Neal re-opens River's Reach community

EAST COUNTY — As the housing market continues rebounding, East County developer Neal Communities is bringing to life to an old project.

Neal officially re-opened its River’s Reach community Friday, June 1. The gated community, located off Rye Road, has 124 lots for sale in its first phase. Neal will begin construction of new model homes for the project in August, and development of a second phase, which will open in 2013, is expected to start in September.

“We have restructured the product, home sites and financial structure,” Neal said. “I have confidence in this.”
“People who have been postponing their (home) purchases for the last seven years are now selling their homes … and they are buying (in the area) now,” he said.

The River’s Reach community first opened in 2005, and because of the change in the economy, sales had fallen to a standstill by September 2007, when Neal opened its second set of model homes there.
“River’s Reach opened at the wrong time,” Neal said. “Everything was so optimistic at that time. We overplanned. (The homes) were gorgeous and big.”

The community closed for sales in the summer of 2009.

In recent months, Neal restructured the financial affairs of the community and spoke with residents about future changes to the community’s plans. Neal will offer homes priced from the high $100,000s with footprints ranging from 2,161 to 3,117 square feet.

“We are much more efficient than we used to be, so we can provide value we never could before,” he said.