THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday, March 6, 2020 |M5
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Desert Living
Tucson, surrounded by Arizona’s
southern mountains, and Sedona, in
Red Rock Country, contain new re-
sort communities that grandly fill both
those desires.
Developers are adding high-end
homes, priced at $1 million to over $5.1
million, adjacent to The Ritz-Carlton
Hotel at Dove Mountain, just north of
Tucson. And in Sedona, 120 houses
are going up at Seven Canyons, ad-
jacent to the area’s famous red rocks.
Early residents of both communities
are delighted.FIRST TRIP TURNS INTO A LIFETIME STAY
In 2016, Walt and Molly Cardinet had
been living in Silicon Valley and debat-
ing whether to find a retirement retreat
somewhere in California. “I saw an ad in
The Wall Street Journalabout The Ritz-
Carlton Residences, Dove Mountain,”
Walt says. “I’d stayed at Ritz-Carlton
hotels while I was working, but I didn’t
know they had residences. Molly and I
had never been to Tucson. I suggestedwe take a long weekend in the desert to
check it out. We were not intending to
buy anything.”
But when the property’s director of
sales, Rich Oosterhuis, “walked us into
the house, with its glass windows that
slide into the wall, its great room over-
looking a patio and the views of a golf
course and the Tortolita Mountains,
Molly said to me, ‘Walt, I want to
live here.’”
Oosterhuis reports The Ritz-Carlton
Residences, Dove Mountain has since
grown to 55 completed homes, with 11
more under construction. Forty-one
homesites are still available. “With al-
most no exception, homeowners stayed
at the hotel first,” he says, “and enjoyed
it so much they found their way into our
real estate gallery.” There, plans for eight
customized homes and three layouts for
attached villas are displayed.
Residents have access to all the ho-
tel’s amenities, including the two Jack
Nicklaus Signature golf courses, spa,swimming pool complex and the facil-
ity’s restaurants, luxurious public spaces
and lushly landscaped grounds. The
Residences also have their own sports
club, spa and Olympic-sized pool, plus a
concierge staff available to shop for gro-
ceries or pick owners up at the airport.
“The whole lifestyle here was so dif-
ferent from California,” Walt says. “The
traffic there was a nightmare, and it
would have cost three to four times more
to buy the same house in Silicon Valley.
With the combination of the hotel and
golf course, it made total sense for us.”
The Cardinets purchased the model
home Oosterhuis showed them and,
Walt says, discovered more benefits as
the project built out. “It’s easy to make
friends because everybody is around thesame age and were also business owners
or professionals from different parts of
the country.”RED ROCK MYSTICISM AND FESTIVALS
Tim Higgins and his wife Una, for-
merly from Virginia, also love their new
home in Seven Canyons in Sedona. “We
are meeting people from such interest-
ing, diverse backgrounds, like artists and
writers,” Una reveals. “Our house was the
first to be finished on our street, so we are
texting pictures to our future neighbors
of the progress on their homes.”
Like Walt and Molly, Una and Tim
found their new home by serendipity,
while on a college graduation trip with
their children. “The beauty and natureby Julie Bennett
T
he Sonoran Desert,which stretches from northern
Arizona into Mexico, provides dry air, a temperate
climate, stunning scenery and large tracts of open
land ideal for golf courses.It is no wonder the area attracts
residents from colder climates who want to enjoy the out-
doors — without sacrificing comfort.
THE RITZ-CARLTON, DOVE MOUNTAINBreathtaking beauty surrounds the spectacular homes in Sedona’s Seven Canyons golf community, designed with huge windows and several balconies to wow residents (below).TO RETIRE
the perfect place
Continued on M6
PHOTOS BY: SEVEN CANYONS