Harvard Investments, a real estate investment and development company based in Scottsdale, Ariz., announced the sale of its final two neighborhoods at The Lakes at Rancho El Dorado in Maricopa to Richmond American Homes. Richmond acquired 237 homesites adding to their four actively selling neighborhoods within The Lakes. Harvard relaunched the community in September 2019 selling over 1,600 homesites in just over two years.

The Lakes at Rancho El Dorado is a 425-acre community in Maricopa which features a 40-acre lake amenity. The community offers premium lake lots, some with attached RV garage options, multiple floor plan options, as well as off-lake neighborhoods with parks featuring a variety of amenities including sports courts, playgrounds, trails and a fitness center. In addition to Richmond’s now six neighborhoods, The Lakes offers new homes from Meritage, Gehan, K. Hovnanian, and DR Horton.

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“We are delighted that Richmond American is expanding its offerings at The Lakes at Rancho El Dorado,” said Tim Brislin, Vice President of Harvard Investments. “This is a great example of maintaining strong builder relationships. We have a fantastic builder team at The Lakes. We are thankful they trust us as a developer and want to be in our communities.”

He added, “This has been an incredibly successful project in large part due to the talents of our team and partners including brokers Nate Nathan and Courtney Buck of Nathan & Associates; the team at Silver Fern, who managed our entitlements; Otago, our land development general contractor; RVi, our landscape design firm; our engineers at Coe & Van Loo and First American Title Company whose team handled escrows.”

At a 2008 auction, Harvard Investments and Meritage Homes jointly acquired The Lakes at Rancho El Dorado’s remaining lots and undeveloped land. The parties allocated most of the existing finished lots to Meritage Homes with Harvard receiving a portion of the finished lots and the balance of the community.

“At a time when others might not have been considering Maricopa, we recognized its tremendous potential as a rare lake community in Pinal County ideally located near the I-10 freeway, top-ranked schools, Copper Sky Recreational Complex, and premium golf courses. We also saw the City of Maricopa as a great place to live with tremendous potential,” shared Brislin.

During Harvard Investments’ holding period, they studied the market, adjusting lot sizes, auditing amenities and waiting for the ideal time to bring The Lakes at Rancho El Dorado back to the market. Harvard relaunched the community in September 2019 with its first sale to Meritage Homes.

“Harvard’s astute analysis of both timing and what amenities and lifestyles today’s homebuyers are looking for in each submarket continues to pay off for everyone involved in their projects. Homeowners have access to premium amenities and a wide variety of high-quality builders in one of the Valley’s hottest growth pockets,” shared Nate Nathan, president of Nathan & Associates.

Home sales restarted at The Lakes at Rancho El Dorado in September 2020. Sales remain robust – of the 731 homesites available for potential homeowners, 454 have sold in less than 14 months. In addition to The Lakes at Rancho El Dorado, Harvard Investments’ master-planned residential communities include Verde Trails in Avondale, Cadence at Gateway in Mesa, Desert Oasis in Surprise, Fox Creek in Bullhead City, the newly acquired Estrella in Goodyear, Mariposa near Albuquerque and Gregg Ranch outside of Austin. Learn more about Harvard Investments at: https://www.harvardinvestments.com