Next year a new wave of buyers is coming to River Islands.

Del Webb is now conducting the preliminary site work for a 900-home neighborhood. The age-restricted active adult community for those 55 and older will wrap around three lakes.
It will include a recreation center featuring a swimming pool, fitness center, bocce courts, tennis courts, and pickleball courts. The neighborhood is expected to open in early 2023.
It isn’t the only niche housing market that River Islands is moving forward with as development of the 15,001-home planned community unfolds.

Next year is work is expected to start on the first of 5,000 apartments.

The apartments concentrated in three different locations on the edge of the community are the linchpin of a strategy to create thriving town centers including one built as a transit village along the rail line that will serve Valley Link to connect to Lathrop to BART in 2028.

By having 2,000 or so residents within easy walking distance clustered around— and in some cases above — walkable commercial ventures, River Islands is aiming for a built in “neighborhood” clientele to attract trendy restaurants, entertainment venues, specialty shops and services.

Given all three clusters are on the edge of the development and at three of the four only access points planned to the island, the residents of traditional detached homes being developed in the neighborhoods on the island’s interior will be funneled by the areas.

Cambay Group intends to retain ownership of the complexes to assure as the years unfold they are maintained and operated in a manner that blends seamlessly into the overall 4,800-acre project.

70 premium lots with

views will feature

semi-custom homes

River Islands also is working on efforts to provide semi-custom homes on 70 lots atop the 300-foot levees along the portion of the development that borders the San Joaquin River. They will be separated from the river’s edge by the 14-mile greenbelt that will encircle the planned community.

As such they will look over the interior of River Islands while being the only lots with direct access to the greenbelt.

The 70 lots happen to also be across the river from the area set aside for the endangered riparian brush rabbit. That means the view from windows and the front or back yard depending upon how the homes are orientated will be a wooded area across the river as well as the greenbelt.

River Islands President Susan Dell’Osso said Cambay Group is working with a builder to come up with various components to create what she referred to as a “semi-custom home” from the ground up.

Dell’Osso said there has been a lot of interest in the premium lots but everyone interested has been daunted by the process of building a custom home.

The process requires the use of an architect, hiring a contractor, and the need to be able to visualize what you want.

“That can be difficult for many people to do,” Dell’Osso said.
The idea is to give potential buyers a wide repertoire of options significantly beyond what is available in atypical tract home.

 By going the enhanced semi-custom home approach, it also limits issues that true custom homes entail such as lining up a construction loan and then converting it to a 30-year mortgage.

As of March 31, River Islands has sold 2,859 homes since 2018 with 2,335 of them already occupied.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com