South Campus Grows by 18.6 Acres

Western Home Communities finalized the purchase of more land in November, expanding the organization’s south campus to approximately 170 acres.

“We were able to acquire 3.3 acres from Dr. Mauer earlier this year and we just closed on an additional 15.3 acres from Greenhill Estates (Merrill Oster) recently,” explains CEO Kris Hansen. “We’re happy that we were able to work with Merrill on this purchase as we have in the past. Merrill has been great to work with through the years, as we both focus on win-win opportunities.”

The purchase creates a contiguous campus to the north all the way to Greenhill Road. Prairie Parkway borders the land purchase on the east, Bluebell on the west and Greenhill Road to the north, excluding the property owned by Kimball & Beecher Family Dentistry and the green space owned by the city, which is just west of the dental office.

The land purchase includes all of Wild Rye Way and the western portion of Bluegrass Court, except for the lot where periodontist Shawn Reese, DDS, MS, PC, is located. An updated map is on page two.

Architects and engineers are at work on site development, including utility layouts and street designs.

“If we use all the space for villas, we could build about 28 more duplexes (56 villas),” says Hansen, “but it may be that the land lets us create something else that appeals to new residents. So we’re still investigating the options. We definitely plan to start some new villas on Wild Rye Way later in 2022.”

Development on south campus started in the early 1990s when Windgrace and Windermere independent living communities were built on 13 acres of farmland that once belonged to Charles A. Rownd, who built the house and round barn in 1911.

“It’s been 20 years since residents moved into the first villas on Iris Drive in 2001,” Hansen reflects. “Here we are with 244 villas and townhomes finished and ready to do more. I sure didn’t anticipate we’d reach Phase 10, but it’s all driven by demand and having the space to grow.”