Published in Insights by Bruce Morgan
Every week someone asks me about Cotino. Usually the question arrives with a little embarrassment attached, like wanting to live in a Disney community is something you should apologize for. You should not. It is the most talked about new development in the Coachella Valley and there are real reasons for that.
What I find is that most people asking have read the marketing and almost nothing else. So here is the version I give clients, including the parts that do not appear in a brochure.
This is the first thing to get straight, because the answer surprises people.
Disney is not the developer. That is not my opinion or a technicality I am pulling out to sound clever. It is stated in plain language in DMB Development's own materials: Disney is not the developer of Cotino, nor the builder or seller of homes within it, and the parties developing and building there are independently owned and operated.
The master developer is DMB Development, a company with a long track record in master planned communities including Verrado and Eastmark in Arizona and Rancho Mission Viejo here in California. Homes are built by independent homebuilders. Disney is the creative and operational partner, and the Disney name carries real weight in the design, the programming and the club experience.
So what are you buying? A DMB community with Disney involvement. That is a genuinely attractive thing. It is just not the same thing as buying a house from Disney, and a buyer should know which one they are signing for.
The approved plan is substantial. Per DMB, Cotino covers 618 acres in Rancho Mirage with 1,932 residential units planned.
The centerpiece is an approximately 24 acre grand oasis built with Crystal Lagoons technology, which allows a large body of clear water to operate on low water consumption and minimal additives. In the desert, that detail matters more than it sounds.
Beyond the homes and the water, the plan includes 51 acres of mixed use development, approval for a beachfront hotel, and roughly 125,000 square feet of shopping, dining and entertainment.
Home types run from condominiums to single family homes to estates. The community welcomes buyers of all ages and includes at least one section designated for 55 and older residents, which is a meaningful distinction if you are choosing between sections.
One caution worth stating. DMB describes these as future proposed community plans that are subject to change or cancellation without notice. Large master planned communities evolve over fifteen and twenty year horizons. Buy for what exists and what is under construction, not for a rendering.
Pricing at Cotino has run from roughly the low 1 millions to above 3 million depending on collection, lot and builder.
I am deliberately not printing a precise figure here, and I want to explain why. Builder pricing moves by phase and by release. A number I publish in October can be wrong by January, and a stale price is worse than no price because it sets an expectation the sales gallery will not honor. When a client asks me what something costs at Cotino, I pull current availability that week rather than quoting an article.
What I will tell you is how to read those numbers. New construction pricing is a base price. Lot premium, structural options and design center selections are where budgets actually get decided, and the gap between the base price and the number on your closing statement is frequently larger at a design driven community than buyers expect.
The Artisan Club is the membership layer. It provides access to the waterfront clubhouse, a club only beach area, recreational water activities and Disney programming and entertainment through the year. The Parr House serves as a social anchor within it.
Membership is voluntary. That word is doing a lot of work and it deserves attention.
Voluntary means you are not required to join to own a home. It also means that if you do not join, the lagoon beach club and the Disney programming are not yours to use. For most buyers drawn to Cotino, the club is the reason they are there. Which makes it less voluntary in practice than it sounds on paper.
DMB states that club membership and amenity access require dues and fees set by the club owner, and that membership availability and club operation are not guaranteed. Get the current dues schedule in writing and read what is guaranteed and what is not before you fall for a model home. The same discipline applies at every desert club, which I cover in my guide to Coachella Valley country club communities.
Partly, and this trips people up.
The approved plan includes a professionally managed public beach park that can be accessed by day pass. The club beach area is separate and reserved for members.
If you are picturing a private gated enclave where the water is yours alone, adjust that picture. If you are picturing a public park in your backyard, adjust that one too. There are two distinct water experiences and the day pass does not buy the club.
After twenty five years as a vascular surgeon, I learned to be direct about fit. The same applies here.
Cotino is an excellent fit for the buyer who wants new construction with a warranty and no renovation, who values programmed community life over solitude, who will genuinely use water amenities, and who likes the idea of a neighborhood still forming its identity.
Cotino is a poor fit for the buyer who wants golf at the center of daily life, who wants mature landscaping and established streets now, who wants a large lot with distance from neighbors, or who wants a known quantity. The desert's legacy country clubs have forty years of track record on resale, dues history and culture. Cotino does not have that yet, because nothing new does.
Neither profile is better. They are different buyers, and the cost of guessing wrong on a second home is high.
If you own in Mission Hills, Thunderbird, Morningside or The Springs, Cotino affects you in two directions.
It competes for buyer attention, which is real. It also sends you buyers. People tour Cotino, decide new construction and programmed community life is not what they want, and start looking at established Rancho Mirage homes for sale with a sharper sense of what they actually value. I have watched that conversion happen more than once this year.
The sellers who benefit are the ones whose homes are presented well enough to win that comparison. If that is you, start with how I market desert homes.
Cotino is the most interesting thing happening in Rancho Mirage and it is not for everyone. Those statements are not in conflict.
If you are weighing Cotino against an established club, I am happy to walk both with you, including the parts the marketing does not cover. I have no financial interest in which one you choose, which is the entire point of having someone like me in the room. Get in touch and we will talk it through.
Bruce Morgan | REALTOR® DRE #02277792
Grand Luxury Properties
406-370-1224 | desertluxeproperties.com
There are roughly 45 private golf clubs in the Coachella Valley. Most agents can speak intelligently about six of them. Here is the framework I use with clients before we look at a single property.
