Construction continues on Disney’s Story Living Community “Cotino”
Construction continues at Cotino, a Story Living by Disney community that includes an artificial lagoon, in Rancho Mirage, California, on February 12, 2026.
On a sunny day in mid-February, Amy Bersin and her husband, Joe, parked their car at their new home in Cotino, a Disney-branded development in California’s Coachella Valley, when they spotted a neighbor taking a walk. They hadn’t met her yet.
Driving from her home base in Del Mar, near San Diego, Bersin, clutching a Cotino bag, struck up a conversation with her neighbor, Dolores Hamann, on her way to a local walking meditation class. Hamann, who moved in a few months before the Bersins, offered tips on things to do not only at the early development site, but also at area entertainment venues such as the McCallum Theater and the Purple Room.
“You won’t regret it. It’s a beautiful community,” Haman, one of the first to move to the community in early 2025, told the couple before rushing to class.
This conversation was the first for the Bersins, who bought their home in Cotino in late 2025, with their neighbors in the Rancho Mirage community. They were still selecting furniture for their home in Cotino’s 55+ neighborhood, while several nearby homes were under construction.
Although Cotino Bay, a 24-acre swimmable lagoon, and nearby Artisan Club facilities have opened to its first residents, the community is still in its infancy, with about 30 homes sold and dozens more under construction as of mid-February. (Disney told Desert Sun, part of the USA TODAY Network, that more homebuyers are in the process of purchasing a home, but declined to say how many.)
The initial phase of the development, with about 300 homes, will take several years to complete, but the broader project has received city approval for about 1,900 homes and condos, according to Disney. However, there are still many streets and lots to be built on the 618-acre property south of Gerald Ford Drive and east of Bob Hope Drive, and some homeowners are beginning to settle here and explore what Cotino has to offer.
Two of those new residents, the Bersin family, introduced the Desert Sun to their new home.
One of Cotino’s “leaders”
The Bersins, who have two adult children and live in Colorado, have been looking for a second home for the past few years, looking to other ski areas such as the Mammoth Lakes area and Sun Valley, Idaho.
“But we ultimately decided that instead of flying 6 1/2 to 7 hours to Denver or Boise to get to Mammoth, why not just drive two hours to a completely new environment,” said Joe Bersin, 69, who retired from a radio market sales job several years ago.
The Bersins purchased a vacation home in Cotino after looking at several properties near Palm Springs. I have a friend who also owns a vacation home there. But they didn’t need what many of the Valley’s iconic country clubs have to offer.
Amy said, “We’re not golfers,” and Joe described Cotino Bay as “kind of knocked our socks off.”
“We were impressed with the layout,” Joe said. “That’s[Disney’s]creativity…We didn’t want a theme park. We wanted a community. They seem to know what they’re doing in developing it.”
The approximately $2.2 million home the Bersins purchased was already under construction when they toured the area, unlike other buyers who bought unfinished homes. The surrounding area is still under construction, and in mid-February, workers were on hand at Bershins’ property, which is adjacent to his backyard pool.
“Cotino, I’m not kidding when I say it’s under construction. It’s under construction,” Joe said. “We’re the type of people who don’t want to be at the front of the line, but I think we pretty much got to the front in the end.”
Joe said being on the front lines of homebuyers took them “out of their comfort zone,” but they praised the project overall, saying they love the home and the community. For them, joining the Artisan Club was easy. The joining fee is $20,000 + tax, and subsequent memberships cost $11,000 per year.
“Artisan is what makes a community a community,” Joe said. “It’s like moving to a golf course community and not joining a golf club. It doesn’t make sense.”
The Bersins still had a lot of furniture to move, from sofas to bed frames, but they are looking forward to setting up a second home within driving distance of the coast, and their daughter plans to visit soon.
“I know it’s going to be hot in the summer, but we have a pool…and a community, a lagoon,” Joe said.
“I don’t think we’ll ever get bored,” Amy added.
Disney Cotino’s “Pioneer”
Homes sold so far have ranged from about $1.3 million to more than $4 million, with the higher priced properties selling larger lots. Disney said that while some buyers are coming from elsewhere, most of the homebuyers interested in Cotino are from Southern California.
Like the Belsins, Dolores and Dennis Hamman are also from the area, originally from Dana Point, Orange County. They’ve had a part-time home at Rancho Las Palmas Country Club, a few miles south of Cotino down Bob Hope Drive, for more than a decade. A few years ago, as the couple got off the interstate heading there, they noticed bulldozers working on land across the street from Sunnylands, and their curiosity was piqued.
Dennis did some research and discovered that the land was being developed by the Disney community as a first-of-its-kind Story Living. With a long history of exploring Walt Disney World and other Disney properties since living on the East Coast, they were immediately drawn to this project.
“If[Disney]were to design and manage it, we said, ‘The rest must be great,'” Dolores said, noting that the move was “natural” based on previous experience with Disney resorts and parks.
The couple chose the Cotino property before the house was actually built and were among the first to move into the community in April 2025, Dolores said. She added that they were called “pioneers” by Cotino officials and had a welcoming banner hung at their home.
“It felt like camping in the wilderness,” Dolores said of her early days in the community. “When I came out of here, I didn’t hear anything.”
Although her husband did extensive research, Dolores admitted that the approximately $2.1 million purchase required a “leap of faith.” “You’re putting your faith, your finances, everything into that company,” she added.
Dolores said she was skeptical when she first saw the vacant lot in Cotino, joking that her husband was “losing his mind,” but now she’s impressed “more than I ever imagined” by the speed of construction, with completed homes lining both sides of the street. She is excited about the town center on the north side of Cotino Bay, a public commercial district that is expected to open later this year and bring new shops and restaurants to Cotino.
Dolores said she has considered Artisan Club’s extensive menu and has eaten “a billion times” at Architects Fork, a bayside restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating available only to club members. She praised the chefs for being “very accommodating” to vegetarian meals.
She hasn’t swam in Cotino Bay yet. There is a section of the bay that is currently open only to club members, but there will later be an area that will be open to the public for a fee. But her son and his family use watercraft, and kayaks and paddleboards are allowed in the bay. However, she did enjoy the beachside area and found that the high-tech sand kept her feet cool even during the scorching summer heat.
“When I tell my friends, “I’m going to a beach in the desert,” they say, “There’s no beach in the desert,” Dolores said with a laugh. “I said, ‘Yes, I have.'”
Tom Coulter covers Mid-Valley for the Desert Sun. Please contact thomas.coulter@desertsun.com.
