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Villas at Montelucia opens model
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LUXURY VIEW: Custom Spanish tile work adorns the balcony that looks out on to Camelback Mountain at the Montelucia Villas, a new development in Paradise Valley.
Bettina Hansen, For the Tribune
The first of the 34 opulent Villas at Montelucia was completed and opened as a model Tuesday so buyers who have made down payments as high as $800,000 can see what they bought.
“There were no contingent contracts,” said sales representative Bill Heywood. So the future villa owners signed contracts and made down payments of 10 to 20 percent for the under-construction homes pegged to surround the 293-room InterContinental resort at Lincoln Drive and Tatum Boulevard in Paradise Valley.
The average price for the 26 villas sold so far is $3.3 million, Heywood said.
“We struck a high-water mark for valuation in this marketplace,” said Robert Flaxman, CEO of Crown Realty and Development, the $300 million project’s owner-developer. “We are such a unique product. There never will be 34 homes like this again in Paradise Valley.”
The villas range in size from 3,800 to 4,700 square feet and come with such luxury amenities as granite counter tops, Sub-Zero wine cellars, wood floors, Spanish tiles and private patios with fountains and fireplaces. But for the super-pricey tab, the two-story villa buyers also get such upscale features as elevators, etched-glass sinks, custom-forged ironwork lights and hand-carved doors, said Beth McGehee, who headed the design team. And buyers can upgrade features — and the price.
The villas also come with the use of the still-unbuilt resort’s spa, concierge services and other amenities, and preferred-guest attention at InterContinental hotels around the world, Heywood said.
But while the villas are apparently a hit with those looking for a new Paradise Valley home, they have not necessarily been embraced by those who have old Paradise Valley residences.
The construction beams that replaced walls of oleanders on Tatum Boulevard caused an uproar among some residents, who unleashed their anger at still unapproved but planned resorts such as a makeover of the closed Mountain Shadows and a proposed Ritz-Carlton.
Flaxman said he’s winning over the naysayers when they get an up-close look at the nearly finished product.
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