Stand at the north gate of The Citrus Club on any given afternoon and you are looking directly at two decades of unfinished business. The 134-acre site across Avenue 52, once branded SilverRock Resort and more recently called Talus, has spent most of the past two years as a fenced-off collection of half-built structures baking in the sun. For anyone weighing a purchase in this stretch of La Quinta, that view has been the obvious question mark: what happens to the empty lot next door?
As of this month, that question has a real answer, and it is not the one most buyers assume.
Two Years Of Nothing, Then Everything At Once
The site's history explains why residents grew skeptical. The Robert Green Company took over the project in 2014 under a purchase and development agreement with the City of La Quinta, and in 2017 Montage International signed on to bring both a Montage and a Pendry hotel to the property, the company's first entry into the Coachella Valley. Construction slowed through the pandemic, stalled further as interest rates climbed, and by August 2024 the developer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware, freezing the site with roughly $270.5 million in claims against it, according to reporting from The Real Deal.
For two years, that fence line was the story. Then, in October 2025, a bankruptcy judge approved the sale of the property to an affiliate of Turnbridge Equities, a New York-based investment firm, and escrow closed that December. City officials confirmed the price: $65 million, according to NBC Palm Springs.
Why $65 Million Is The Right Number, Not The Alarming One
That figure is easy to misread. Prior estimates had valued the SilverRock land between $300 million and $400 million, per NBC Palm Springs' reporting, which means Turnbridge picked up the site for a fraction of what it was once considered worth. Read that as a warning about the location and you would be reading it backward.
What that discount actually priced in was risk, not land value. The prior developer had missed milestone after milestone, defaulted on debt, and left the city managing a bankruptcy case instead of a construction schedule. Lenders and creditors who objected to the sale argued the price undervalued the property, and a Delaware bankruptcy judge heard three days of testimony on exactly that point before ruling the auction had been conducted fairly. What the market discounted was the previous ownership structure's ability to finish what it started, not the appeal of sitting across the street from Old Town La Quinta and a Pete Dye-designed private course.
The scale of what comes next makes that distinction clearer. The Real Deal reported that Phase 1 construction alone is estimated to cost $735 million, meaning the $65 million land purchase represents less than a tenth of the money Turnbridge is committing to the site. The firm brought in Lionheart Strategic Management for pre-development financing before the ink on the sale was even dry, and the City Council has already locked in a 15-year transient occupancy tax sharing agreement projected to generate $106.6 million for La Quinta, plus a fixed $17 million option price for an adjoining 200 acres of Phase 2 land. Those are not the financial commitments of a firm testing the water. They are the commitments of a firm that has already decided this location is worth building on.
What Changed Between The Old Plan And The New One
Turnbridge did not simply inherit the previous blueprint. The scope shrank, and by most accounts that is the reason the numbers work this time.
| Detail | Original Plan (2017-2023) | Turnbridge Plan (2025-2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Hotels | Two branded properties, Montage and Pendry | One five-star hotel, 154 rooms |
| Residential | Never finalized before bankruptcy | 445 homes, including branded residences and condos |
| Clubhouse | Original interior location | Relocated to the front of the property for easier public access |
| Status as of September 2026 | Frozen since 2022 | Structural inspections complete, design consultants engaged, permit applications expected by year-end |
City Attorney Bill Ihrke and a Turnbridge representative briefed the La Quinta City Council on the project's progress in early June, and the update was notably concrete for a site that had produced nothing but delay for so long.
"We're getting into the details of spa consultation, pool consultation and lighting designers. It's a very impressive group and a lot of progress has been made so far on the design."
That quote came from Michael Gazzano, Turnbridge's managing director overseeing the West Coast, who told council members the firm had sent core samples from the site's partially built structures to a lab and found significant structural integrity in each building, meaning some of the existing shells may be preserved rather than demolished. Tarping is going up to protect them, and a dust suppressant applied to the site is expected to hold for 12 to 18 months. None of that is glamorous, but it is the kind of detail that separates a firm actually managing a construction site from one simply holding land.
What This Actually Means If You're Comparing La Quinta Communities
The Citrus Club has always sold itself on a different value proposition than its South La Quinta neighbors. It does not require golf club membership as a condition of ownership. Its clubhouse, a Spanish Colonial building with the arched windows and blue trim that give it its character, sits inside a genuinely walkable distance to Old Town's shops and restaurants, a detail residents and visiting golfers alike have long pointed to as one of the community's practical advantages over communities set farther back in the desert.
That location advantage now comes with an asterisk that did not exist two years ago. Buying here means buying next to an active, well-funded construction site for the next several years, not a vacant lot with an uncertain future. Those are two very different conditions to underwrite, and only one of them was true as recently as last year.
The near-term timeline matters more than the long-term one for anyone closing on a home this fall. The Arnold Palmer Classic Course at SilverRock, the public course the city owns and operates independently of the Turnbridge sale, had been running on a shortened back nine for months while crews completed golf course realignment tied to the adjacent development. Full 18-hole play resumed on August 28, 2026. If you are touring homes at The Citrus Club this season, the course across the street is open again, and the disruption that had been part of daily life in that corridor for much of the year has already passed.
The longer construction timeline is exactly that: longer. Permit applications for the hotel and residential components are expected to reach the Planning Commission by the end of 2026, which means the vertical construction most buyers picture, cranes, framing, exterior work, has not started yet and will not for some time after permits are secured. That gap between now and visible groundbreaking is worth building into any decision about buying in this corridor, whether the plan is to live here year-round or hold the property as a second home.
What To Confirm Before You Write An Offer
A few questions are worth asking directly, whether through your agent or in the HOA documents themselves, before you get too far into escrow on anything near this corridor:
- Ask whether the seller has disclosed any awareness of the SilverRock/Talus development timeline, and get the most recent city council update in writing rather than relying on secondhand summaries.
- Confirm that The Citrus Club's membership structure is still optional rather than mandatory at the time of your purchase, since HOA governance and club affiliation terms can be amended over time.
- Check the City of La Quinta's official Talus project page directly for the most current permit and construction status rather than assuming last year's timeline still holds.
- If financing or insuring the property, ask your lender whether proximity to an active, permitted construction project affects underwriting terms in your specific case.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the SilverRock golf course part of the Turnbridge sale? No. The SilverRock Golf Course remains owned by the City of La Quinta and was not included in the land Turnbridge purchased, according to NBC Palm Springs' reporting on the transaction.
When will construction actually be visible from The Citrus Club? As of the most recent city update in June 2026, the project is still in the design and permitting phase, with applications expected to reach the Planning Commission by the end of the year. Visible vertical construction is not expected until permits are secured and 2027 planning is finalized.
Does the SilverRock reboot change what The Citrus Club is worth today? That is a question worth discussing directly with a local agent who can walk through recent comparable sales in the immediate area, since a development of this scale tends to influence buyer interest well before it influences appraised value.
Buying near a major redevelopment site is not a reason to hesitate. It is a reason to ask sharper questions than the listing sheet will answer on its own. If you are weighing The Citrus Club against other La Quinta communities and want a clear read on how this specific corner of the desert is likely to change over the next several years, Nicole Cox Real Estate can walk through what the SilverRock timeline means for your specific search. Elevate Your Desert Living. Schedule a Consultation.
