‘With care and affection’: Sun Health groundbreaking celebrates Litchfield estate’s history

By Kelly O’Sullivan
Twitter: @AzNewsmedia

The long-awaited transformation of the historic Paul W. and Florence Brinton Litchfield estate and the expansion of Sun Health’s La Loma Campus are officially underway.

Sun Health conducted a virtual groundbreaking for Phase 1 of the expansion, The Orchard at Rancho La Loma, sharing video Feb. 18 of the event attended by a small group of the nonprofit company’s officials, board members and employees who have worked on campus projects for more than two decades.

The event also included the planting of an orange tree honoring the more than 100-year history of the property on the northwest corner of Litchfield and Camelback roads. For many years, the Litchfield family operated an orange grove on the estate.

To watch the full video of the groundbreaking, scroll to the end of this story.

“With care and affection, we will nurture and tend to this tree and The Orchard at La Loma, so both can grow and prosper in coming years,” Gerald S. Solomon, chairman of Sun Health Services board of directors, said.

The $28 million, 15.5-acre Orchard at Rancho La Loma neighborhood will feature 70 residences with three distinct dwelling styles.

Casita Estates will have two residences per property. Arboleda Terraces are new style for Sun Health Communities, and will have five one- or two-bedroom residences per building, with individual garages. Morada Villas will feature 16 one- and two-bedroom residences per building.

The first casita should be completed this summer, with two terraces and villas completed by the end of the year or in early in 2022, officials said. Phase 2 will include the second villa, remaining casitas and terraces, and a 17,000-square-foot community community center housing event space and a fine-dining restaurant.

Both will be open to the community at large in addition to those who live on the La Loma Campus.

Residents moving into the community will receive the promise of life care, which guarantees that as their health and financial situations change, they will always have a home within the Sun Health Community, officials said. They also will receive an array of amenities and priority access to services.

Through March 31, potential residents who want to reserve their residence and receive the lowest pricing available may join The Orchard’s Founders Club with an obligation-free, fully refundable $1,000 deposit, officials said. Sales will open to the public in early April.

For more information, call 623-537-7555 or visit rancholaloma.org.

“Some day” arrives

“I’ve been looking forward to this day for many years. Twenty years to be exact,” Sun Health Communities Chief Executive Officer Joe La Rue told a small group assembled for the groundbreaking as heavy equipment operators worked behind him.

“When we initially designed La Loma Village, we knew that some day we’d have to undertake a major significant expansion. Back then, we also knew that it would be many years before it would be right for such an expansion. The growth of the Valley, in particular the Southwest Valley, was not ready for our development. I’m happy to say in 2021, the Southwest Valley is ready.”

READ: Sun Health to build new residences, event center on La Loma Campus

In addition to the Denny family, Mr. La Rue thanked the city of Litchfield Park, the board of directors and many others associated with the project.

History of the property

Mr. Litchfield was a young Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. executive based in Akron, Ohio, when he was sent to the Southwest Valley in 1916 to find land the company needed to grow cotton for the automobile and truck tires it manufactured for use in World War I.

“At that time, the cotton supply had been interrupted by a boll weevil epidemic in Egypt and World War I,” Sun Health Chief Financial Officer Sharon Grambow said. Mr. Litchfield ultimately bought 16,000 acres in the area for Goodyear Tire and Rubber’s Southwest Cotton Co. farming operation.

In 1919, he bought 365 acres north of the farming operation, including the hill that inspired the estate’s name, Rancho La Loma. That Christmas, he brought his wife and daughters, Katherine and Edith, from Akron to what would become the family’s winter residence.

“Following the war, Mr. Litchfield continued to support business and agriculture here in the Southwest Valley, and made this 300-acre homestead an orchard and named it Rancho La Loma. In 1999, Mr. Litchfield’s daughter, Edith Litchfield Denny and her husband, Wally Denny, donated this land to Sun Health in the hopes that it would continue to support the well-being of the community and the residents of LP and the surrounding area,” Ms. Grambow said.

Mr. La Rue recognized Sun Health board member Rae McMillan and retired senior vice president and general manager Gary Turner, for their early roles in the project.

“When the Dennys ... were thinking about what to do with this property and how it was going to be used to serve the community ... Rae knew that it would be a perfect match” for Sun Health, he said. “For more than 50 years, Sun Health has empowered people to live longer, happier, healthier and more purposeful lives. Sun Health’s mission is to champion health and well-being through philanthropy, inspired living and wellness. We live, we give, we thrive. Thank you, Rae.”

Mr. Turner oversaw the company’s acceptance of the land, worked with the city on the planning of La Loma Village, and oversaw its development and construction, Mr. La Rue said.

“I’m happy to say today that Gary is a resident of La Loma Village and I know that he will be overlooking every aspect of this new expansion development on The Orchard,” he said.

The intersection of history

“While today is the groundbreaking, there is much more to come; more living, more working, more playing right here at Rancho La Loma. We’re at the intersection of history, innovation and vibrancy. Sun Health will develop a vibrant and inclusive model for intergenerational living right here at La Loma,” Mr. La Rue said. “We have lots to do to honor the dream and the legacy of the Dennys. The Dennys promised to develop Rancho La Loma and serve the residents of the Southwest Valley, a promise that many of us here today made to the Dennys and a promise that Sun Health intends to keep.”

Mayor Thomas L. Schoaf called the property “a very, very important piece of the history of Litchfield Park.”

“Rancho La Loma was very important to Paul Litchfield and it was very important, and it still is important to his family. We were very blessed as a city to be given 25 acres of Rancho La Loma with the original homestead, and the city is working to revitalize that area with various partners, including our historical society and others, including Sun Health,” he said.

The Litchfield Park Historical Society raising $3.5 million to turn the family’s 5,400-square-foot home into the 11,000-square-foot Paul W. Litchfield Heritage Center. When complete, it will house the society’s museum showcasing the history of Litchfield Park, Avondale, Goodyear and Tolleson, as well an archive, research library, gift shop and gathering spots for community events.

READ: Paul W. Litchfield estate poised for transformation into heritage center

The mayor said Sun Health’s challenge has been to honor the estate’s and the city’s history while creating a development that is successful and sustainable.

“They’ve done a great job in coming up with a concept that will fill all of those goals. It honors the history and the past of this property. It takes into account the special needs that the city of Litchfield Park has for what is built on this property, and it’s designed in such a way that it will be successful going forward and it will provide a very unique and sustainable lifestyle for the residents of the future,” he said.

After a dedication and prayer by the Rev. Alrick Headley, La Loma chaplain, several attendees took turns turning the soil with gold shovels and covering the orange tree’s roots.

Afterward, Paul Vanderveen, Sun Health vice president of real estate planning and development, talked about how developing the property is expected to make Litchfield Park a unique West Valley designation by celebrating history.

“What this groundbreaking represents here is just a continuation of Paul Litchfield and what he did on the hilltop as a homestead, and his vision and his daughter Edith’s vision for Sun Health,” he said. “There’s a lot of growth going on in the West Valley, but Litchfield can’t grow very much more than Sun Health and their downtown. With good partnerships, they’ve let us move forward on this project and it’s really just the start of many more projects on this 300 acres.”

One project is a 5- to 8-acre working farm that will not only grow food for use by Sun Health and for sale to the public, it will be used for education.

“Paul Litchfield was big in the farming community out in the West Valley and we’re going to continue that tradition on our commercial corner and our agritourism with the farm. Litchfield Park has the historic Wigwam, the city’s working on the historic downtown,” Mr. Vanderveen said. “This is the historic hilltop of Paul Litchfield, where the heartbeat of the West Valley was born. So by doing the farm and doing the agritourism, building an intergenerational model for living, we’re really becoming the destination in the West Valley that no other place has.”

Kelly O’Sullivan can be reached at kosullivan@newszap.com or 760-963-1697.