Benson and El Dorado Holdings Ready for 28,000 New Homes

Benson and El Dorado Holdings are ready to begin a new 28,000 home master planned community. The Benson City Council gave its approval to development plans for the community on 12,445 acres this week. The Villages of Vigneto Master Planned Community is the new name for the former Whetstone Ranch located on the east side of Hwy 90, south of I-10 in Benson, Arizona.

El Dorado Holdings of Phoenix bought the property in an REO sale last year for $26.5 million that included entitlements for 29 developed lots in The Canyons I, 179 partially improved lots in The Canyons II, and 373 additional platted lots. The community had started as Whetstone Ranch master planned community and The Canyons before the economy and real estate market tanked and the bank took it back.

This developer is not your ordinary developer though, El Dorado is well versed and experienced with emerging markets and compare this project to being similar to its successful Rancho El Dorado community in the City of Maricopa, AZ. Located in the heart of Maricopa, the city grew up around it. Maricopa is near Phoenix, however there was no city there before El Dorado began Rancho El Dorado.

The Benson property was purchased with entitlements for 60,000 homes, 581-lots in various stages and 1,200 acres more unimproved. But the company doesn’t want to build something that big there and modified the plan to 28,000 total lots with plenty of open space.

Mike Reinbold, project manager for the Villages of Vigneto, talking about the plan going forward had this to say. First phase will be to develop the “Village Core” as the center, or heart of the community, all with a “friendly-side”, entertainment spots, boutiques and restaurants. It will be a place residents will want to just hang out. Homes in phase I will be 1,500-2,000 homes, with a mixture of both age-targeted and conventional housing.

Since 1987, the company has completed more than 110 successful transactions and manages a portfolio of $1 billion with minimum debt.

The Villages of Vigneto will be located directly to the south of The Canyons with 55-60 homes already built there. El Dorado will also put in a community golf course with rec center and golf club as part of the upfront development.

Executive Director of Southeast Arizona Economic Development Group, George Scott, told us that he is pleased to see a company like El Dorado Holdings recognize the potential of Benson and be interested in developing here. “The City Council and residents of Benson think the project is great and agree we need job growth and new development here. This project will help everyone, businesses, medical and retail-alike, including the Benson Hospital that has been wanting expansion will now be able to expand.”

“The people who expressed opposition to this project, were not residents of Benson,” Scott said. “They were the same people who opposed our wind farm and solar farm before we build those too.”

Apparently, the anti-growth opposition argued the water impact, however readers should note that it will be City of Benson Water and 85% of its water source has already been allocated to Whetstone Ranch for a very long time.

Each year this community of slightly over 5,000 residents swells to an estimated 32,000 people, with winter visitors from Canada and cold states who inhabit the 16,000 RV spaces in Benson. So rapid growth of people seems to agree well with this historic town, only 45 miles southeast of Tucson in Cochise County.