homes are already sold. Prices on those standardized lots – with a few floor plans to choose from – sold for $389,000 and up.

The homes, with required maintenance contracts and small lots (homes are about 60 feet apart) are geared toward active, busy baby boomer retirees. Dailey said most of the buyers have ties to Missoula; only a few are from out-of-state and don’t have family here.

Three of the five Phase-1 custom lots are still available, since they haven’t been marketed heavily, according to Dailey.

“We’ve been selling by word of mouth,” she said.

There’s been a lot of buzz about the project – Dailey said she gets a few phone calls from curious Missoulians each week trying to find the development. Making the golf course public and the homes less costly was a strategic decision of developers Wayne Paffhausen and Doug McCullom, Dailey said.

“There’s definitely controversy when you do something like in a place like Missoula,” she said. “You don’t want to be too exclusive.”

The golf course is open to the public – but only homeowners will be able to get a season pass, said Ty Weingart, golf pro at the still-under-construction Canyon River Golf Club. Green fees will be $29 during the week, and $34 on weekends.

The location of Canyon River is pretty darn fabulous – the green walls of Hellgate Canyon stretch around it, and the river is only a stone’s throw away. In addition, the developers are working on a connecting trail so active Canyon River-ites can hop on their bike and roll right onto the Kim Williams Trail.

In fact, the location is so good, with its river and canyon views, rich ag land, and easy access to the trail system, that it was slated in 1995 to be a priority acquisition with open space bond funds, said Jackie Corday, open space manager for the city parks and recreation department.

The area was a key wildlife corridor and a lush riparian zone, which also made it a high priority, Corday said.

But the city didn’t purchase the land – probably because the price tag was too high.

“It was incredibly beautiful – it would have made an awesome park,” she said.

Canyon River Golf Community certainly isn’t the first high-end, planned development to go in around Missoula – Mansion Heights went in on the South Hills, and Phantom Hills developed around a semi-private golf course. In addition, a plethora of planned communities, some as big as 400 lots, are waiting for approval in Ravalli County.

And rumors are flying around that a gated golf community (a first in Missoula County, but old news in places like Bozeman and the Bitterroot), with the highly creative moniker “Big Sky Village,” is planned for Seeley Lake.

But Canyon River is the first in a while to be built – and they aren't cutting any corners. The model homes are fully furnished for tours, with the option of buying the designer interior decoration package along with your 2,500-square-foot retirement pad.

"We really have that Montana feel," Dailey said. "We think that's what makes the development different. That, and the beautiful location."

In other housing news:

House of the Week, and new developments on the City Council’s calendar for May 22, 2006:
Southern Hills Subdivision, a 47-lot residential subdivision located off Hillview Way.
The Gables – 42 residential lots on 12.04 acres on the west side of Hiberta Street, north of Third Street and south of the Clark Fork River. The property is currently in Z.D. 13, and the intent is to be annexed into the city as an RLD-4 subdivision.

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