Richmond American Homes buys former golf course near Phoenix for $29M

Richmond American Homes of Arizona bought a former golf course outside Phoenix with 173 finished home lots for $28.64 million.

The unit of Denver-based MDC Holdings led by David Mandarich purchased the former Glen Lakes Golf Course at 5450 West Northern Avenue, in Glendale, the Phoenix Business Journal reported, citing Vizzda.

The seller was Virginia-based Towne Development, which bought the struggling nine-hole municipal course from the city in 2019 for $6.5 million, ending a long-fought battle by neighbors to save the links. Initial plans called for 173 homes surrounded by a park.

The price for the 36-acre property works out to $165,523 per lot.

Brokers Nate Nathan, Courtney Buck, Dan Baldwin and Ryan Duncan of Nathan & Associates represented the seller and the buyer in the deal.

It’s not clear what Richmond American wants to do with the property. Home sales of its parent company have slowed.

Last year, MDC Holdings raked in $4.52 billion in home sale revenue, down from $5.59 billion in 2022, according to its annual report.

At the same time, home building across greater Phoenix has boomed, while construction of single-family homes nationwide has fallen 14.7 percent. 

“Here’s why we’re different,” Jim Daniel, president of R.L. Brown Housing Reports, told the Business Journal. “We have jobs being created and people moving into the Valley.”

Across metropolitan Phoenix, new housing permits jumped 84.5 percent this month from the same period last year, he said. Between January and March, 6,994 single-family housing permits were issued, up from 3,790 during the same period last year.

As a result, developers have been on a buying spree, closing on hundreds of lots around Phoenix

“The new home market is definitely taking advantage of the downturn in the resale market,” Daniel told the newspaper.

This month, Miami-based Lennar and Florida-based Mattamy Homes picked up 447 lots at Bella Vista Farms in San Tan Valley, southeast of Phoenix, for a combined $61.6 million, or $137,808 per lot.

At the same time, Houston-based David Weekley Homes and Värde Partners bought 606 lots in Buckeye and Queen Creek for $60 million, or  $99,224 per lot.

Late last month, Texas-based Howard Hughes Holdings closed on the sale of 365 lots at Teravalis, its 37,000-acre master-planned community in Buckeye, then sold 114 more lots this month, according to the Business Journal. 

Buyers included developers KB Home, a representative of Lennar, Brightland Homes, Courtland Communities and Century Communities of Arizona.

— Dana Bartholomew

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