Seattle-based real estate development company Tarragon recently announced Uplands, the company’s first-ever master-planned community (MPC).
The community of more than 1,000 homes on 320 acres in South Hill, Washington, will deliver lots to builders to begin the initial building phase in the fourth quarter. Tarragon expects the community to open for sales in early 2025.
Tarragon has developed commercial and multifamily assets in MPCs for more than two decades, but Uplands marks its first venture into the entitlement and site development processes.
“Tarragon leads the planning, entitlement, design, and development for all our projects, and over the past few years, we have added master-planned community development expertise to our team, enabling us to do just that in our first master plan in our own backyard,” Dennis Rattie, president of Tarragon, tells Builder. “We are widely recognized as one of the Northwest’s most active real estate developers—cultivating community is really what we do best—and we have another master-planned community to follow in the next few years.”
Tarragon envisions Uplands to be an active and socially connected community. The MPC will feature a diversity of home product types, with the first 155 homes to range in size from 2,000 to 3,500 square feet.
“Developing an MPC requires us to create a vision for the community that is driven by who will live here, how they want to live, and what they want to own,” says Rattie. “Then we develop not just the community plan, amenities, and lifestyle to meet those needs, but also a diverse product mix that will appeal to multiple home builders, so the community meets the needs of potential new-home buyers with more options than a single-builder subdivision.”
The initial phase of single-family homes at Uplands will be situated on 110 acres of sloped terrain in South Hill and feature homes from four home builders: Century Communities, Conner Homes, Lennar, and Richmond American Homes. Century Communities will have 40 new homes available in the initial phase at Uplands, Conner Homes will have 29 homes, Lennar will build 44 homes, and Richmond American Homes will have 42 single-family homes available.
“The leaders on our team with master-planned development expertise have long-term relationships with all the best builders in our region, having worked with them in previous top-selling MPCs,” Rattie tells Builder. “Once we created the development vision, the community brand, the lifestyle offerings, and product mix, we hosted a builder opportunity presentation to share it all and our first phase lot offerings with potential interested builders.”
Rattie says it was important for Tarragon to have a diverse builder program for Uplands with solid experience in the Pacific Northwest market. Tarragon says there are plans for additional smaller home plans and rental townhomes expected in future phases. The community will target a range of buyers, from first-time home buyers to families to move-down baby boomers.
The MPC will be walkable with nearly 25 acres of parks and recreation space, including playgrounds, pools, a fitness center, and Overlook Park and The Club at Uplands, with views of nearby Mount Rainier.
“Uplands will set a fresh new standard for life in our South Hill location. We have been very intentional, from our community infrastructure to the home designs offered, all to create a better quality of life and social connections for people living here,” Rattie says.
When completed, the initial phase of Uplands will also include 86 rental townhomes with a dedicated clubhouse with a catering kitchen, a barbecue area, a firepit, a dog park, a playground, and a community garden. Tarragon says additional rental townhomes will be included in future phases of Uplands.
