Developer Rex Turner is promoting The Ranch as a location with easy access to Wasilla and Palmer shopping, restaurants and school, and within 25 to 40 minutes of other retail facilities in Eagle River and Anchorage. Equestrian and golfing facilities are also within an eight- to 12-minute drive on both the Palmer and Wasilla side of the subdivision, boasts The Ranch Web site.

The Ranch, at 1,750 acres, is the latest of more than a dozen subdivisions that the Turner companies, also doing business as Arctic Devco Inc., have developed for nearly four decades in the Greater Anchorage, Eagle River and Matanuska-Susitna Valley areas. A home in another Turner subdivision, the gated Sky Ranch, which features a 2,000-foot landing strip, is advertised on the back of the Creekside flyer. The spacious home, on a 2.37-acre bluff lot with an unobstructed glacier and mountain view, will be available in the final phase of Sky Ranch, for $1.2 million.

Creekside, by contrast, is a master planned neighborhood, designed by award winning land planners Richardson Nage and Martin. Phase IV of the Ranch subdivision, also known as Creekside Ranch, is the first actual phase of development, with a number of new model homes open every weekend.

Gary Gearhart of Prudential Jack White/Vista Real Estate, whose forte is new construction and land development, is the Realtor for the project. Gearhart said that by the time The Ranch is fully developed, with an elementary school and small business park, there will be a total of some 800 residences, Gearhart said.

While anyone can buy a less expensive home elsewhere, the key to this subdivision is location, he said.

“It is the convenience, driving exactly at the speed limit, you can be in Anchorage in 25 to 35 minutes.”

Already in the planning are two new access points to major traffic arteries, with Nelson Road to be extended to Fairview Loop and Truck Road south to Nelson Road. Engineering studies are currently underway.

Nine half-acre lots available for sale are priced at $52,500 to $55,000 each. The infrastructure includes paved streets and city water. Each home has its own septic system and subdivision covenants include stipulations that every home's driveway be paved.

Seven construction firms building in the subdivision are advertising models ready to move into with wide angle interior videos on The Ranch Web site, and model homes offered by 12 contractors are open for viewing from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends.

“It's going to be homes of upper quality and the commute to Anchorage will be fabulous,” said Fitzy O'Hare, a Realtor with Re/Max of Wasilla, who is marketing a $285,000, three-bedroom ranch home at Creekside. The home boasts custom quality trim and finish work throughout and a large dining room area, among other amenities.

O'Hare said she expects families with young children to be attracted to buy in the subdivision, where a new elementary school is planned in 2009.

“Everything is slowed down right now (in residential home sales), but I look at it as a temporary situation,” O'Hare said. “The valley is growing, and as we continue to grow, we need the homes to support it.”

Her customer base, she said, will include people from the Anchorage area, military families and those new to Alaska.

Big Lake Realtor Bill Haller of Century 21 North Homes Realty also applauded The Ranch as attractive because of the easy commute to Anchorage.

“For commuters in general it's a very short distance, easy to access,” Haller said. “It's a nice neighborhood, a new subdivision, so there is a little of everything.”

He is marketing a $289,900 three-bedroom home.

With a number of new and older homes on the market in the Valley, Haller predicted that potential buyers would look more quickly at Creekside, because of its location.

On the Web: www.creeksideranch.info