Boom! Will A New Gay Retirement Community Bring Life To Southern California Desert Real Estate?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Feb 11th 2011 at 10:01PM

Real estate in Palm Springs, California has taken it on the chin in recent years and some planned projects in the Southern California desert have stalled out. But a new, very ambitious project is betting that Palm Springs, which has always found support from two main groups, retirees and the gay community, can boom by putting those two groups together. Architect Matthias Hollwich, the principal of Hollwich Kushner, has created BOOM, a $250 million development planned for the Palm Springs area. The development will be in Rancho Mirage, the golf community that is also where Larry Ellison's new home, Porcupine Creek, is located.

Fast Company Design reports that Hollwich's firm is one of ten architectural firms including Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Juergen Mayer H., and Lot-Ek who are working on this 100-acre project to be developed by Los Angeles-based Boom Communities, Inc. Each firm was given a piece of the community to design. There will be a total of 300 residences set to break ground in 2012 with a planned second phase that will be at least as large.

The community is designed to appeal to pedestrians and will include both stairs and ramps. It's meant to be a community for all and so it also include elements such as a funhouse for kids and grandparents as well as a mist disco and a network of pools. In order to build interest there is a burgeoning online community where residents can provide feedback on the designs, join advisory boards and help steer the overall trajectory of the project. Launch events will take place in cities around the country to recruit new residents.

[via Curbed]

Tags: boom, gay community, palm desert, palm springs, rancho mirage, retirement community