By Parker Leavitt, The Republic | azcentral.com
For nearly five decades, the Dreamland Villa Golf Course provided nine holes of wide-open, grassy paradise amid the sprawling retirement communities of east Mesa.
The historic executive course with its ponds, forgiving fairways and pitched-roof clubhouse is gone now, with the 30-acre site slated for a redevelopment project that will build more than 200 new homes.
Homebuilding company William Lyon Homes plans to have the first models open for its Albany Village community, at 56th Street and University Drive, by early 2016, and the first residents could move in later that year.
Unlike the sea of retirement housing that surrounds it, Albany Village is expected to attract younger homeowners, including professionals and families. The neighborhood will offer quick access to the U.S. 60 employment corridor to the south in an area where there aren’t many opportunities for new development, said Troy Wahlberg, land acquisition manager for William Lyon Homes.