An Austin-based real estate developer and an Albuquerque-based homebuilder are teaming up to construct the City of Vision’s first build-to-rent community.

The Eleanor Rio Rancho Cabezon will feature 126 homes at 2300 Westside Blvd. SE, across from Presbyterian Rust Medical Center. Homes will range from 650 to 1,500 square feet and rental prices will be based on the current market rate, JLM Living CEO Dan Deichert said. JLM is the owner of the site and Westway Homes is the contractor.

The community plans to target young individuals who are “tired of living in an apartment and aren’t quite financially ready to buy a home yet,” Deichert said. The project is JLM’s first in New Mexico, Ryan Sloan, JLM’s development and acquisitions analyst, said.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held on March 26. Deichert declined to share projected construction costs.

“We will have our first 30 units open in about 12 to 15 months,” Deichert said. “We should be finished in about 20 months.”

Prior to the groundbreaking, JLM conducted a variety of studies that showed a “lack of high-quality rental products” in Rio Rancho, Deichert said. Although the firm bought the land two years ago, rising interest rates and construction costs pushed the project back, he added.

The company stayed committed to the project because the region “compares favorably with other markets across the country,” Deichert said.

“We have projects in Daytona Beach Florida, Savannah, Georgia, San Antonio,Texas, and here in Rio Rancho,” Deichert said. “We equate all of those markets because they all have the same characteristics. Good job growth, new housing stock that is available for buyers, and most of all, it’s a place where people want to put their roots down and raise a family.”

Planned development of new retail shops and grocery stores can also be attributed to the viability of the region. In the last decade, Rio Rancho’s population has increased by more than 20,000 people, according to the U.S Census Bureau.

“I think this is a tremendous use of this space right here in the Cabezon area,” Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull said during Tuesday’s groundbreaking ceremony. “It is another quality community that will benefit from all the other development that’s happening across the Unser Gateway and throughout the entire corridor.”

Since 2018, Westway Homes has developed properties in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho and Los Lunas. In addition to The Eleanor, the company is developing a 97-lot community near Los Diamantes and Joe Harris Elementary School, named Oeste.

Source: “Austin-Based Developer Begins Construction on Rio Rancho Build-to-Rent Community“