Mike Ingram shows plans at El Dorado Holdings offices in Scottsdale. Photo by Kyle Norby
By Raquel Hendrickson | In Maricopa
Mike Ingram is not crazy or stupid.
That may be obvious to observers now, but 25 years ago, many of Arizona’s most knowledgeable movers and shakers thought he was nuts. Now the chairman of El Dorado Holdings, which he founded in 1992, Ingram became one of the most influential people forming the modern history of Maricopa.
After creating Rancho El Dorado and sister subdivisions The Villages and the Lakes, El Dorado Holdings still has about 8,000 acres in and around Maricopa set for residential and commercial development. It has thousands more acres in other communities it is also developing.
But Maricopa continues to be his baby. The work has been a combination of puzzle pieces and chess moves to find the right combination of partners and investors in what others thought was a hair-brained scheme.
