Ken Peterson of Shea Homes shares highlights of Arizona’s luxury gated community of AZURE in Paradise Valley.
For Ken Peterson, the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Shea Homes, real estate is in his blood. He has been with the homebuilding company for 26 years. “I was lucky enough to grow up with a father that was a successful residential and commercial developer in Michigan,” said Peterson. “I grew up going to parochial schools but there were no parochial high schools, so my family sent me to beautiful Phoenix to go to Brophy College Prep. My family moved out a year later and got right back into real estate and development. I’ve spent my entire adult life in residential real estate, construction and land development.”
Peterson is feeling extremely optimistic about the state of the Phoenix area real estate market. “It’s the best market I’ve witnessed in 10 to 12 years,” he said. “It seems like Phoenix was slow to recover after the recession. We’ve received some really good publicity as a state and as a city so we’re attracting a lot of people from all over the country. We have really strong population growth, excellent job growth and low unemployment so it’s the perfect storm for a housing boom.” Peterson has worked on hundreds of communities and thousands of homes during his illustrious career.
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One project that he is very passionate about is Azure Paradise Valley, a new luxury gated community of 66 luxury homes focused on indoor and outdoor living, providing walkability to the surrounding community and all designed to have stunning mountain views. Azure is also adjacent to the Palmeraie, an upscale master-planned community that broke ground in 2019. The Palmeraie will house high-end shops and restaurants and is the site of the Ritz-Carlton Paradise Valley Resort and Residences scheduled to open later this year.
“There is harmony between natural open space, the backdrop of the mountains and the indoor-outdoor livability.”
“Azure has been a fun project to work on,” said Peterson. “We really wanted to focus on the integration of outdoor space being an extension of the living space, as well as walkability in the community. Imagine walking a few hundred yards and having shops, restaurants and resort amenities at your doorstep. We’re really proud to deliver this to the Arizona market.” Balance is an important element of the Azure homes. “There is harmony between natural open space, the backdrop of the mountains and the indoor-outdoor livability,” said Peterson. “Because we have such great weather in Arizona, residents really want to embrace that. Balance between the architecture of the home and the livability of the space is what we really focused on.”
When you drive up to the community, you see these iconic gates and once you go through, we’ve created this marvelous water feature with the backdrop of Mummy Mountain.
Gated security is integral to the design of the luxury community at Azure as well. “We wanted a very private and secure entry. When you drive up to the community, you see these iconic gates and once you go through, we’ve created this marvelous water feature with the backdrop of Mummy Mountain. We really wanted that great sense of arrival and I think we’ve accomplished that,” said Peterson. In addition to his love for his work, Peterson is passionate about community involvement, supporting a number of organizations and programs, including leading fundraising efforts for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Light the Night Executive Challenge. “We broke $1 million this year in fundraising, which is great,” said Peterson. “I lost my mother to cancer and my father has leukemia so it’s a cause that is near and dear to my heart.”
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Since 2003 Shea Homes has partnered with Phoenix radio station KEZ to sponsor the Woman of the Year Award, honoring women who make a difference in a variety of ways. Each month people nominate women that are doing great things in the community and every year a winner is selected from the 12 finalists to receive a $7,500 gift.
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