Harvard Investments proposes 1,940-acre development near Estrella Mountain

By: Hailey Mensik

A master-planned community with thousands of new homes and apartments, retail, dining and a potential resort is being planned in Goodyear.

The city’s planning and zoning commission on Dec. 3 will discuss a request to rezone about 1,940 acres for Rio 1900 – a planned development near Estrella Mountain Regional Park, along the southern bank of the Gila River. The long-vacant site has also been known as King Ranch.

The community would include up to 5,762 residential units, which would be a mix of large-lot estate residential, single family residential of various lot sizes and product types, and multifamily residential, according to a project narrative document.

The planned development would have a focus on maintaining the desert landscape and making outdoor recreation widely available, and all residents would be within a five-minute walk to a park, trail or open space.

Most of the 1,940-acre site is owned by Harvard Investments, which purchased it from a longtime landowner for $22 million in 2023.

About 80 acres within the site is state trust land. The developer has initiated the process of purchasing that land from the Arizona State Land Department through an auction, according to documents from the city.

Rio 1900 is planned to include seven land use districts: open space, civic use, estate residential, village neighborhood, urban neighborhood, commercial activity center and resort.

The largest district would be village neighborhood, encompassing about 1,300 acres. About 570 acres would be designated for urban neighborhood, and about 400 would be for estate residential.

About 300 acres would be designated for commercial uses, and about the same would be set aside for potential resort uses.

This new community would border the Estrella residential community, which is another major project Harvard is involved with. In 2021, Harvard acquired the 20,000-acre Estrella mixed-use master planned community in a joint venture with Toll Brothers Inc. and Varde Partners Inc. for $212.5 million.

Located about 17 miles west of Phoenix, Estrella is home to more than 7,000 families and includes two clubhouses, resort-style pools, a water park, 72 acres of lakes, 50 miles of paths and trails, and the Yacht Club of Estrella, among other amenities.

The development of Rio 1900 will be led by Harvard’s Craig Krumwiede, a prominent Phoenix developer who has massive plans for Goodyear with his brother, David Krumwiede, who is also a developer.

Through their firms, Harvard Investments and Lincoln Property Co., they plan to develop more than $3 billion in housing and commercial space around the future State Route 30 in Goodyear. Their projects could bring more than 10,000 jobs and thousands of residential units to the fast-growing suburb west of Phoenix.

Goodyear, which encompasses nearly 200 square miles, is only about 15% built out, but it has been ranked as one of the fastest growing cities in the nation. Its population has grown to more than 100,000 people from only 19,000 in 2000.

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