Wednesday, April 10, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
REES Jones doesn't build a golf course just because somebody wants him to.
And a master-planned community doesn't have to have palm trees and cactus just because it's in the desert.
Enter Seven Hills, where Jones decided to build an 18-hole golf course, and planners decided that pine trees and flowers would be a change from the norm.
Seven Hills is the newest among Southern Nevada's master-planned communities. It encompasses 1,300 acres at the base of the Black Mountain Range in Henderson.
It's a daunting project for developers who are attempting to build something where others have failed.
When complete in six or seven years, the community would boast 3,600 homes in 25 neighborhoods.
"But the Rees Jones golf course is one of the central features of the community," said Sheila Egger, Seven Hills' director of marketing.
"About 60 percent of Seven Hills estate home sites will have golf course frontage," Egger said. "Home sites on the canyon rims, some high above the course, will have views unlike anything else in the area."
Although homes are not yet being built, a 2,500-square-foot sales pavilion sits majestically at the end of the community's pine tree- and flower-lined entry.
From there, prospective builders and home buyers can see just about forever. The entrance is 350 feet above the Las Vegas Valley floor and rises to 650 feet at its crest.
There's Las Vegas to the north and Black Mountain to the south. East and west both offer unimpeded views of Sunset Mountain and Red Rock Canyon.
The area's terrain -- highlighted by canyons, ridges and rolling hills -- is what inspired developers to keep the community as pristine as possible, according to Egger.
"We're not fighting nature here, we're working with it. The housing will blend in with the naturalness. It's the lowest density master-planned community in the area," she said, adding that about 450 acres will remain as dedicated open space.
Seven Hills' style is classically, casually elegant, reflected by Spanish eclectic and Italian Renaissance architecture. Both architectural themes offer three landscape design packages.
The sales pavilion sets the stage for the coming attraction.
Its stone slate entrance walls are dappled with earth tones. French doors, balconies, huge arched windows, 15- to 16-foot ceilings, a cupola and a courtyard provide an oasis for home buyers.
"We've already had someone who wanted to buy it for a home," Egger said. "It was specifically designed to set this community apart from all the others and we believe it has. We wanted to give the homeowners a strong sense of the overall design of the community."
Although the bulldozers and earth-moving equipment are still shaping the desert floor into neighborhoods and the golf course, the vision is clear.
Soon it will be the site for professional services and shopping, with all buildings and landscaping following the Seven Hills architectural theme.
The community's development is the final chapter of a saga that began in the mid-1980s when it was first proposed by Japan-based Cosmo World Corp.
Over the years, the name changed a number of times -- Sky Harbor Ranch, Cosmo World and Silver Canyon -- before the plans fell through in 1991 when Cosmo World filed for bankruptcy.
Clark County's November purchase of nearby Sky Harbor Airport raised further local speculation that the site would never house a community.
Enter Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises and Canadian Developer Terry Johnston, who became partners and acquired the site in 1993.
Forest City owned 55 percent and Johnston 45 percent.
In January, American Nevada Corp., primary developers of Green Valley, became a partner as well, with all partners sharing one-third ownership. Forest City remains the managing partner and American Nevada is the development manager.
The project's checkered past has nothing to do with today's reality, according to Mitch Stallard, Forest City's director of sales and marketing.
"Regardless of all that past history, when we took a look at its features and the growth of Las Vegas, we knew it was a winner. We didn't let the past history ruin its incredible potential," he said.
Stallard said any perception that the nearby 402-acre airport was a negative factor soon changed.
"We did studies of the airport which showed the noise level was minimal and that there weren't that many flights over the community. Plus, (Clark County's) realignment of the runway put it even farther away from our property.
"We worked closely with the county and we've also built a huge earthen berm between the community and the airport that will be landscaped and will provide a noise buffer," he said.
In fact, the idea of a nearby commuter airport is a positive feature to many potential home buyers.
"The airport will only be used by smaller planes, and people like the idea of being able to fly in and out or have an airport next door for their own plane," he said. "The airport just hasn't been much of an issue."
So far, Lewis Homes, J.M. Peters, Desert Wind Homes, Kimball Hill Homes and Greenpark will build about 1,000 homes in the first phase on 450 acres, and Fairfield plans to build 320 executive apartment homes.
Negotiations are under way with other builders, according to Dave Olson, American Nevada's senior vice president of marketing.
"The last thing to be completed will be custom homes by the golf course. They're not on the market yet, they'll be coming in about a year and a half. We'll complete the golf course first to allow us to build value in those lots," he said, adding that becoming a partner in the project was a natural for American Nevada.
"We're on our final 1,300 acres of Green Valley Ranch and about two years ago made a conscious effort to search for something in Nevada. We are diversifying into Arizona and Northern California and here was this. We could just go down the road and keep doing what we're doing," he said.
The sales pavilion is open daily and some homes have already been pre-sold. The golf course will be open to the public and is expected to be ready in December.
archive
