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The changing face of White City
Branden Battles, of Battles Construction, works on the roof of a new home going up in the Pennyroyal Gardens subdivision in White City. New subdivisions offer affordable housing; urban renewal brings bright future for this unincorporated area By GREG STILES WHITE CITY - If you build and sell it for the right price, they will come and buy. Houses are rising in the newest of six subdivisions that have gone up in the past two years in Jackson County's oft-scorned unincorporated industrial hub. White City lacks Ashland's trendiness, Jacksonville's exclusivity or Medford's fiscal weight. But White City has something going for it: a county urban renewal district with a can-do attitude and reasonably priced houses with views of the Cascades and Siskiyous. There's a changing face here with the plans - both private and public - on the drawing board to assure continued transformation. Housing bargains, in a county where housing costs have escalated beyond reach for many, are a key component. Brian and Neola Rogers had searched the Medford market without success last summer before stumbling on to Brie Terrace, where Jerry Adams was building 29 homes. Until then, the best the Rogers could find was a fixer-upper in West Medford that would've required another $10,000-$20,000 in repairs beyond the asking price. "One of the real estate people suggested we look at White City," says Brian Rogers, 50, a building designer. "We didn't even have it in our ballpark." On July 4 of last year the Rogers went house hunting where only months earlier older trailer homes, broke-down vehicles and acres of dry grass had flourished. "We picked the one weekend when the salesman wasn't there, so we didn't get to go inside the mobile home," Rogers says. "So we went tromping through the houses that were being built and I liked what I saw. "I can tell when someone is taking shortcuts - especially when it comes to understructure - and there weren't any shortcuts." Two subdivisions off Falcon Street started going up in the fall of 1999: Clear Sky Estates, developed by Dave Freel and built by Malot Construction and Brie Terrace, developed by Maurice Torano and Paul Grout and built by Adams Homes Inc. More than 125 new units have been sold and another 150 are scheduled to go up within two years. The price for Rogers' 1,880-square-foot, three bedroom, two bath home on a 6,805 square-foot lot was right - less than $110,000. Houses on Penny Lane in the Pennyroyal Gardens development are going for $105,900 to $115,700. "Our plan was to build affordable, comfortable, high quality homes," says Larry Hall, a real estate agent with Windermere VanVleet and Associates in Medford, who is marketing the development. He says the idea is to develop a base from which other neighborhoods could grown and make White City a more desirable place to live. Amenities and floor plan are comparable to a new house built in Medford, selling for $133,900. "Buyers were diverse, ranging from first-time buyers that need 100 percent financing to retired people, who paid cash for their home," Hall says. Historically, a high percentage of White City houses were rentals. Hall says 28 of the 29 homes, sold by December of last year, were owner-occupied. Two smaller developments - Stillwater Terrace and Summer Holly - have rapidly sold and houses are going up fast at Pennyroyal Gardens, which will eventually total 85 units. Construction of the third phase of Freel's White Mountain Estates off Atlantic Avenue will soon begin and Antelope Valley Estates between Avenue C and Antelope Road are due in 2002. "When I bought my first piece of property there in 1993," Freel recalls, "I had agents who actually told me 'Don't even go there, the area is depressed and doesn't have a very bright future.' " But two things convinced the Eagle Point developer otherwise - urban renewal and the demand for affordable housing. "When you've got a $100 million budget for doing things like redoing the infrastructure, that helps a lot," Freel says. "Prior to Clear Sky Estates, the only option for someone to move into the area was a manufactured home. You move into manufactured home park and unfortunately, as a rule, it starts to depreciate and rents increase. You have two dynamics moving in opposing directions." Freel anticipates there will be 10,000 people living in the town within 10 years, although the presence of environmentally sensitive vernal pools may slow construction at some point. "The key is keeping the price to around $100,000," he says. "As long as interest rates stay low, people will be able to afford to get in." Yes, some eye soars remain, but increasingly they're fading into the past. That's just as designers of the town's urban renewal district envisioned a decade ago, and backers of recent real estate developments had banked on. A civic center is taking shape with a social services office structure already open, a county library branch is due to open next week and Fire District 3 is planning to build on the corner of Avenue E and Wilson Way. Urban renewal funds are paying for sidewalks along Hale Way in the Cascade Village area - where the last stick built homes were developed more than 20 years ago. Sheriff's records show that crime committed in the area has dropped from 24.4 percent of total crime committed in the county's incorporated areas in 1994 to 15.7 percent in 1999. "White City's perceived negatives will be gradually changing," Rogers says. "We saw it as a good investment. As we're out here longer, we're even more impressed how things are changing. From our perspective, in 10 to 15 years the value will really appreciate." Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail business@mailtribune.com. |
