Inspirada is a 2000 acre master planned community developed by Focus Group in the southern foothills of Henderson. This quaint community offers dense, pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods interconnected with narrow streets, village squares, parks and open space. The neighborhood is one of the nation’s largest “new urbanism” communities, spread across nearly 2,000 acres and featuring 11,500 residences.

Summary:

Inspirada is a 2000 acre master planned community developed by Focus Group in the southern foothills of Henderson. This quaint community offers dense, pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods interconnected with narrow streets, village squares, parks and open space. The neighborhood is one of the nation’s largest “new urbanism” communities, spread across nearly 2,000 acres and featuring 11,500 residences.

In Depth:

Inspirada features seven villages of 200 to 250 acres. Each village contains at least four mini-neighborhoods known as pods, of 20 to 60 acres. Each pod is built around parks and village squares, reminiscent of a nostalgic time before World War II.

At the core of the master plan is a 300 acre Town Center with more than one million square feet of commercial retail and office space. At completion, Inspirada expected to include a resort casino, retail, possibly high-rise office buildings and as many as 3,000 dwellings, including single family homes, mid rise condos, apartments and town homes. The development will have no gated communities and few walls. Instead, it will aspire to an open feel with trails and bike paths meandering throughout. Inspirada is in the 89044 zip code.

This is a conveniently located development. It is east of the I-15 in the southern part of the valley. Commute to the strip area and airport should be relatively short. Infrastructure should be thin for awhile. Closest grocery stores and such will probably, for now, be just to the east of Seven Hills and south of Anthem. Both communities are just east of this new development.

In the way of background, Focus Property Group purchased this land at a BLM auction a few years ago, at what was at the time the highest price ever paid per acre for a parcel of this size. In order for this investment to pay off it had been necessary to configure this project so that they can build more homes per acre than has been necessary in the past. This new philosophy is sometimes called “new urbanism” or “neo-traditional” This involved much smaller lot sizes in conjunction with extensive common areas.

The “New Urbanism” initially planed and executed at Inspirada has been phased down. Conventional free-standing homes with “normal” lot configurations are more the rule here. Inspirada is actually a local “hot bed” of new construction locally. 16 new home models in nine subdivisions are either open or scheduled to open soon. Builders include KB Homes, Pardee and Toll Bros.

Market forces changed this community. Initally, the BLM sold this acreage to Focus Group for a “boatload” of money back in the mid 2000’s. Focus Group subsequently lost the land to foreclosure. The land has been re-sold at lower prices allowing larger lot sizes and the change back to more conventional house/lot configurations. That translates to somewhat larger lot sizes.