MOSES LAKE- Varsity Development owner Leslie Savitch hopes the company's new Moses Pointe project will attract a new demographic of homeowners to the golf course community.

The Tri-Cities based company recently purchased 16 lots near the waterfront at Moses Pointe, with the intention of building numerous one and two-story homes there in the coming years.

Construction has already started on their first two homes, which will serve as model homes.

Savitch said golf course communities have long been thought of as retirement communities.

"It used to be if you said you lived in a golf course community people would go, 'oh you live out there with a bunch of old people," he said. "Well, we're really trying to change that whole approach."

Savitch said the company wants to cater to a wide range of homeowners by attaching a reasonable price tag to their Moses Pointe homes. The one-story "Iris" plan will likely sell for close to $282,000 and the two-story "Callas" plan will go for almost $308,000, according to a previous Columbia Basin Herald article.

"They (the houses) are affordable for people of any age," he said. "We've been getting a tremendous amount of people calling and expressing interest and they've been people of all ages so that's very positive."

He also said he hopes the new homes will attract buyers from out of the area looking for a second home. Representing the sales of the homes on behalf of Varsity Development will be Heather Adkinson, owner of Windermere K-2 Realty.

Savitch said the new homes will be modeled after the Craftsman archetype, a style popularized at the turn of the 20th century and characterized by wide overhanging eaves with exposed rafter tails at the eaves, a low-pitched gable roof and wide front porches framed by pedestal-like wrapped columns.

Materials often include stone, rough-hewn wood, wood shingles and stucco. Crafstman style homes are painted natural earth tones, typically in at least two tones.

The Moses Pointe homes will fall under the company's Oasis brand name of homes. Savitch said Varsity Development operates two brand names of homes- Oasis Custom Homes and ULTRA-Modern Homes.

Varsity Development has been building homes in various Moses Lake neighborhoods since 2007. Their homes cater mostly to move-up buyers and seasoned homeowners looking to move into a smaller home, said Savitch.

Most of their homes fall in between the $250,000 to $400,000 price range, he said.

"It's really a broad range of buyer groups we provide housing for," said Savitch.

He said he was initially drawn to Moses Lake because of the area's housing market potential.

"I've been monitoring this market for many years, and have been an active participant in the $250,000 to $400,000 price range since 2007," said Savitch. "One of the things that has always attracted me to Moses Lake as an East-side builder and developer is the unique location of Moses Lake relative to the rest of the state."

The city's location along Interstate 90 and its proximity to Seattle, Spokane, Tri-Cities and a number of other cities has made it, and will continue to make it, a good fit for business and industries.

"It makes sense to be located in Moses Lake," he said. "There's reasonable infrastructure here yet it's inexpensive enough to build your facilities, attract your personnel here and have affordable housing for them."

Savitch said he anticipates the housing market in Moses Lake to gain traction and continue to grow in the coming years.