BUCKEYE, Ariz.—Earth movers were grading the scraped desert in this city 40 miles west of Phoenix one day last month in preparation for construction of the first 1,100 homes in a master-planned community called Teravalis.
Developer Howard Hughes Corp. last year spent $600 million to buy 37,000 acres in a valley flanked by two mountain ranges.
It plans to build 100,000 homes over the next half-century, along with 55 million square feet of offices and other commercial real estate—the largest such project in state history, according to the developer.