Jerry Colangelo eyes ‘city of future’ in West Valley development
Oct 22, 2021, 1:00 PM
PHOENIX — Phoenix business mogul Jerry Colangelo said the vision for the large-scale planned community in the West Valley near Buckeye is to make a “city of the future.”
Though development for the 37,000-acre Douglas Ranch property purchased in 2002 will begin in the first half of 2022, former Phoenix Suns owner Colangelo told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News it’s been an ongoing process for his company, JDM Partners.
“We bought that property 20 years ago and really just sat on it, kind of looking into the future, that someday it was going to be very, very developable,” Colangelo said.
Over the years, Colangelo said his company has acquired entitlements and certificates for water as the property sits on an aquifer, and planning judiciously.
“Bear in mind, this is a 40-year buildout, and as the community addresses some of these issues like infrastructure or long-term water, we adjust with it,” Colangelo said.
Upon completion, the mass planned community is expected to have at least 100,000 residential units that can house 300,000 people.
Buckeye, a suburb located west of Phoenix, was among one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S. during the past decade, the U.S. Census Bureau reported in August.
There’ll also be at least 55 million square feet of commercial development.
“When a company like Howard Hughes Corporation decides to jump in at the number they jumped in at, they have to have assurances and it wasn’t just our word. They did their due diligence.”
The future Interstate 11, which has received congressional approval, will be adjacent to the community and will connect to Phoenix, Las Vegas and Southern California.
Douglas Ranch sits west of the White Tank Mountains and north of the developed portion of Buckeye.
