BAY CENTER – The face of North Pacific County is slowly changing these days and several developers are wondering if, as in the movie “Field of Dreams,” if we build it – will they come?

The developers are counting on high gas prices and higher real estate prices in the metropolitan areas along the I-5 corridor to bring retirees and people looking at a second home option to come to one of the last unspoiled areas that’s a lot closer to home.

Will they come? Tim and Teri Koons, owners of the new Willapa Sands Estates south of Bay Center think so. “This is waterfront property with beautiful sunsets,” Tim Koons said. “On the West Coast there is virtually no waterfront property available except at huge prices. Water views are pretty rare. I look at Willapa Sands as an opportunity. We’re 35 miles from Astoria, with theaters, a hospital, doctors and all the city conveniences.”

Twenty minutes to the north, Koons said, South Bend has restaurants, a hospital, a boat ramp and fishing opportunities. And, Long Beach is less than an hour away with its festivals and opportunities for tourism.

“There are lots of things to do here,” Koons said. “People think it’s the middle of nowhere but I say ‘Wait a minute, there are all these things close by. It depends on how you look at it. It you want a mall, it is the middle of nowhere. This is a special place.”

He added that the superintendent of the Naselle School District contacted them, offering to route a school bus to the development for people who move there with children.

“This is a little slice of paradise,” Koons said. “In Seattle, or any other big city, it takes an hour to go 10 miles to the grocery store.” There are also four or five golf courses in Raymond and Aberdeen, and more in Clatsop County. Another big thing, he says, is the tranquility available to homeowners on Willapa Bay. “We have elk, deer, fox, quail, pheasants and eagles. Owners here will have access to the beach to dig steamer clams in their own backyard year ’round. Once all the lots are sold, he plans to build stairways to access the beach from the bank.

Koons said they named the development Willapa Sands because, unlike most of the bay, there’s a sandy beach.where it’s possible to walk out 100 yards on sand, rather than the mud flats common at most spots on the bay.

The 40-acre gated development features homesites from two to 15 acres, each with a view of the bay. One home has been built where the Koonses are living “so people can see the quality and type of homes here and so people who visit will have someone to talk to about the area.” He said besides their home, one of the eight lots has been sold so far.

The Koonses used a local builder, Jeff Strom’s BiltWise, and local plumbers and electricians from South Bend. Materials were purchased at Bud’s Lumber in South Bend and Mike DuCham from Long Beach did the septic work. Paving and grading was done by a Bay Center contractor. Or, purchasers can use their own builder. “We’ve been very happy with the way we’ve been treated here,” Koons said. “Since in a way, we’re out-of-towners, (they came here from Portland) most people are very pleased something’s happening in the area.”

Prices for a land/home package start at $499,900 and lots start at $179,000 for a two-acre waterfront parcel up to $249,000, and there are 13- and 15-acre parcels with peekaboo views of the bay for $299,000 and $399,000.

More information is available at the Willapa Sands Estates Web site – www.willapasands.com – or by calling Harlyn Griffith, a realtor with ReMax Excellence in Long Beach at 360-783-2305. The gate is open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. for people to get a look at the lots.

Just north of Willapa Sands is the 75-acre, 75-lot Lake in the Woods at Bay Center. Realtor Shaun Sitzman, with Prudential NW Properties in Vancouver, says he’s had “lots of activity on the Internet” about the development from as far away as California, Arizona, Colorado and Canada. “We hope people will have the vision to see the potential of this area,” he said. “New blood in the area will help the local economy.”

Sitzman, too, is counting on retirees taking a look at the 25 finished lots surrounding man-made Lake Willa on the Goose Point Peninsula. Three homes are in the construction process now in Phase I. The lots are about 16,000 square feet and the development features a state-of-the art on-site community septic system and city water. The infrastructure is installed and there are paved streets, curbs and gutter, sidewalks and street lighting.

“I’m anticipating spring,” Sitzman said. “This is an ecological utopia with good weather in the summer and fall and moderate winters.”

Lots are $95,000 to $175,000 at Lake in the Woods and Sitzman says Fred Rathbone, broker for Prudential NW Properties, will work with reputable local builders on home construction. He’ll also carry a contract for land purchase.

Rathbone also is just breaking ground on a development in Seaside, Ore., and has approvals for Raymond Heights, a 140-lot single and multi-lot subdivision where lots are priced from $50,000 to $60,000. The entire subdivision is for sale for $1.6 million.

More information about Lake in the Woods is at www.ssitzman.prunw.com. Sitzman can be reached at 360-256-0088 or 360-281-0025.

A bunch of additional subdivisions are in the works in the Raymond/South Bend area including a planned community of homes and condos in South Bend, a fourplex in Raymond and a 63-single-family/15 condo subdivision at the top of Broadway in South Bend. The builder of the fourplex has plans for more structures and a spa and resort hotel.