Residential project under way

Desert Wind Homes is playing the residential development game about as conservatively as possible as it begins work on Villagio, a gated community in southwest Reno.

The company paid cash for the property, it's building only a couple of homes at a time and it's using cash rather than debt to finance much of the physical construction costs.

Victor Rameker, who owns Desert Wind Homes with his wife, Allyson, says the private investor groups the company assembled to finance Villagio see opportunities in a cautious re-entry into residential development.

Sales prices appear to have stabilized, and the price points targeted by Villagio ranging from the mid-$500,0000 to the $600,000s appear to be drawing consistent demand.

Four floor plans ranging from 3,200- to 4,400-square-feet will be developed in the project at the end of Ridgeview Drive, near the corner of Plumas and McCarran.

The 54-lot subdivision, which includes 27 finished lots, was acquired by Desert Wind from Nevada State Bank last autumn.

Rameker said his company was drawn by the property's location on a hillside overlooking Reno, the sort of location that will be rare as the City of Reno limits hillside and ridgeline development.

"There will never be another project like this in Reno," he says.

Desert Wind Homes is general contractor as well as developer of the project.

The boutique builder operates in Sparks and Las Vegas. It was purchased by the Ramekers from Mick Galatio and Patricia Shaw, who launched Desert Wind Homes in southern Nevada in 1994.