`Pioneers' move into
Sun City Anthem
Special to Real Estate
About 100 years ago, the Las Vegas Valley's first pioneer residents decided to brave the elements and call it home.
Recently, a number of modern pioneers moved into the Anthem by Del Webb community -- ahead of many of the amenities being completed and other neighbors moving in. The pioneering desire was to be the first to call hone the largest single-builde,r master planned community in Southern Nevada.
In late December, Aki and Catherine Ianaba, of Palatine, Ill., became the pioneers of the age-restricted community of Sun City Anthem. As part of their welcome, they were toasted with wine and taken by limousine to the Bellagio for dinner and an evening show.
"I think they were really surprised with the celebration we had prepared for them," said Valerie Kruse, manager of contracts and settlement at Sun City Anthem.
Kruse said the couple cited the amenities planned for the community as the source of their excitement.
"Mr. Ianaba enjoys golfing and is counting the days until our first course, The Revere, opens," she said.
The master-planned community has three villages: Sun City Anthem, for people at least 55 years old; Anthem Country Club, a guard-gated country club; and Coventry Homes at Anthem, a collection of neighborhoods for family-oriented residents.
Anthem Country Club, the builder's first guard-gated golf course village, also recently celebrated the first closing of one of its custom-home sites.
Coventry Homes at Anthem is expecting its first closing in its Weston and Provence neighborhoods in early spring.
Sun City Anthem offers residents many recreational amenities, including a 74,000-square-foot community center and four golf courses.
The community center, which is scheduled for completion this year, will be Nevada's largest privately owned recreational facility designed to help Sun City Anthem residents define their own lifestyle.
Outdoor enthusiasts will also be right at home at the Sun City Anthem community center, which will feature indoor and outdoor pools with a spa, a quarter-mile indoor walking track and a half-mile outdoor walking track.
The center will feature a wellness center, developed by a joint agreement with nearby St. Rose Dominican Hospital. Sun City Anthem residents will have an opportunity to use the wellness center's exercise tracking technology to develop personalized workouts.
For leisure recreation, the center will feature a modern computer lab and business media room, along with multipurpose rooms for activities such as quilting, ceramics, sewing, reading and crafts.
Two legends in the world of golf have joined forces to design the four courses at Sun City Anthem.
The first course is The Revere at Anthem, designed by PGA Hall-of-Famer Billy Casper and well-known golf course architect Greg Nash.
Courses designed by Nash provide challenges to players of all abilities while blending seamlessly with their natural surroundings, according to Clay Meininger, director of golf.
"We see The Revere at Anthem as a golf destination for all Nevadans and people from all over the country," Meininger said. "Sun City Anthem residents will receive a significant discount when they and their friends play the course, but the public will be welcome and encouraged to enjoy some of Southern Nevada's best golf as well."
Homes at Sun City Anthem range from the $130,000s to the high $270,000s.
Christopher Zell, vice president of sales and marketing at Anthem Country Club, said buyers in the multigenerational community are attracted to its resort lifestyle.
"Anthem Country Club features first-class amenities including superb restaurants, a championship golf course, clubhouse, salon for all pampering desires and a fitness center, which are designed to facilitate a healthy and exciting lifestyle for our home buyers," Zell said.
"The majority of the home sites are oversized and back either the open space of the golf course or ... trail system. Many also are designed to offer some very breath taking views of the Las Vegas skyline and the dramatic Black Mountain Range."
The 33,000-square-foot clubhouse has a dining room, sports bar, meeting room, administrative offices, golf shop and members-only locker rooms.
The 7,300-yard, par-72 golf course designed by the team of PGA champion Hale Irwin and architect Keith Foster, will be a challenge for golfers of all levels, offering as many as five tee boxes on holes. It is scheduled to open in the spring.
A 13,700-square-foot athletic club and salon will also be home to activities such as aerobics, swimming, basketball, sand volleyball and tennis. There will be a play area for the young children of members.
The 1,000-acre Anthem Country Club will comprise about 1,500 homes and custom-home sites. The custom sites are priced as high as $750,000. The four series of homes are priced from the $160,000s to more than $600,000.
Single-family homes in the Coventry Homes at Anthem neighborhoods of Weston and Provence range from low $130,000s to the high $170,000s.
The master plan features the 55-acre Anthem Community Park, which includes plans for a regulation baseball field, a Little League field and softball diamond, two full-court basketball courts, four tennis courts, a sand volleyball pit, an area for roller hockey and three soccer fields.
Also planned is a one-mile jogging trail, a library, amphitheater and swimming pool. Construction of the park's first phase is scheduled to begin in early spring.
Nearly 27 percent of the community will consist of open space, according to the city of Henderson Department of Comprehensive Planning.
"This (Anthem) is an enormous milestone for the company and is very telling of what we can do in the future," said Phil Dion, chairman and chief executive officer of Del Webb Corp.
To visit, take Eastern Avenue about three miles south of Lake Mead Drive.
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