A retail component also is proposed on the
north side of the resort hotel, with construction
possible in about three years, Cumsky said.
The first phase of the timeshare development
will have 20 two-bedroom units. Amenities
include a pool, hiking trails, mountain biking
and horseback riding. The second phase, to
start in early 2005, includes the 100-room
hotel.
B Y M IK E P ADG E T T
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Two new proposals expected to add more
economic sparkle to the West Valley include
the region’s first resort hotel in several decades
and a new residential community northwest of
Sun City Grand.
Preliminary work on Cibola Vista Resort &
Spa, with a 100-room hotel and 240 timeshare
units, is scheduled to start in September on 20
acres northeast of Jomax Road and Lake
Pleasant Parkway. The hotel site is part of a
larger 241- acre Cibola Vista development on
which US Home and Engle Homes have plans
for 350 residences, said Neil Cumsky,
chairman and chief executive of Phoenix-based
developer, Princeton Resorts Group.
Cumsky said he is unaware of any other
resort hotel built in the West Valley since The
Wigwam Resort opened to the public in 1929.
It originally was built in 1918 as a company
lodge for Goodyear Tire executives.
The home builders plan to have their first
models open in early 2004, with prices starting
in the $300,000's, Cumsky said.
The resort architect is Margit Whitlock
Espinoza of San Diego. Cumsky said his short
list of contractors bidding on the hotel project
is McCarthy Building Cos. Inc.; Summit
Builders Construction Co.; and Layton
Southwest. Cumsky received the companies’
bids earlier this week. He plans to select a
contractor by Aug. 15.
The design is what Cumsky calls Spanish
colonial, similar to the Royal Palms Hotel &
Casitas in east Phoenix and El Chorro Lodge in
Paradise Valley.
“What I’m trying to do is build something
that will look like it was built in the 1950’s, so
it will look like it’s been there a long time,”
Cumsky said.
Peoria officials said the hotel proposal and
the new residential communities in the area are
attracting the attention of retailers.
“This is the first resort that we’ve had in the
community, and it will be like a getaway to our
northern portion of the city,” said Debra Stark,
Peoria’s community services director.
She said the Cibola Vista proposal, the
Pivotal Group’s West Wing development next
door and others in the area are attracting
attention from shopping center developers.
She said Vestar Development is looking at the
northwest corner of Happy Valley Road and
Lake Pleasant Parkway, and Tri-Plus Partners
is looking at the intersection’s northeast corner.
Land broker Michael Martindale, of Commerce
Realty Advisors Ltd., refers to Peoria’s
northern area as “the Scottsdale of the Wet
Valley.” He uses that comparison because of
the topography, the existing upper-income
housing inventory in the Arrowhead Ranch
area, and the 7,100-acre Vistancia development
planned by Shea Homes and Sunbelt Holdings.
Vistancia is west of the Agua Fria River and
north of the Jomax Road alignment.
S ee C IB OL A, P age 45