Palm Desert, California
Who owns Palm Desert: a Coachella Valley resort city whose roll is mostly houses, condos and golf; the largest parcels are the JW Marriott Desert Springs (Kam Sang Co.), the regional mall (Pacific Retail Capital Partners) and Simon's Gardens on El Paseo, and the City, the water district and two university systems hold its open land.
10 buildings · 9 with an owner established · 27 sources · 5 tier A · 5 tier B · prepared 2026-10-31
California has no public title register: ownership is proved by deeds recorded with the County Recorder, and the County Assessor keeps the roll. In Riverside County both sit with the Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder, whose website's robots.txt excludes AI agents, so its fees and data products were not read. The County publishes its parcel map as open data with land and improvement values, use class and tax rate area, but no owner name and no sale price.
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The marquee buildings
The towers that set the tone of the core, and who holds them. A price is the price a document states, on the date it states — not an estimate of what the building is worth now.
| Building | Use | Owner | Owner type | Last price paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Shops at Palm Desert (former Westfield Palm Desert / Palm Desert Town Center) 72-840 Highway 111 980,041 sq ft |
Retail | Pacific Retail Capital Partners REBusinessOnline (1 Dec 2023) reports that PRCP 'has purchased The Shops at Palm Desert, a nearly 1 million-square-foot enclosed shopping mall', terms not released, built 1982 and renovated 2013. PRCP's own news page (30 Nov 2023) reprints a report that 'A real estate investment company has purchased Palm Desert's 41-year-old mall', that the former owner Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield had been selling its malls nationwide to pay down debt, and that PRCP plans a master plan for 'the 72-acre property' with housing, green space and entertainment. |
Private company | —A |
| JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa 74-855 Country Club Drive 884 rooms; 286 acres |
Hotel | Kam Sang Co. Host Hotels & Resorts 2017 10-K: January 2017 disposition of the JW Marriott Desert Springs, sales price $172M (net proceeds $160M, $14M gain). REBusinessOnline (19 Jan 2022): Kam Sang Co. obtained a $128M five-year, fixed-rate, interest-only loan from Goldman Sachs Bank USA for the 884-key, 286-acre resort, after a $40M renovation in early 2020. The hotel parcel (34.67 acres) is the city’s highest-valued at $175.1M on the County layer; its golf parcels add $17.3M over 111.7 acres. Owner named from the lender report; the 10-K does not name the buyer. |
Private company | $172M 2017-01 Sales price in Host Hotels & Resorts' 2017 10-K ($160M net proceeds); the 10-K does not name the buyer. B |
| The Gardens on El Paseo El Paseo 235,131 sq ft |
Retail | Simon Property Group 100.0% (legal interest, fee) Simon Property Group's Form 10-K for 2025 (property table) lists 'Gardens on El Paseo, The - CA - Palm Desert - Fee - 100.0% - Acquired 2020 - 93.8% [occupancy] - 235,131 [sq ft] - Saks Fifth Avenue'. Simon came into the property through its 2020 acquisition of an interest in The Taubman Realty Group; the 10-K's 100.0% is the legal ownership percentage as the table reports it. El Paseo is the city's luxury shopping street: the County layer has 269 El Paseo parcels on 75.2 acres carrying $523.1M. |
REIT | —A |
| Millennium Apartments 74699 Technology Drive 330 apartments |
Residential | Metonic Real Estate Solutions REBusinessOnline (20 Mar 2025): 'Omaha, Neb.-based Metonic Real Estate Solutions, as owner, and Irvine, Calif.-based Western National Property Management (WNPM), as property manager, have opened Millennium Apartments at 74699 Technology Drive in Palm Desert' - 330 studio to three-bedroom units with direct-access garages. On the County's open parcel layer APN 694190087 (74699 Technology, class 'Apartment Over 100 Units', 14.97 acres) carries $106.9M, the third-highest parcel value in the city and the highest for housing. |
Private company | —A |
| One El Paseo Plaza 74199 El Paseo Drive; 74225 and 74245 Highway 111 86,835 rentable sq ft; 5 acres |
Mixed use | Bucksbaum Properties REBusinessOnline (26 Mar 2026): 'Bucksbaum Properties has acquired One El Paseo Plaza, a mixed-use office and restaurant property in Palm Desert'; two two-story office buildings and an adjacent restaurant pavilion, 'originally Palm Desert's first commercial building', on 5 acres. |
Private company | —A |
| Desert Willow Golf Resort Desert Willow Drive |
Land | City of Palm Desert Wikipedia: 'Desert Willow Golf Resort is the City Of Palm Desert's municipal golf course, and has two championship courses: Mountain View and Firecliff. It is associated with the Westin Desert Willow Resort at the golf course location.' The City's own pages (palmdesert.gov) could not be read (Akamai 403), so acreage and any operator agreement are not stated here. |
Government | —B |
| College of the Desert (main campus) 43-500 Monterey Avenue 160 acres |
Institutional | Desert Community College District College of the Desert's own history page: in 1958 voters approved formation of a college district in the Coachella Valley; in 1961 'contracts were let for the construction of nine buildings on 160 acres at Monterey Avenue and Avenue 44 (now Fred Waring Drive) in Palm Desert'; in 1988 'The Board of Trustees changed the name of the Coachella Valley Community College District to Desert Community College District'; voters authorised bonds in March 2004 to renovate and expand the campus. The district also bought the Palm Springs Mall in April 2018 for its Palm Springs campus. Census Geocoder places 43500 Monterey Ave inside Palm Desert city. |
Government | —A |
| McCallum Theatre 73000 Fred Waring Drive 1,127 seats |
Institutional | Not established the source would not open College of the Desert's history page: 'COD's agreement permitting the McCallum Theatre to build on the college campus on the corner of Monterey Avenue and Fred Waring Drive came to fruition' when the theatre opened (listed under 1984). Wikipedia: 1,127 seats, opened January 1988, 'built by and is operated by an independent non-profit corporation, Friends of the Cultural Center, Inc.' The land is college campus; whether the building is held by the district or the non-profit under that agreement is not stated in anything read, and the Assessor's site is closed to this research, so the owner is left blank. |
Not established | —B |
| CSUSB Palm Desert Campus 37500 Cook Street 169 acres |
Institutional | California State University (Board of Trustees) Wikipedia (Palm Desert article): 'California State University, San Bernardino first opened its Palm Desert campus in 1986, followed by its own stand-alone 169-acre (68 ha) campus located on Cook Street in 2002.' CSU campuses are held by the Trustees of the California State University; the CSU's own property records were not read, so the holding entity is tier B. Census Geocoder places 37500 Cook St inside Palm Desert city. |
Government | —B |
| Palm Desert Civic Center (City Hall) 73510 Fred Waring Drive |
Civic | City of Palm Desert Palm Desert's City Hall; Wikipedia lists Civic Center Park among the City's 14 parks and gives the city's elevation 'at City Hall'. Census Geocoder places 73510 Fred Waring Dr inside Palm Desert city. The City's ACFR capital-asset notes, which would state the holding, sit on palmdesert.gov, which returned an Akamai 403 even for robots.txt, so this rests on the building's function rather than a roll entry. |
Government | —B |
The core land
The most valuable ground in the city, and what the public record says about it.
Palm Desert's roll is a resort and retirement roll: houses, condominiums, manufactured homes and golf courses carry most of the value, and the largest single parcels are a resort hotel, the regional mall and a new apartment complex. The County's open parcel layer gives values but no owner names, and the City's own documents (ACFR, taxpayer tables) sit on palmdesert.gov, which refused all requests, so no free document read names the largest taxpayers. Figures below are parcels in Palm Desert's tax rate areas (prefix 018) on the County PARCELS_CREST layer, read 31 Oct-1 Nov 2026; values are land plus structures before exemptions, and the layer's as-of date is not stated.
Who owns the town
At this scale the significant owner is rarely a trust or a fund: it is one or two local holding companies, a family in its second or third generation, and often the land around the town rather than the buildings in it.
Public bodies hold Palm Desert's large undeveloped blocks. The County's open layer names no owners, so a holder is identified only where its parcels mail to a published public address: the City (City Hall), the Coachella Valley Water District, the two university systems and Desert Sands Unified. Counts are tax-exempt parcels (no tax rate area, $0 value) whose centroid lies inside the County's city polygon, read 1 Nov 2026. Those total 2,995 parcels and 5,979 acres, over half of it homeowner-association common area and club golf land. No single-family-rental company appears: outside the builders, no mailing address holds more than 11 houses or condos in the city.
| Name | Type | Exempt parcels by owner mailing address, County roll layer, Nov 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| City of Palm Desert (and agencies mailing to City Hall) Every parcel mails to 73-510 Fred Waring Dr, the City Hall address on the County's PUBLIC_SITES layer (s17). Largest: a 179.0-acre parcel classed vacant commercial (APN 620400019), 86.1 and 58.2 acres of hillside south of Hwy 111, an 81.5-acre parcel by the CSUSB campus, and the 58.65-acre Civic Center block at 43880 San Pablo Ave ('Government Property'). 65 are housing-class parcels (35 houses; 4 'Apartment Over 100 Units', e.g. 72600 Fred Waring Dr, 15.9 acres) - City-held housing; the layer does not separate the City from agencies that share its address. Desert Willow's courses are not split out. |
Government | 354 parcels, 1,393 acresB |
| Coachella Valley Water District All mail to P O Box 1058, Coachella. They include the 77.84-acre parcel at 75519 E Hovley Ln classed 'Water District Improvement', next to the CVWD headquarters Wikipedia places at 75-515 Hovley Lane East (s21), plus well and reservoir sites, stormwater channel land and a 14.07-acre 'Government Property' parcel at 47900 Portola Ave. Roll is s1. |
Government | 190 parcels, 429 acresB |
| California State University (Trustees; CSU San Bernardino Palm Desert Campus) Two parcels (108.94 and 3.89 acres) mail to 401 Golden Shore, Long Beach - the street of the CSU Chancellor's Office (s23) - and one (55.32 acres) to 5500 University Pkwy, San Bernardino, the CSUSB address. Together they match Wikipedia's 169-acre Cook Street campus (marquee). The layer still classes them as vacant land. |
Government | 3 parcels, 168.2 acresB |
| Desert Sands Unified School District Mail to 47-950 Dune Palms Road, La Quinta, the district's address (s22), including the 26.34-acre school at 74101 Magnesia Falls Dr and a secondary-school parcel. Palm Desert schools are spread across Desert Sands and Palm Springs Unified; only 3 parcels (21.9 acres) mail to Palm Springs addresses that may be PSUSD's, which was not checked, so it is not listed. |
Government | 8 parcels, 97.7 acresB |
| University of California (Regents) Two vacant parcels by the CSUSB campus (10.82 and 8.51 acres) and a 41.34-acre golf-course parcel mail to 1111 Franklin St, Oakland. Wikipedia places the UC Office of the President in a downtown Oakland office building but gives no street address in what was read, so this attribution is tier C. |
Government | 3 parcels, 60.7 acresC |
| Marriott Vacations Worldwide / Marriott (1 Marriott Dr address) Mail to 1 Marriott Dr, Washington DC: timeshare-estate and common parcels around Desert Springs and Shadow Ridge. Which Marriott entity holds them is not stated on the layer. |
Public company | 28 exempt common-area and timeshare parcels, 50.9 acresC |
Who builds the houses
New-home building in this market: the volume, and the firms behind it. Ownership of a builder matters as much as its volume — a private-equity platform and a family firm behave differently.
Palm Desert permits few homes. Census place files: 2023, 185 single-family ($68.2M) and 678 units in 37 buildings of 5+ ($127.5M); 2024, 106 single-family ($49.6M) and no multifamily; 2025, 249 single-family ($101.2M) and 64 units in 2 buildings of 5+ ($17.4M); January-August 2026, 55 single-family ($25.2M). All 12 months reported in each full year (s27). New building is concentrated north of Frank Sinatra Dr near the CSUSB campus (University Park). Builder holdings are lots and unsold homes grouped by the owner mailing address on the County layer; the layer names no owners, so a builder is named only where a source ties it to the community or the address.
| Name | Type | Parcels by owner mailing address, Palm Desert tax rate areas, Nov 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Toll Brothers Toll Brothers' newsroom: grand opening of Stella at University Park (7 Nov 2024), 'final opportunity' at University Park (10 Jun 2026), Hidden Vista coming soon (22 Jun 2026). The newsroom gives no lot counts, and which roll mailing group is Toll's is not established. |
Public company | University Park: Alara and Stella collections; Hidden Vista announcedA |
| PulteGroup (Southern California division) All in tracts 38434-1 and 38434-2 (Golden Sun Dr, Serenity Ridge Dr, Willow Creek Dr), mailing to 27401 Los Altos Ste 400, Mission Viejo. A chamber directory snippet lists PulteGroup - Southern California at 27401 Los Altos (s26), so the attribution is tier C. Roll is s1. |
Public company | 252 parcels (199 lots, 52 houses), 34.4 acresC |
| Builder at 350 Commerce Ste 200, Irvine (not identified) Tracts 37506-2 (University Park, e.g. Warren Dr, Radcliffe Dr) and 38866 (Shadow Ridge Rd). The occupant of that address was not established in anything read. |
Developer | 207 parcels (180 lots), 35.7 acres, $41.9MA |
| Builder at 5 Peters Canyon Rd Ste 310, Irvine (not identified) All in tract 37506-3 (University Park: Cameron Pl, Cromwell Ln, Cline Pkwy). Directory listings put Tri Pointe Homes in the same building at Suite 100, not 310, so no builder is named. |
Developer | 141 parcels (92 lots, 49 houses), 21.0 acresA |
| Other tract holders Tract 37639 (Surf Dr / Wave Dr: 33 lots plus two 'Other Amusement' parcels) mails to San Diego; tract 37506-1 to Danville, CA; tract 36351 (Perugino Ter, Warhol Ln) to Corona, CA. Holders not identified. |
Developer | 39 / 37 / 26 parcelsA |
Commercial landlords
The commercial side, counted separately from housing: who holds the office, retail and industrial floor area.
Palm Desert's commercial landlords are its malls, El Paseo and Highway 111 strip centres, its resorts and senior housing. With no owner names on the open layer, landlords are named here only where a filing or the marquee reporting already names them and the roll's owner-mailing address agrees. Values are County layer land plus structures, Nov 2026 (s1).
| Name | Type | Roll value / parcels, owner mailing address matched |
|---|---|---|
| Kam Sang Co. The JW Marriott Desert Springs hotel parcel ($175.1M) and two small resort parcels all mail to one Arcadia, CA office. REBusinessOnline names Kam Sang Co. as owner when it took a $128M loan in 2022 (s6). See marquee. |
Private company | 3 parcels, $176.8M, 43.7 acresB |
| Simon Property Group 73515, 73405 and 73555 El Paseo (regional shopping centre and department-store classes) mail to a P O Box in Indianapolis, Simon's home city (s25). Simon's 10-K lists The Gardens on El Paseo, 235,131 sq ft, fee, 100% (s7). |
REIT | 4 parcels, $130.4M, 12.9 acresB |
| Pacific Retail Capital Partners (The Shops at Palm Desert) The mall parcel at 72840 Hwy 111 ($154.6M) and its pads mail to one Carlsbad, CA P O box; one of the five is at 82001 Hwy 111, outside the mall. PRCP is named as buyer in December 2023 reporting (s13); the mailing box is not tied to PRCP in anything read. |
Private company | 5 parcels, $176.2M, 29.6 acresB |
| Welltower Inc. 39905 Via Scena St ($53.3M), 41505 Carlotta Dr ($49.1M) and 74350 Country Club Dr ($14.2M), all classed 'CT-Assisted Living', mail to 4500 Dorr St, Toledo - Welltower's business address in EDGAR (s25). Welltower's 10-K main text does not name Palm Desert, so the holding rests on the address match. |
REIT | 3 assisted-living parcels, $116.7M, 32.6 acresB |
| Metonic Real Estate Solutions Millennium Apartments, 74699 Technology Dr; the parcel mails to Omaha, where REBusinessOnline places Metonic (s14). |
Private company | 1 parcel, $106.9MA |
| Lowe's Companies Mails to 1000 Lowes Blvd, Mooresville NC, Lowe's address in EDGAR (s25). |
Public company | 1 parcel, $24.6M, 19.1 acresB |
| Bucksbaum Properties Bought March 2026, price not released (s15); see marquee. |
Private company | One El Paseo Plaza, 86,835 sq ftA |
| Investment Concepts REBusinessOnline (17 May 2024): CBRE negotiated the $14M sale of the 63-unit Ariana at El Paseo, 45278 Deep Canyon Road, to Investment Concepts. |
Private company | Ariana at El Paseo, 63 units, $14M (2024)A |
| Equity LifeStyle Properties ELS's 2025 10-K lists a 'Palm Springs' RV property in Palm Desert, 35 acres and 401 sites, acquired 2004, gross $11.481M in Schedule III (s18). Whether it lies inside the city limits was not checked. |
REIT | 401 RV sites, 35 acresA |
Sources
- Riverside County Assessor open-data parcel layer PARCELS_CREST (OpenData/Assessor MapServer/50): APN, situs, class code, acreage, tax rate area, LAND and STRUCTURES values; no owner-name field — Riverside County Assessor / RCIT · openA
- Riverside County Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder website - robots.txt disallows anthropic-ai, ClaudeBot and Claude-Web from the whole site; not read — Riverside County Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder · blockedA
- Palm Desert mall sold to company that plans to bring housing, other mixed-uses to site (30 Nov 2023) — Pacific Retail Capital Partners (news page) · openA
- The Shops at Palm Desert - infobox: 72-840 California 111, opened Oct 1982, owner and management Pacific Retail Capital Partners, 980,041 sq ft; 2015 sale of 47.4% to O'Connor Capital Partners — Wikipedia · openB
- Host Hotels & Resorts Form 10-K 2017: January 2017 disposition of JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa, sales price $172M, net proceeds $160M, gain $14M — SEC EDGAR · openA
- Kam Sang Co. Receives $128M in Financing for JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa in Palm Desert (19 Jan 2022) — REBusinessOnline (France Media) · openA
- Simon Property Group Form 10-K 2025, Item 2 property table: Gardens on El Paseo, The - Palm Desert - Fee - 100.0% - Acquired 2020 - 235,131 sq ft — SEC EDGAR · openA
- Palm Desert, California - history (Palm Desert Corporation, 1945), parks list, Desert Willow as the City's municipal golf course, CSUSB 169-acre Palm Desert campus (2002), principal employers table — Wikipedia · openB
- College of the Desert - public community college, est. 1958, 160-acre campus, Palm Desert — Wikipedia · openB
- McCallum Theatre - 73000 Fred Waring Drive; 1,127 seats; on the southern edge of the College of the Desert campus; built and operated by Friends of the Cultural Center, Inc. — Wikipedia · openB
- Census Geocoder (Incorporated Places / CDP layers): 72840 Hwy 111, 77777 Country Club Dr, 73510 Fred Waring Dr, 37500 Cook St, 43500 Monterey Ave inside Palm Desert city; 78206 Varner Rd in Desert Palms CDP (unincorporated) — U.S. Census Bureau · openA
- College of the Desert - History: 160 acres at Monterey Ave and Fred Waring Dr (1961); McCallum Theatre agreement; 1988 renaming to Desert Community College District; 2004 bond; 2018 purchase of the Palm Springs Mall — College of the Desert (Desert Community College District) · openA
- PRCP Acquires Shops at Palm Desert in California, Plans Mixed-Use Mall Redevelopment (1 Dec 2023) — REBusinessOnline (France Media) · openA
- Metonic Real Estate Solutions, WNPM Open 330-Unit Millennium Apartments in Palm Desert, California (20 Mar 2025) — REBusinessOnline (France Media) · openA
- Bucksbaum Properties Buys One El Paseo Plaza Mixed-Use Complex in Palm Desert, California (26 Mar 2026) — REBusinessOnline (France Media) · openA
- CBRE Negotiates $14M Sale of Ariana at El Paseo Multifamily Community in Palm Desert, California (17 May 2024): Investment Concepts buyer, 63 units, 45278 Deep Canyon Road — REBusinessOnline (France Media) · openA
- Riverside County open data - General MapServer: CITIES (Palm Desert polygon, 751.3M sq ft), PARKS (park name, jurisdiction, acreage), PUBLIC_SITES (Palm Desert City Hall 73-510 Fred Waring Dr), SCHOOL_DISTRICTS - spatial queries against the city polygon — Riverside County / RCIT · openA
- Equity LifeStyle Properties Form 10-K 2025: 'Palm Springs' RV property, Palm Desert, CA - 35 acres, 401 sites; Schedule III gross $11.481M, acquired 2004 — SEC EDGAR · openA
- Building Permits Survey, place-level annual files (West Region): Palm Desert (FIPS place 55184), 2023, 2024, 2025 and Jan-Aug 2026 — U.S. Census Bureau · openA
- Toll Brothers newsroom: Stella at University Park grand opening (7 Nov 2024); University Park 'final opportunity' (10 Jun 2026); Hidden Vista coming soon (22 Jun 2026) — Toll Brothers, Inc. · openA
- Coachella Valley Water District: 'CVWD's administrative headquarters is located at 75-515 Hovley Lane East in the heart of Palm Desert' — Wikipedia · openB
- Desert Sands Unified School District - infobox address 47-950 Dune Palms Road, La Quinta; serves Palm Desert among other cities — Wikipedia · openB
- California State University - Office of the Chancellor on Golden Shore, Long Beach; CSU San Bernardino's Palm Desert campus listed among off-campus branches — Wikipedia · openB
- University of California Office of the President - the Office of the President and the Regents' secretariat share an office building in downtown Oakland — Wikipedia · openC
- EDGAR company submissions: Welltower Inc. business and mailing address 4500 Dorr Street, Toledo OH 43615; Lowe's Companies 1000 Lowes Blvd, Mooresville NC; Simon Property Group 225 West Washington Street, Indianapolis — SEC EDGAR · openA
- Lake Elsinore Valley Chamber directory listing 'PulteGroup - Southern California', 27401 Los Altos, Mission Viejo (search-result snippet only; page not opened) — Lake Elsinore Valley Chamber of Commerce · openC
- Census Building Permits Survey place files for Palm Desert (FIPS 55184): 2023 (we2312y), 2024 (we2412y), 2025 (we2512y), Jan-Aug 2026 (we2608y) — U.S. Census Bureau · openA