Vertical Luxury Living Reinvents Arizona’s Homebuilding Industry

Popular in major cities throughout the United States, luxury condos on scale with custom homes find a welcome audience in Arizona.

By Brittany Fowler

Butte Properties, headed by Ed Lewis, recently completed The Landmark, a luxury six-story condominium community in Scottsdale, Ariz. The first upscale highrise project in Scottsdale and only the second in Metro-Phoenix. The Landmark offers buyers a lush lifestyle without the hassles of a single-family home. “We have people here who want the unique package of urban location, fabulous views, resort-style services, and security unparalleled in other housing types,” Lewis says.

Building trends
During 2004 in Arizona, 174,994 building permits were issued — a 15 percent increase from 2003, according to the Arizona Real Estate Center at Arizona State University.

However, the luxury condo market is a segment that has only recently taken off. For the past 20 years, vertical luxury homes have flourished in major cities all over the country, and metro Phoenix is prime for this type of development. “It’s a product a city of this size needs,” says Cary Dix, general manager of The Landmark.

Dix says he wanted to work on a luxury condo community in Phoenix for close to 15 years, but there were difficulties in getting this type of project started. Most cities in Arizona are already built out and getting the proper zoning for a development with such height was extremely tricky, he says.

However, knowing that buyers would be attracted to the convenient, low maintenance lifestyle available at The Landmark, Dix didn’t worry about the project’s eventual success. “Today’s society is about making life easier and more manageable,” he says.

The developer’s background
Developer Ed Lewis graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in electrical engineering and ran Butte Construction Company specializing in large commercial, retail and residential projects, for 15 years.

In 1991, an architect encouraged him to purchase a piece of land and develop apartment buildings. This was the first step towards his decade-long, dual role as a successfully real estate developer and contractor. For about 10 years, Lewis continued to manage both companies ñ something he says took quite a toll. “A lot of builders wonder if they should do it,” Lewis says, “It means you’ve got to run two companies instead of one. Running both things was a huge demand on my time and energy.”

Today Lewis solely develops, and in the last 10 years has completed projects totaling more than $150 million.

High Hopes
Lewis first had the idea to bring luxury condos to metro-Phoenix while staying at a friend’s high-rise home in Boston.

“I fell in love with the convenience, the views and the primo-location lifestyle,” he says. “I ask myself, ëWhy not in Phoenix?’”

Lewis believed there was an unmet demand in Arizona for housing that offered the easy condo lifestyle within an up-scale urban atmosphere. Lewis also believed his development company, Butte Properties Inc., was just the group to bridge the gap between those two distinct types of building.

“Having developed numerous class A office and class A apartments, I was knowledgeable in the two basic technologies,” Lewis says. “But it was the unmet market niche that inspired me to take the risks. The market was here waiting for the product.”

In May 2003, Butte Properties broke ground on phase one of the $70 million Landmark project and the first residents move in September 2004.

Life at the top
Located on 4.3 acres at 71st Street and Tierra Buena, the privately gated Landmark development overlooks the fifth tee on the Acacia Golf Course and offers mountain views from all sides.

“We are the only mid-rise sky home property that is on a championship golf course and has unobstructed vista views of the horizon from 70 percent of our homes ñ views such as the hillside of Camelback Mountain,” Lewis says.

The projects’ first phase consists of a six-story tower with 50 condos. There are 14 floorplans offered, ranging from 967 square feet to 3,843 square feet, and priced from roughly $300,000 to $2 million.

Standard features are anything but average. Granite slab counters in every kitchen, stone flooring at the entry and kitchen, and nine- to 10-foot-high ceilings are amenities designed to give residents the luxury lifestyle they seek. Four units were left at the “shell” drywall stage of construction, allowing buyers to customize.

“The Landmark is full of standard features and finished you would not fin with any semi-custom builder in Scottsdale,” Lewis says. “It’s a very expensive building, so why not finish it to fit expensive tastes?”

A way of life
Marketed as not only a new type of housing, but an entirely new lifestyle, two full-time concierges provide residents with many services, including personal shopping, housekeeping, travel reservations, and pet care.

The fitness center includes a steam room, lockers, massage rooms, and a resort-like heated pool and spa. The 24-hour business center, with fully furnished conference room, gives residents the freedom to conduct business and meetings at home.

When guests arrive, the club room is perfect for hosting. Features include a large sandstone fireplace, big screen TV, entertainment center, a player baby grand piano, and a spacious kitchen for catering. Residents can select an appropriate whine for dinner from the climate controlled wine cellar, which has private lockers for each resident.

“[The Landmark] offers people amentias, security and concierge in one nice package,” Dix says, “It’s low-maintenance, which means that it always looks good without having to worry about it.”

Aim high
The summer, Butte Properties will break ground on phase two of The Landmark — a second tower that will contain 50 condos with seven floors instead of six, so that more of the larger residences can be offered. The project is set to open in fall 2006.

“There’s a lot of excitement in the market,” Lewis says. “We have found the public very curious and interested in this pioneering lifestyle here in Arizona.”

Lewis says the amenities of vertical luxury living, like those offered at The Landmark, mostly attract second-home buyers and empty nesters. He would know; he is also a resident.

“I am an empty-nester, single man, and I am done with house and yard work,” says Lewis, who lives on the fourth floor. “I often feel like I am on vacation when I am here at home in The Landmark. I really love the lifestyle.”