DMB Development at Cotino: What They Do

Last Updated: June 25, 2026 | Time To Read: 7-9 minutes | Author: Mark Miller | Category: Cotino, Rancho Mirage

When most people hear about Cotino, a Storyliving by Disney community, they naturally focus on the Disney name. That makes sense. Disney is the brand that gives Cotino its storytelling, hospitality, design sensibility, and emotional pull.

But behind the scenes, another company plays one of the most important roles in bringing Cotino to life: DMB Development.

DMB Development is not the homebuilder. It is not Disney. And it is not the company selling every individual home. Instead, DMB is the master developer working with Disney on Cotino in Rancho Mirage. DMB’s own Cotino portfolio page describes its role as master developer and says it is collaborating with Disney on the first Storyliving by Disney community in the Greater Palm Springs area.

That distinction matters because Cotino is not just a normal subdivision. It is a large-scale, mixed-use, master-planned community with homes, parks, a lagoon, club amenities, future commercial areas, dining, entertainment, and a planned beachfront hotel. According to DMB, Cotino spans 618 acres, includes 1,932 planned residential units, is centered around a 24-acre grand oasis, and has 51 acres of planned mixed-use development.

In simple terms, Disney gives Cotino much of its soul. DMB helps build the physical community where that story can actually happen.

A master developer is the company responsible for shaping the larger community framework. In a project like Cotino, that means thinking far beyond individual floor plans.

A homebuilder may focus on a specific collection of homes, model homes, buyer options, elevations, and construction details. A master developer looks at the entire place: the roads, the parks, the community layout, the phasing, the land plan, the relationship between residential and commercial areas, the infrastructure, the entry experience, and the long-term feel of the community.

At Cotino, DMB’s role is best understood as the company helping turn hundreds of acres of Rancho Mirage land into a functioning, experience-driven community. Disney’s materials also make the structure clear: Cotino is Disney-branded and managed, developed by DMB Development, with homes built and sold by third-party builders.

That means DMB is not simply “putting up homes.” DMB is helping coordinate the foundation of the entire place.

The DMB and Disney partnership is one of the most interesting parts of Cotino.

Disney is known for storytelling, placemaking, guest experience, design detail, and hospitality. DMB is known for large-scale master-planned community development. Disney’s own announcement described Cotino as a collaboration with DMB Development and called DMB “highly regarded” for large-scale planned communities in the United States.

That combination explains the structure of Cotino. Disney is not acting as a traditional homebuilder. DMB is not trying to be Disney. Instead, each side brings a different type of expertise.

Disney contributes the brand vision, design inspiration, lifestyle programming, and the hospitality layer associated with Storyliving by Disney. DMB contributes the development experience needed to plan, entitle, coordinate, and deliver a large community over time.

DMB’s CEO Brent Herrington summarized the partnership by saying Cotino combines Disney’s creativity and operational excellence with DMB’s community development expertise.

For buyers, that means Cotino should be viewed as a hybrid: part master-planned desert community, part branded lifestyle environment, and part long-term placemaking experiment.

Official materials do not publish every contractual detail between Disney, DMB, the land ownership entities, and the builders. But based on DMB’s stated role as master developer, its work at Cotino likely centers on the big-picture development responsibilities that make the rest of the community possible.

That includes the community plan, development phasing, infrastructure coordination, land development, streetscapes, parks, open spaces, utilities, grading, and the coordination of multiple outside parties. It also includes making sure the project can support different home types, future commercial uses, recreation areas, and the larger lifestyle environment Cotino is promising.

DMB’s Cotino page identifies the project as a “master planned community centered around a grand oasis,” with planned features that include the voluntary private club, shopping, dining, entertainment, a beachfront hotel, and a public-access beach park through day-pass access.

This is the part most buyers never see directly. They see model homes, sales centers, renderings, club amenities, and community branding. But before any of that works, someone has to make the land function as a community. That is where DMB’s role matters.

DMB Development is a real estate development company with deep roots in master-planned communities. The company describes its work as creating communities that reflect their settings and enrich the way people live. DMB’s company page says DMB has been crafting communities for more than 40 years and emphasizes a place-specific approach that considers the local environment, culture, and long-term community life.

The broader DMB legacy traces back to DMB Associates, a Scottsdale-based real estate master planning and development company whose public materials describe the organization as “Building Legacies Since 1984.” DMB Development was later spun off from DMB Associates in 2017 to pursue new development opportunities, according to a DMB-related Silverwood press release.

That history is important because DMB’s identity is not based on one project. The company has worked on a portfolio of high-end and large-scale communities across the western United States and beyond.

DMB’s current body of work includes communities such as Silverleaf, DC Ranch, Verrado, Eastmark, Power Ranch, Santaluz, Ladera Ranch, Rancho Mission Viejo, Martis Camp, Lahontan, Silverwood, Delta Coves, Kukuiʻula, and Cotino.

That portfolio gives context to why Disney would collaborate with DMB. Cotino is a first-of-its-kind Disney-branded residential community, but DMB is not new to the work of building large, lifestyle-oriented places.

Based on DMB’s public portfolio, Cotino appears to be DMB Development’s major Coachella Valley project.

DMB’s portfolio lists Cotino in Rancho Mirage, along with other projects in places like Hesperia, Bethel Island, Truckee, San Diego, Rancho Mission Viejo, Ladera Ranch, Arizona, Utah, Hawaii, and Los Cabos. The public portfolio does not show another DMB project elsewhere in Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, La Quinta, Indio, or the broader Coachella Valley.

That makes Cotino especially notable locally. DMB was not simply expanding a long-standing Coachella Valley subdivision business. Instead, it entered Rancho Mirage with one of the most visible residential developments in the desert: the first Storyliving by Disney community.

For local residents, that is part of what makes Cotino such an important project to watch. It brings together Disney’s global brand power, DMB’s master-planned development experience, and Rancho Mirage’s long-standing identity as one of the Coachella Valley’s luxury residential and resort markets.

For a homebuyer, the name on the homebuilder sign often gets the most attention. But in a master-planned community, the master developer can have just as much influence on the long-term experience.

A buyer is not only purchasing a house. They are buying into a larger environment.

That environment includes how the streets feel, how parks are placed, how walkable the community becomes, how amenities relate to neighborhoods, how commercial areas are integrated, how open space is preserved or designed, and how the community matures over time.

At Cotino, those questions are especially important because the community is built around a lifestyle promise. The lagoon, the Artisan Club, the future town center, the design collections, the Disney storytelling, and the desert setting all have to feel connected. If those pieces feel disconnected, the brand loses power. If they work together, Cotino becomes more than a group of homes.

That is why DMB’s master developer role is central to the project.

The easiest way to understand Cotino is to separate the major roles.

Disney provides the Storyliving by Disney brand, creative direction, design influence, hospitality sensibility, programming, and management experience. Disney materials emphasize that Cotino is Disney-branded and managed, but also clarify that Disney is not the developer, builder, or seller of homes in the community.

DMB Development is the master developer. It is responsible for helping bring the larger Cotino community vision into physical form through master planning, development coordination, and the broader community framework. DMB’s official Cotino page identifies the company in this master developer role.

Third-party builders build and sell the homes. Disney Parks Blog has identified builders such as Shea Homes, Woodbridge Pacific Group, and Davidson Communities in connection with Cotino home designs and model homes.

That structure is common in large master-planned communities. One company may control the larger community plan, while multiple builders create different home collections within that plan. Cotino adds another layer because Disney is involved in the brand, storytelling, design standards, and resident experience.

DMB’s public materials repeatedly emphasize place-based community development. The company says each location requires a distinct approach and that its first step is to understand what makes a setting special.

That philosophy lines up with Cotino’s positioning.

Cotino is not being marketed as a generic gated community. It is being presented as a community shaped by the desert, the mountains, the history of Walt Disney’s time in the area, indoor-outdoor living, midcentury inspiration, and the lifestyle of Greater Palm Springs.

DMB’s role is to help make that local story physically believable.

That is harder than it sounds. The Coachella Valley has a strong design identity. Buyers understand desert views, mountain orientation, seasonal living, pools, patios, shade, landscaping, golf culture, resort living, and the difference between a community that feels authentic and one that feels imported.

For Cotino to work long-term, it cannot only be “Disney in the desert.” It has to feel like a real Rancho Mirage community with Disney-level detail layered into it.

That is where DMB’s place-based development background becomes relevant.

DMB Development is one of the most important companies involved in Cotino, even if it is not the name most people notice first.

Disney brings the magic, storytelling, design oversight, and lifestyle concept. The homebuilders bring the individual residences to market. DMB Development helps shape the larger physical community where all of those pieces are supposed to come together.

For Coachella Valley buyers, Cotino represents something new: a Disney-branded residential community built into the luxury desert lifestyle of Rancho Mirage. For DMB, it appears to be its most visible Coachella Valley project and a major addition to a portfolio already known for large-scale master-planned communities.

The simplest way to understand DMB’s role is this: DMB is helping build the stage. Disney is helping write the story. The builders are constructing the homes. Cotino is where all three meet.