Tempe-based Vistoso Partners, led by longtime developer Conley Wolfswinkel, recently paid $10 million for 650 acres just southeast of Flagstaff, which lies 130 miles north of Phoenix. The development, called Pine Canyon Club, is zoned for houses, townhomes and apartments. An 18-hole championship golf course is being designed by Jay Morrish.

Pine Canyon falls within Flagstaff's self-imposed growth boundary, which the city set to limit growth so its infrastructure could keep up. Flagstaff has become a summer weekend retreat and second-home haven for many Phoenix residents, offering cooler temperatures just two hours drive from the Valley.

When it's built out several years from now, the master-planned community could increase by more than 40% the population of the northern Arizona town, which currently has only 50,000 residents. More than 20,000 people could live in the project's 11,000 new homes.