To look at the Mountain Shadows Resort today, nestled at the foothills of Camelback Mountain, an oasis beset by urban sprawl, the efforts it took to bring it into the modern age aren’t readily apparent.
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To look at the Mountain Shadows Resort today, nestled at the foothills of Camelback Mountain, an oasis beset by urban sprawl, the efforts it took to bring it into the modern age aren’t readily apparent, especially when the resort component once stood as a boarded-up eyesore for a decade in Paradise Valley.
By many accounts, it was once considered a “tired resort” located on 56th Street and Lincoln Drive.
But moving into 2025, as the resort reaches its build-out milestone, the protracted remodel process nearly 20 years ago reflects the efforts not only of town staff and council to protect the town’s finances, but residents’ desire to preserve the character of Paradise Valley.
Last month, the final residential unit was completed, and today the only parcel left to develop on the 68-acre Mountain Shadows property is a small vacant plot zoned for coffee shop/restaurant uses.
Cullum Homes has completed development of the final residential lot within Mountain Shadows. The unit is inside the gated resort community known as the Village at Mountain Shadows.
The builder held a private event to reveal the home Dec. 19. The home is now on the market with an asking price of about $5.5 million.
Cullum Homes founder Rod Cullum said the first of the 40 residential lots in the Village at Mountain Shadows community were put on the market in 2015.
The last unit, on a 12,000-square-foot lot is furnished with custom finishes and Camelback Mountain views, all crowned by a covered deck overlooking Mummy Mountain.
The nearly 5,000-square-foot, single-family, four-bedroom, four-and-a-half bathroom boasts a vaulted great room featuring a two-story fireplace, retractable glass walls leading to a primary suite with backyard views and a guest suite with private amenities.
The home is an example of modern custom homebuilding, Cullum said.
“It has been nine years coming, and we are thrilled to have it done,” he said.
The 10-acre Village at Mountain Shadows, on the eastern side of 56th Street at Lincoln Drive, was formerly occupied by the resort lobby and swimming pool. It is now one of the few places in Paradise Valley where houses are not built on 1-acre lots, which drew opposition from residents during the entitlement process to remodel the resort years ago.
But Realtor Scott Grigg said once the first floor plans, with their modern amenities, ranging from 3,000 to 7,000 square feet, were put on the market in 2013, there was immediate interest.
Grigg said for all 40 units, Cullum Homes used insulated concrete foundations, also known as Fox Block. He said it makes the homes incredibly quiet and energy efficient. Grigg added since the homes sit close together, Cullum wanted to make sure if a homeowner was entertaining, neighbors would not hear it.
Grigg also said Cullum Homes was the first builder in Arizona to create basements with an underground elevator that displayed owners’ cars as artwork.
“We named our model ‘the car bar,” Grigg said. “Cullum Homes was on the forefront of lock-and-leave communities back then, and now, 10 years later, we are on our final model.”
The Mountain Shadows Resort, which originally opened in 1959, is rich with a history of ups and downs that has made the town of Paradise Valley what it is today, but at one point could have been developed to far exceed the density of one home per acre that residents take pride in.
The property has long included a residential component as well as a golf course, but after decades of luxury hospitality, the resort component closed in 2004 and remained shuttered behind fences for another 10 years.
Former Town Councilmember Dan Schweiker said efforts to revitalize the resort came as early as 1998, his first year on the board. But then the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, hit, stalling those efforts.
However, a new effort to refresh the property began in 2007, launching a rocky path that included the Great Recession, a rezoning, a bankruptcy, contentious planning commission and council meetings, and finally a demolition in 2014, that eventually led to a rebuild from the ground up, with the new Mountain Shadows resort opening in 2017.
Two key components of the deal were the special-use permit and the development agreement. Schweiker recalls staff and some councilors meeting with the property owner Robert Flaxman and his representatives to go through the special-use permit sentence by sentence and revising it over many months.
Flaxman was CEO of Crown Realty and Development at the time of the entitlement process, and the developer of City North, as well as other large projects in the Phoenix area. He died at the age of 66 in 2022.
Going through the redevelopment with Flaxman, Schweiker said it was important to keep the property low density and get back to receiving bed taxes the resort could offer as an important revenue stream for the town, but it wasn’t easy.
Looking back, he said, it took several years, and it was the most difficult process he experienced during his 12 years on council. It ended with a deal that protected the town and its unique character.
“You could drive a semi-truck through the (special-use permit), and we had some battles. We won some and we lost some,” he said. “But the resorts are the fabric of the town, so we wanted to make sure what we ended up with was good for the town. ... Whether it is business or politics, a good deal is only good if it is good for both parties.”
Former Paradise Valley Mayor Vernon Parker lived in the residential community of Mountain Shadows East during the entitlement process. He said it was a great place to live because it included the resort amenities, such as room service and swimming pool use, not to mention the beautiful surroundings.
Mountain Shadows was still a spectacular property before the revitalization, but the resort was dated, Parker said.
During the entitlement process, Flaxman had plans to build as many as 584 units on the parcel that would come to be known as The Village at Mountain Shadows.
Parker said this totally went against the character of the town, and residents were upset about what they were planning to put there. He added most people didn’t realize the entitlements initially associated with the property put very few limits on what Flaxman could put there.
But the final deal kept the high rises out, substantively reduced the proposed density, and, in the end, preserved the integrity of the town, Parker said.
“They could have done anything with that property, but what we got fits well into the property,” Parker said. “I give kudos to the developer for working with us.”
Philip Haldiman can be reached at phaldiman@iniusa.org, or on X @philiphaldiman. We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.
Philip Haldiman
News Editor | Peoria
Philip Haldiman is a third generation Arizona native with brief residencies on the east and west coasts. He has bachelor’s degrees in Theater and Journalism at Arizona State University, and is an award winning journalist with more than 15 years worth of experience in reporting and editing. Most recently, he took first place for investigative reporting and third place for best sustained coverage or series at the 2023 Arizona Newspapers Association awards. In his free time, he produces an autobiographical comic book about his time spent in Hollywood and his life as a cult film star.
