First-time developer rolling out residences at Montreux

Jerry Siemons for many years had wanted to try his hand at residential real estate development.

He's learning all about the business at just about the worst possible time as he brings on the first phase of a planned 65-home development in the upscale Montreux community at the base of Mount Rose.

His project, Le Maisons at Montreux, unveiled its first two homes both them priced a bit over $1.5 million a few days ago, and Siemons hopes to sell those two along with at least one more home by the end of the year.

The target market: Empty-nesters who are looking to downsize from larger family homes but still want a luxury residence.

The homes that Siemons is developing range in size from about 3,200 square feet to more than 3,600 square feet "cottages" by the standards of Montreux.

Designed by Jim Phelps of Carolina Design Group of Lake Norman, N.C., the homes are built by Pearce Custom Homes of Reno.

But the developer's most important business partner at the moment is his bank, Wells Fargo.

"They're working with us in a very intelligent way," Siemons says.

He acknowledges that he's needed to trim offering prices on the first homes in the project, but he says interest has been heartening. A dozen potential buyers, in fact, have expressed firm interest but only if they first can sell the homes in which they're currently living.

Siemons is marketing the project to upscale San Francisco Bay area homeowners who likely are drawn to nearby Lake Tahoe and want the tax advantages of Nevada residency.

Another group of potential buyers, he says, includes Incline Village homeowners who want an escape from the winter snowfall of Lake Tahoe.

No matter what the audience, Siemons is selling an experience as opposed to the amenities of an individual home.

"We're not pushing the houses," he says. "We're pushing Montreux. Montreux is the attraction."

Siemons knows well the attraction of the gated community.

He was living along the beach of Malibu, making a good living from a company that rents Lamborghinis, Aston Martins and other exotic and luxury cars to Hollywood celebrities, when he came with his wife, Marylou, to Montreux to visit friends.

Before the weekend visit was over, the couple had contracted to buy a house in Montreux.

And before too many months had passed, they decided to make Montreux their fulltime home and began unwinding their lives in Southern California.

Excited about the couple's new life in the closely knit community, Siemons made an offer on 65 newly created lots in the wooded southern reaches of Montreux. He currently owns 20 with an option on the remainder.

Among the team he put together to create the development were Artistic Gardens Inc. of Reno to handle landscape architecture, Integrated Home Systems of Reno to design "smart home" technology, and Juniper Hill Furniture of Reno to create home decor in the project's show homes.

Even with that team, Siemons acknowledges that Les Maisons has been a learning experience.

When a preliminary plan to create pads for homes called for the removal of more than 250 pines and other trees, for example, Siemons asked for options to preserve the them. The answer: Stone enclosures that protect the trees and their roots from development activity at a cost of about $3,000 per tree and a process that requires four people to sign off before a single tree is removed.