VISALIA – After five years of planning and development, a 219-unit multi-family housing project is nearing completion, looking to welcome residents by the end of the year.

Located at the intersection of Akers Street and Riggin Avenue, the Reserve at Ritchie Ranch is coming close to completing the first section of its 15-acre development site, which will contain 32 individual buildings, as well as one of two community centers, which will house a pool and electric vehicle charging stations.

Giorgio Russo, one of the co-owners of the site and vice president of Ginder Development, shared his excitement for the site, as well as how it will benefit the greater Visalia community.

“We’re very proud of every project we build, but I have a soft spot for this one,” he said.  “Although (our development) is a higher end product, it is our experience that bringing those types of units to a market will free up some of the lower end products, and in turn help overall housing (shortages).”

While the Reserve at Ritchie Ranch is a private project, the developers have worked closely with the city to create and plan the development, which Russo feels has worked well not only for this project, but precious ones as well.

“We’ve enjoyed working with the city of Visalia (in the past) so when the opportunity presented itself, we took it,” he said. “I believe that the growth for the city of Visalia is heading in that direction (towards the north).”

The southern section of the development is slated to complete in Spring 2024, which encompass the other 163 units as well as an additional community center, which will house a gym and a package room as well as a second pool.

“The community buildings are essentially a common area for the residents to have meetings or private events,” Russo said. “Nowadays everybody gets two to three (packages) a week, so we’ve also designed an area for FedEx and UPS and Amazon to deliver packages, which (residents) can access with a code.”

Each of the 219 units, which range from two story buildings to duplexes, will be completely run by solar energy and feature state-of-the-art appliances, including smart home technology that will allow residents to control the lock on their doors as well as certain lights from an app.

“All of our projects are 100% powered by solar, so we produce a net zero product,” Russo said. “The residents benefit from that as they’ll get a discount on their power bill.”

As for other bills, the price of rent has yet to be set. According to Russo, the amount will be determined by Manco Abbot, the company who will manage the development once construction completes.

“We don’t have a property management arm anymore, so we mostly work with Banco Abbot, who are the ones that are going to manage this project,” he said. “The one bedrooms will (likely) be between $1,800 and $2,000 and the highest units, which will be the duplexes, could be as high as $2,600.”

Although there’s no official date for when the Reserve at Ritchie Ranch will begin accepting residents, interested applicants can rest assured that both Ginder Developments and BJ Perch Construction —the company actually building the units — are working hard to get the first stage of their homes ready for families.

“We’re expecting to have at least some units available for rent this year,” Russo said. “We’re very hopeful that the project will be a success.”