The $83 million-plus Whitetail Ridge residential development, a longtime dream of former Itron executive Johnny Humphreys, is being realized in Spokane Valley.

Patricia O’Callaghan, a broker at the downtown Spokane office of Century 21 Beutler & Associates, says Humphreys approached her about four years ago for aid in finding a builder for the 72-acre development.

“He bought it over 30 years ago,” she says. “He knew he wanted to be a good steward of this land.”

O’Callaghan reached out to real estate broker Todd Spencer at the Liberty Lake office of Avalon24 Real Estate, with whom she’d worked previously, and Justus Snyder, president of Worley, Idaho-based Edge Homes NW Inc. Spencer and Snyder had worked together on the Twisted Willows development on the South Hill, which was completed in 2020.

Several months later, the foursome met for the first time to begin planning Whitetail Ridge.

“It was just kismet,” O’Callaghan says.

The development is located just south of Spokane Valley, east of state Route 27 and west of Sullivan Road.

Nine homes have been constructed since January, Spencer says. Phase One will consist of 24 houses. In total, Whitetail Ridge will include 119 houses when fully developed.

Prices range from $700,000 to $1.6 million, Spencer says. That puts the total price tag of Whitetail Ridge at well over $83 million.

Customization is a major selling point for the development, he contends. Homeowners work with Edge Homes to customize the design of their house.

“In Whitetail Ridge, the homeowner gets to design their house. It gets as specific as they need,” Spencer says. “Most developments, you can get little changes. We’re moving walls, we’re designing to what the buyer needs, not what the builder wants. They’re paying great money for a house; they should be able to get what they want.”

O’Callaghan says houses range from 1,700 to 6,500 square feet of living space, on lots of 11,000 to 20,000 square feet.

The gated community doesn’t have age requirements, but many older buyers are interested in downsizing, she says.

“This might be their last home. They don’t want to think about furnaces or roofs. They don’t want to have to fix anything,” O’Callaghan says. “They want to be able to lock up, leave, and travel and enjoy the life they’ve worked so hard to create.”

Spencer says the development site has many trees, green spaces, and walking paths.

“The vision of the development was to keep the natural feel,” he says. “There are still whitetail deer all over the place up here. Two weeks ago, an eagle was flying around here … but we’re eight blocks from 32nd and Pines.”

The process of establishing Whitetail Ridge has been fraught with challenges, O’Callaghan says.

“We’ve been through construction prices, COVID, interest rate hikes,” she says. “It takes a sturdy developer to have the bandwidth and to keep momentum and a good attitude about the market.”

Spencer says supply-chain issues and rising materials costs have slowed down construction.

“If we’d started sooner, I think we’d be done with Phase One,” Spencer says.