A New Beginning in Cotino
Amy Belshin had just pulled her car up to her new home at Cotino, the Disney-branded development in the Coachella Valley, when she and her husband Joe saw their next-door neighbor strolling by on a sunny day in mid-February. They hadn’t met her yet.
Belshin, who had driven over from her primary home in Del Mar near San Diego, struck up a conversation with the neighbor, Dolores Hamann, who was sporting a Cotino-branded bag on her way to a walking meditation class offered at the community. Hamann, who moved in months before the Belshins, offered tips on things to do at the nascent development, as well as at entertainment venues in the area like the McCallum Theatre and the Purple Room.
“You won’t regret it. It’s a beautiful community,” Hamann, who was among the first people to move into the development in early 2025, told the couple before she hurried away to her class.
First Impressions of a Growing Community
For the Belshins, who bought their home at Cotino in late 2025, the conversation was among their first with any neighbors in the Rancho Mirage community. They were still picking furniture for their home in Cotino’s 55-plus neighborhood, where several nearby houses were under construction.
While Cotino Bay, a 24-acre swimmable lagoon, and nearby amenities at the Artisan Club have opened to the first residents, the community is still in its early stages, with roughly 30 homes sold and dozens more being built as of mid-February. The development’s initial phase with about 300 homes will take a few years to complete, according to Disney, while the broader project has city approval for roughly 1,900 homes and condos. Yet as many streets and lots are still being built out on the 618-acre site south of Gerald Ford Drive and east of Bob Hope Drive, some homeowners are starting to settle in and explore what Cotino has to offer.
Choosing a Second Home
Two of those new residents, the Belshins, showed The Desert Sun their new home. Among the ‘first in line’ at Cotino, the Belshins had been eyeing a second home for the last few years, looking at the Mammoth Lakes area and other ski destinations like Sun Valley, Idaho.
“But then we finally figured, wouldn’t it be great just to do a two-hour drive (to) a totally new environment as opposed to six and a half to seven hours (driving) to Mammoth and flights out to Denver or Boise,” said Joe Belshin, 69, who retired from a sales career in radio markets a couple years ago.
The Belshins bought their second home at Cotino after looking at some properties nearby in Palm Springs, where they have friends who also own vacation homes. But they didn’t need what’s offered by many of the valley’s iconic country clubs.
“We’re not golfers,” Amy said, while Joe explained that Cotino Bay “just kind of knocked our socks off.”
A Unique Community Experience
“We were impressed by the layout,” Joe said. “It’s the creativity (of Disney)… We didn’t want a theme park. We wanted a community, and it seems like they know what they’re doing in developing that.”
The roughly $2.2 million home that the Belshins purchased was already built when they toured the area, unlike some other buyers who’ve bought homes that are yet to be completed. The surrounding area remains a work in progress, with workers present at home sites adjacent to the Belshins’ backyard pool in mid-February.
“Cotino, when they say it’s under construction, they’re not kidding — it is under construction,” Joe said. “We’re not the type of people that, we don’t want to be first in line, but I think we ended up being pretty much first in line.”
A Pioneer at Disney’s Cotino
Like the Belshins, Dolores and Dennis Hamann are from the region, hailing from Dana Point in Orange County. They’ve had a part-time home for over a decade in the Rancho Las Palmas Country Club, which is a few miles south of Cotino down Bob Hope Drive. A few years ago, as they got off the interstate heading there, the couple noticed bulldozers working on the land across from Sunnylands, piquing their curiosity.
Dennis did some research, discovering that the land was being developed into a first-of-its-kind Storyliving by Disney community. With a lengthy history of exploring Walt Disney World and other Disney properties dating back to their time living on the East Coast, they were immediately drawn to the project.
“If (Disney) is designing and managing it, we said, ‘The rest has got to be great,’” Dolores said, calling the move a “no-brainer” based on their prior experiences at its resorts and parks.
Exploring the Community
The couple selected their lot at Cotino before the home was actually built, and Dolores says they were among the very first to move into the community in April 2025. She added they were called “pioneers” by Cotino officials, who placed a welcome banner on their home.
“I felt like I was camping out in the wilderness,” Dolores said of the initial days living in the community. “(When) I came out here, there wasn’t a sound.”
While her husband did plenty of research, Dolores acknowledged it took a “leap of faith” to make the roughly $2.1 million purchase. “You put your faith, your finances, everything into that corporation,” she added.
Experiencing the Amenities
Dolores has explored the extensive offerings at the Artisan Club, saying she’s eaten “a gazillion times” at Architects Fork, a restaurant by the bay with indoor and outdoor seating that is open to club members only. She complimented the chefs for being “very accommodating” to her vegetarian diet.
She hasn’t been swimming yet at Cotino Bay, which has a section currently only open to club members and will later feature an area available to the public for a fee. But her son and his family have used the water crafts, with kayaking and paddleboarding allowed on the bay. But she’s enjoyed the beachside area, noting its high-tech sand stays cool to the feet even during the scorching summer months.
