Windmill: A Private, High-Desert Community Designed for Car Lovers
Automotive enthusiasts: Do you have your GPS set for a luxury home site with multiple bays and expansive space to also accommodate a car barn/man cave for as many as a dozen or more of your collectibles?
If not, ask your electronic wayfinder for the fastest route to Windmill, your Dream Space™, a new boutique gated community comprising eight premium lots on 20 acres in north Scottsdale at 2,400 feet of lush high Sonoran Desert south of Cave Creek and west of Pima roads. All of the homes have great views of nearby landmark Black Mountain and the surrounding foothills.
“Here are lots large enough for custom homes and for an additional structure to house 4–12 or even more cars, with lifts or underground space,” says longtime developer Jim Ikard, who plans to build his home and a separate garage on one of the lots.
Anchored by the award-winning Bowman House on the southeast corner, Windmill has two newly completed and four unbuilt homes available that will fulfil the needs of almost any automotive aficionado and family.
“Windmill is different from other luxury real-estate developments in the Phoenix/Scottsdale/Carefree area,” he explains. “For one, home sites average about two acres rather than the customary one acre you find in even the most exclusive communities.”
“But the most unique characteristic of Windmill is that all details –– land planning, architectural designs for the homes, including the optional car barns, as well as interior details –– are the vision of just one man, distinguished architectural designer and former racer, Bob Bacon.”
In his 50 years of work, Bacon has designed and developed luxury hotels, resorts, clubhouses and golf communities in Florida, Canada, Japan and the Southwest, including the destination Boulders Resort in Carefree, the Scottsdale Princess Resort and Conference Center and the Cochise/ Geronimo golf clubhouse at Desert Mountain in Scottsdale.
Excepting the Boulders-inspired Bowman House, Bacon calls Windmill’s architectural style Modern Western Ranch, characterized by low-profile forms, single-level living, casual and open floor plans and natural materials such as wood and concrete as well as clay tile and metal roofs. “None of these optional added garages detract from the critical architectural integrity of Windmill overall or the adjacent homes,” Ikard explains.
“The Windmill neighborhood was planned and designed to easily accommodate and deliver very energy-efficient custom homes for those seeking a casual western lifestyle in a small, secure neighborhood where each home is unique but harmonious with each other and its desert setting,” explains Bacon, who attended the architecture school at Arizona State University in Tempe. Among his many honors is a “Master of the Southwest” by Phoenix Home and Garden magazine.
To ensure this individuality, Bacon avoided arranging the homes to conform to standard setback lines oriented and squared up toward the street. Instead, he situated each home to ensure optimal views, privacy and a unique identity.
“The community was designed for quality, not maximum yield; and the homes were individually designed to satisfy today’s affluent lifestyles rather than for optimal mass production,” says Bacon, who for years drove a custom-built high-tech homage to the 427 Cobra roadster in the SCCA unlimited class to great success.
“Windmill is guided by a single principle-based design vision that lends a natural harmony of materials and forms, while allowing for each home to be visibly different from its neighbors.”
Eight ‘Right-Sized’ Homes Rooted in the Desert
Built in 1989 on 3.4 acres abutting a wide wash, the 6,250-square-foot Bowman House Bacon designed in what he calls a geomorphic style, similar to the signature Boulders architecture. This 1990 Gold Nugget Grand Award Winner is available for viewing.
“We call these homes ‘right-sized’ because they have all the bells and whistles like chef’s kitchens, multiple indoor-outdoor spaces and ensuite bedrooms but without being too large,” Ikard explains. “Today’s luxury buyers want one-level homes between four to five thousand livable square feet. They don’t want the mega-houses anymore.”
All of the designs are by Bacon, but the unbuilt homes and standalone garages can be tweaked to add spaces such as caretakers/inlaws rooms, additional garage space, flex rooms, offices, cigar porches, and entertainment areas as well as for energy components such as geothermal and ground-mounted solar arrays.
“If we have a buyer in place before construction, then we can certainly customize or personalize the home to his/her specifications, but whatever is added should be practical for future buyers, and that should be a minimum of three bedrooms and at least 3,000 square feet.”
Ikard notes that basements can be added as well as underground car garages. “All of the homes have multi-car garages, and the oversized lots can easily accommodate large ancillary out-buildings for automotive man caves, art studios or workshops,” he explains.
Built and ready for move-in, with connected casitas, are the Acacia (Lot 6) on 1.72 acres and the Joshua Tree (Lot 4), 2.10 acres, both completed by Valley-based Blackstone Custom Homes.
With interior design by Gail Archer, the 4,470-square-foot Acacia home includes a three-car garage and can be acquired with or without furnishings. Next door, the somewhat larger Joshua Tree, which is unfurnished, has 5,150 square feet of air-conditioned space, a four-car garage, with mirroring front and back garages doors and an autocourt.
The remaining homes are ready for move-in within 14 months of the beginning of construction. These are the 4,575- square-foot Mesquite (Lot 2), 1.64 acres; the Palo Blanco (Lot 3), 4,900 square feet, 2.17 acres ; and the largest of the unbuilt designs, Ironwood, (Lot 7), 5,130 square feet on 2.24 acres.
About a year ago, Michael Harbin Jr. and his wife Karen purchased the Palo Verde model, Lot 1, on the northwest corner of the community. For the last 12 years, the couple, from Washington State, were part-time residents of Grayhawk, the north Scottsdale community ten miles south of Windmill. A car collector, he is enjoying a three-bay, three-car garage where he has innovatively stored six cars; he plans to build a free-standing man cave for six more.
“We like it very much out here; it’s quiet, private, open and has a great night sky,” Karen says. “Yet, it’s convenient to the restaurants of Carefree, Cave Creek and to all of the amenities in Scottsdale.”
Mike commends Bacon’s style: “It’s a small community of homes on large lots with much open space that provides room to build your dream garage, and our home has a ranch feel that is very relaxed, comfortable and not ostentatious, with great sunset views. I can’t wait for other car guys to move in!”
For more information, see windmillscottsdale.com, including a virtual reality tour of a possible car barn, or call 480.788.0401. For Acacia and Joshua Tree visits, call Davis Driver RE/MAX Platinum Living at 480.788.0401 or e-mail him, Davis@rmxplatinumliving.com.
