The developer spearheading two proposed luxury residential developments is bullish on the future of Fountain Hills.

Don Kile, president of Goldfield Preserve Development, LLC, heads the management team for The Ellman Companies of Phoenix to develop The Preserve at Goldfield Ranch and the state trust land.

In March, the company acquired a 1,276-acre state trust tract auctioned by the Arizona State Land Development for $110.1 million.

Ellman Companies bought the Goldfield property for nearly $133 million in June 2006.

By the time the first homes are built in 2010 or later, Kile anticipates the inventory of high-end new master planned developments will be extensively depleted in the Northeast Valley.

“Fountain Hills is a community that has been underdeveloped on one level or another for 25 to 30 years,” said Kile.

“I think we're going to be quite eager to bring residential lots and ultimately builders with residential products that will provide a luxury, high end component to a piece of land that is now considered eligible for development,” said Kile.

The two Fountain Hills subdivisions will be “the last of the high-end, master planned communities being built in the Northeast Valley market, and because of that, I think we’re in really great shape.”

Kile said his firm will listen to town officials, staff and residents “about what we should be building there.”

The town authorized construction of 1,750 homes for the site, but many neighbors hope for fewer homes.

“We have yet to come to terms with the physical properties of the state trust land,” said Kile. “It’s still early in the process.”

“The town council and Mayor (Wally) Nichols have been watching this town property for so long that they're eager to find out the answers to the question you just asked. We're going to do our best to provide answers as quickly as we can.”

Plans for the second project, The Preserve at Goldfield Ranch, are more firmly developed. The developer has applied to Maricopa County to amend a 1995-approved development master plan.

The amendment proposes less density than the original plan. As many as 1,000 homes would be built in a natural, desert environment off Route 87, Beeline Highway.

During an interview in his Scottsdale home, Kile discussed several topics: balancing family and career, learning  the skill of arguing from his late mother and creating communities that  respect the Southwestern ambiance.

His wife, Courtney, has her own career as a real estate developer with The Empire Group. Daughter Kennedy, 12, and eight-year-old son Colin round out the family.

“Family is always a challenge between a person who wants a career and the person who wants a family,” said Kile. He believes his professional life has become changed because of the balance his family provides.

His executive position allows him to occasionally share lunch with his children, read to a school class, or explain his job at a school career day.

Before the birth of the children, Kile owned and raced vintage sports cars and sailed.

“I don’t do any of those any more. I’ve got two kids so my hobbies are going to enjoy my daughter’s singing and dancing at the local children’s theater and my son’s baseball and soccer games.”

Their home on 2 ¼-acres abuts McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park, a favorite recreational area for the family. Kile said they selected the Rocking Road, Scottsdale residence for its rural environment, gravel driveways and abundant wildlife --- features of the desert land  his company will develop.

The topography, rural atmosphere and panoramic views of The Preserve at Goldfield Ranch and the state land trust acreage share similar characteristics with each other, said Kile. Homes will integrate into the natural Sonoran desert setting and developers will be “sensitive” to retaining the western lifestyle and dark skies, he said.

“The outdoors is what makes this part of the country so lovable and livable. That’s why we came; that's why we stay, and we'll probably be here for the rest of our lives,” he said.

Kile grew up in Amarillo, Texas, with four siblings. His parents taught school.

“One of the greatest legacies my mom left me was the ability to argue or at least the understanding that it’s OK to argue.”

“It wasn’t OK to fight; it wasn’t OK to be disrespectful; it wasn’t OK to become hysterical but it was OK to argue.”

His mother “ allowed me to retreat to my room, collect my thoughts and return to her, and she would drop everything she was doing, and sit down and listen to my argument. We would discuss at my level what I thought was right or wrong.”

“She taught me a lesson that I didn't realize until later in my professional life…you might not always agree with another person's perspective but it's incumbent upon you to understand the perspective of the other person in order to be able to disagree with them.”

The process taught him patience, character traits that have endured through his personal career and ideals that he aspires to pass to his daughter and son.

His father retired after 45 years of teaching and coaching high school students. Kile taught business and economics for a couple of years after graduating from West Texas State University. He majored in business finance and accounting.

“I had aspirations as a small boy to run, to go out and reach out. Much to my father’s heartbreak, I was one of those few kids in Amarillo who put the foot on the gas, head to the edge of town and kept going.”

 A series of professional career moves brought him to Arizona in May 1987. Through advising struggling companies, a keenness for real estate surfaced.

“I turned that into an understanding and affection for real estate development,” recalled Kile.

He worked for a residential builder in North Scottsdale developments of Troon North, Grayhawk; Mesa, Chandler and Gilbert areas before joining Steve Ellman, company president.

“I went to work for him 10 years ago and have watched his company and him evolve from a real estate ownership company, to owning a hockey team, to high profile projects.”

Ellman is developing the Westgate shopping and entertainment district in Glendale.

“One of the perspectives of the Ellman Companies that I think is critically important to our success is being able to identify and invest in the community, not just in a project,” said Kile.

“The good news about these two projects (The Preserve at Goldfield Ranch and state trust land) is that they give me something that I’m passionate about,” said the 46-year-old.

He anticipates he will be proud of the two residential projects when they’re completed but he recognizes that his involvement is “not all altruistic.”

“It’s being able to provide a wonderful lifestyle, meeting market demand and balance that with a profit motive.”

Kile doesn’t think the two communities will be the last in his career.

“I may slow down the pace, but I don’t think these are my last big projects.”