Work could begin later this year on what is being described as a “city of the future” in Buckeye, Arizona.
Everything about the proposed Douglas Ranch is big, with plans for the building of more than 119,000 homes, 59 million square feet of both commercial and real estate, and an eventual total development and construction cost pegged at up to $10 billion.
Movers behind the massive project, which will also include a 300-acre central park and community center, predict that it will take at least two decades to fully build out a community that is expected to ultimately be called home to around 300,000 people.
Legendary businessman Jerry Colangelo, the former owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team and the Phoenix Suns basketball team, is spearheading a project that is also being done jointly by developers El Dorado Holdings of Scottsdale and JDM Partners of Phoenix.
Hopes for the success of Douglas Ranch are partly born of a demographic reality: Buckeye, on the western edge of metropolitan Phoenix, is one of the fastest growing cities in the country.
In just the last two decades its population has bloomed from 6,500 to around 70,000 today.
Although the sheer scope of the Douglas Ranch’s residential and commercial square footage has awed both its supporters and detractors, the project is also putting an emphasis on open space, with more than 4,000 desert acres inside the community to be set aside for preservation.
Initial construction will go up in the Douglas Ranch’s southeast planning area, a section of the community measuring more than 8,500 acres.
By Garry Boulard
