Jim Rhodes (born 1958) is an American real estate developer, mine operator and commercial farmer. He founded Rhodes Homes in 1985 and has developed various housing projects in the Las Vegas Valley, including the golf course communities Rhodes Ranch and Tuscany Village. In the 2000s, he was a well-known philanthropist in Las Vegas. In 2008, he formed Harmony Homes and began buying distressed properties during the Great Recession. Not including Harmony Homes, Rhodes filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on behalf of many of his companies in 2009 and turned over most of his residential projects to creditors.
Rhodes is considered one of Las Vegas' most successful and controversial developers. He earned $2.4 billion in revenue by 2009. In addition, several of his housing projects received opposition from nearby residents. Among the opposed projects is a series of controversial efforts to develop a residential community at Blue Diamond Hill, located west of Las Vegas near Red Rock Canyon.
In 2005, he proposed five residential communities in Arizona, mostly near the city of Kingman. The communities would add 131,000 new homes, but residents and government officials were concerned about the amount of water that these projects would require upon completion. The projects never materialized, and Rhodes subsequently used some of the property as farmland beginning in 2013, when he formed Kingman Farms and developed an interest in agriculture. However, locals were still concerned about his use of water for the farming operations. As of 2017, Rhodes had built approximately 11,000 homes in the Las Vegas Valley as developer, and 25,000 to 30,000 homes working as a contractor.
Early life Jim Rhodes was born in 1958, to Dr. Leonard Rhodes, a dentist, and Betsy Rhodes. He grew up in Las Vegas and attended Clark High School. Inspired by his father's friends in real estate, Rhodes developed an early interest in wealth and business. He later said, "My dream was to buy a Rolls-Royce or a Bentley or something, just to have it. Not that I wanted to drive it — just that I was able to do it." During his youth, he worked various jobs, including mowing lawns and also worked at the Las Vegas Country Club, where he washed towels and tennis courts. He spent four years saving money to buy a Chevrolet Corvette.
Career By the age of 21, Rhodes began framing houses in Las Vegas, and started a subcontracting firm. He had a crew of approximately 100 people and earned up to $100,000 a year.
In 1984, Rhodes became a contractor and started building his own houses.
He founded Rhodes Homes in 1985, and served as its president. He also held the position of chief executive officer for 21 years. Rhodes Companies was founded in 1988.
In 1990, Jim Rhodes started buying land for Spanish Hills, and by 1991 he started assembling land for Spanish Hills community in the southwest valley where only custom homes are built. Other residential communities followed thereafter. In the mid-1990s, Rhodes Homes built Palm Gardens and Elkhorn Springs, located respectively in the southeast and northwest Las Vegas Valley. Two other projects, Palm Canyon and Palm Hills, were built at the base of Black Mountain in Henderson, Nevada.
In 1996, he proposed a residential project known as Rhodes Ranch in the southwest Las Vegas Valley. The project proceeded despite opposition from residents in what was then a rural area. Rhodes Ranch opened in 1997. It includes a golf course designed by Ted Robinson. Rhodes Ranch is considered to be Rhodes' signature project.
Another prominent project is Henderson's Tuscany Village, originally proposed by Rhodes in the 1990s as Palm City. The site for Palm City was located near sewage ponds and a longtime manufacturer of chemicals which had contaminated the land. Ground water was also found to have higher than normal radioactive levels, but Rhodes Design and Development Corporation planned to proceed with the project. Local officials did not declare a health concern. A environmental scientist with the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection said, "We have no concerns about the ground water from a public health standpoint." Nearby residents were concerned about the presence of chemicals, as well as the size of Palm City and the increased traffic that the project would bring to the area. After Rhodes' lender became insolvent, he sold the undeveloped land in 2000, and it was renamed Tuscany. However, he later took back control of the project. Tuscany opened in the mid-2000s and includes a golf course designed by Robinson.
Since 2003, Rhodes has been involved in several controversial efforts to develop a residential community at Blue Diamond Hill, located west of Las Vegas near Red Rock Canyon. These efforts have been opposed by nearby residents and environmentalists, and have been mired in litigation against government entities. Rhodes, through his company Gypsum Resources, initially planned for up to 5,500 homes on his 2,400 acres atop Blue Diamond Hill. In 2003, a bill was signed into state law preventing Rhodes from developing the property, prompting him to sue. The Supreme Court of Nevada eventually ruled the law as unconstitutional. Several modified proposals were made by Rhodes in the 2010s, though none materialized. In the meantime, he has operated a gypsum mine known as the Blue Diamond Mine, selling approximately 1 million tons of gypsum each year.
In 2011, Clark County approved a housing concept plan by Gypsum Resources while placing conditions on their approval, which included obtaining a right of way from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to build an access road to the property. For years, Gypsum pursued a waiver of the right of way condition. In April 2019, newly elected Clark County Commissioner Justin Jones motioned to deny Gypsum's BLM waiver request. The commission voted unanimously to deny the request, thereby indefinitely stalling the development. Gypsum Resources declared bankruptcy in 2019, but has planned to continue in its housing development efforts. Rhodes' lawyers had long accused Jones of misconduct related to his 2019 vote. Rhodes filed a lawsuit against the county and its commissioners that year, and it was later discovered that Jones had deleted text messages related to his 2019 vote. A United States magistrate judge ruled that Jones lied to the court about destroying evidence and sanctioned him. Jones was also ordered to pay Rhodes' attorney fees.
Outside Nevada In April 2004, Rhodes began to consider the idea of residential development in Arizona. Later that year, he purchased 2,500 acres in Mohave County, Arizona. In 2005, he announced his plans to develop residential projects in Golden Valley and White Hills, both in Mohave County near the city of Kingman. In Golden Valley, Rhodes had acquired 5,760 acres for development, and the project there would include a golf course and a recreation center. Rhodes also planned to open a Golden Valley Park with two baseball fields. More than 3,000 acres had been purchased for the White Hills project. Both sites were considered desirable because of their location between Las Vegas and Phoenix. The completion of the Hoover Dam Bypass project was also viewed favorably, as it would cut down on the amount of travel time between Las Vegas and the proposed communities.
During 2005, Rhodes built 69 homes in Kingman to test the local market. The homes sold out in seven hours. Later in the year, Rhodes Homes announced plans for five master-planned communities in Arizona, containing 131,000 houses spread across more than 20,000 acres. The projects were planned as bedroom communities to Las Vegas. The Mohave County Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval of four of the projects, which initially received little opposition from the public. Rhodes formed a water company to serve residents of the future communities.
Among the projects was Golden Valley Ranch, which would have more than 33,000 homes; and The Village at White Hills, with approximately 20,000 homes. Golden Valley Ranch would have similarities to Rhodes Ranch, such as a golf course designed by Robinson. Two other approved projects, Peacock Highlands and Peacock Vistas, would be located northeast of Kingman, near the Peacock Mountains. They would contain a total of 59,000 homes on more than 9,200 acres. Despite some opposition from locals, the Mohave County Board of Supervisors granted preliminary approval in late 2005 for four of the communities. The fifth, known as the Retreat at Temple Bar, was rejected. It was to include 19,000 homes on approximately 3,000 acres. The National Park Service opposed the project, which would have been located within the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. In addition, residents in Boulder City, Nevada were concerned about the amount of traffic that would travel through their city, located in between the proposed Arizona communities and Las Vegas.
In 2006, Rhodes prevailed in a bidding war to purchase approximately 57,000 acres of New Mexico land from Westland Development Company. The property, mostly vacant, was located west of Albuquerque. Rhodes was to purchase the land through one of his companies, Sedora Holdings. However, another company ultimately outbid Sedora. At the end of 2006, Rhodes paid $58.6 million to purchase more than 1,000 acres of state trust land in Apache Junction, Arizona, where he planned another residential community, separate from the other five. Rhodes also had the rights to master-plan another 6,700 acres of surrounding land in Apache Junction.
The Golden Valley project later became known as Pravada. Construction was temporarily suspended in April 2007, because of approval issues concerning land use, zoning, and water availability. Only four model homes had been built, and construction was expected to resume once approval had been granted. Some local residents welcomed the Pravada project, while others were against it and the growth it would bring to the area. Residents and government officials were also concerned about the large amount of water that Pravada would require. Rhodes sought approval to operate his water company in Mojave County for his residential projects. The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) debated for years whether to approve Rhodes, as there were concerns about his past legal problems, as well as a lack of water in the area. Rhodes testified to the commission in April 2007 that he was usually the victim in past legal disputes, blaming employees or immoral lawyers and business partners.
The ACC considered Rhodes' plans a top priority and one of the most important cases in its history. The Arizona Department of Water Resources conducted a preliminary study which indicated that there was not enough water in the area to support the various residential projects. Rhodes and the Mohave County manager later worked together to put pressure on the ACC to get approval for the water company. This caused concern about Rhodes receiving favorable treatment from county staff. Rhodes had also donated to congressional members of Arizona. In a separate case, the Arizona Department of Water Resources granted an application to another Las Vegas developer, Leonard Mardian, for water rights in Mohave County. Mardian's application had been filed after Rhodes had already requested the water rights, but Mardian's was approved first as it was considered a complete application. This reduced the amount of water that Rhodes would be eligible to take. Rhodes sued the water department, stating that his application should have been approved first.