Bill Bone is one of the key builders of the modern Coachella Valley: the guy who helped turn raw desert and old agricultural parcels into the valley’s signature product—master-planned, amenity-heavy resort communities (especially golf + tennis), plus big resort hotels. 

Why he’s a Coachella Valley legend

What sets Bone apart isn’t “he built houses.” It’s what kind of places he built, and how much of the valley’s look-and-feel traces back to that formula:

• He proved high-volume second-home building could work in the desert, not just one-off custom homes. 

• He scaled the “lifestyle-first” country club community model across multiple cities in the valley, creating a repeatable blueprint.

• He helped push major development east/down-valley (Palm Desert → Indian Wells → La Quinta), right as the region’s center of gravity was shifting. 

• He co-developed landmark resorts that boosted year-round tourism and conventions, notably the JW Marriott Desert Springs. 

The Coachella Valley footprint (the big builds people still recognize)

Here are the marquee Sunrise projects that shaped the valley’s resort-housing era (years + basic scope pulled from Sunrise’s own timeline):

• 1973 — Sunrise Country Club (Rancho Mirage): 746 homes + 18-hole golf + tennis + clubhouse. 

• 1976 — Rancho Las Palmas (Rancho Mirage): Country Club (858 homes, 27 holes, major tennis) + Resort & Spa (465 rooms, plus commercial plaza). 

• 1978 — Monterey Country Club (Palm Desert): 1,206 homes + 27 holes + tennis + clubhouses. 

• 1982 — The Lakes Country Club (Palm Desert): 902 homes + 27 holes + tennis + clubhouses. 

• 1984 — Palm Valley Country Club (Palm Desert): 1,274 homes + 36 holes + tennis + fitness/spa. 

The “Bill Bone” playbook (how he thought)

If you’re trying to understand who he was, this is the core:

• Lifestyle first, homes second. He openly framed it that way. 

• Customer obsession (not “satisfaction”—fan-level loyalty). He literally used the phrase “raving fans.”

• A builder who studied, borrowed, and improved ideas fast. His “research and copy” line is blunt—and very telling.

• Hands-on standards and a defined company culture. Sunrise wrote down behavioral “prerequisites” like honesty, reliability, and being positive yet realistic.

• 1985 — PGA West (La Quinta): 1,500 homes + four 18-hole championship courses (Dye/Nicklaus/Palmer) + multiple clubhouses. 

• 1987 — JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa (Palm Desert): 891 rooms + golf/tennis/spa + large resort scale. 

Civic + regional involvement (beyond real estate)

Bone shows up in the valley not just through buildings, but through institutions:

• Served on or supported boards tied to Eisenhower Medical Center, College of the Desert, Bob Hope Chrysler Golf Classic, UCR Foundation, and more. 

• Held leadership in the Urban Land Institute and founded the Coachella Valley Friends of the University of California. 

• Recognitions cited by Sunrise/CHF include NAHB “Legends” Award (2003), California Building Industry Association Hall of Fame (1992), and Palm Springs Life “Builder of the Decade” (1988).

• 1992 — Indian Ridge Country Club (Palm Desert): 1,068 homes + 36 holes + sports club/spa. 

• 2003 — Toscana Country Club (Indian Wells): 631 homes + 36 holes + club villa + spa. 

• 2018 — Andalusia Country Club (La Quinta): acquired Oct 2018; ~550 homes + 18 holes. 

Before the mega-project years, he also left fingerprints in Palm Springs—including Deepwell-area development in the early 1970s.

Mini biography (Coachella Valley–heavy)

William “Bill” Bone came out of Bakersfield with a builder’s instincts and a strategist’s education—economics at Stanford and an MBA from Harvard. 

He didn’t arrive in the Coachella Valley to play small. By the time he reached Palm Springs in 1969 (he was 27), he’d already done the gritty work—literally building early projects hands-on—and had learned the money side of development through larger players and financing-heavy deals. 

In a valley that still leaned heavily on seasonal tourism and scattered custom homes, Bone saw a bigger opening: second-home buyers wanted a complete lifestyle package. His early desert work—including building in the Deepwell area—helped him read the market and sharpen the model. 

Then came the turning point: he went high-volume. With Sunrise Villas, he showed you could build, sell, and close hundreds of homes fast in a second-home environment—something that simply wasn’t normal in California at the time. That success pushed him to rename the operation Sunrise Company, and it became the platform for what followed: repeatable, scalable “resort community” development. 

From the 1970s onward, Bone’s work effectively drew a new map of the valley. Instead of isolated neighborhoods, he produced destination communities—golf, tennis, clubhouses, lakes, landscaping, gates, and a look that sold the dream. Sunrise Country Club (Rancho Mirage) set the tone in 1973, and Rancho Las Palmas expanded the ambition with both country club living and resort hospitality. 

Bone didn’t just build places to sleep—he built places that kept the valley alive economically. His partnership with Marriott is a perfect example: the Rancho Las Palmas relationship helped set up the deal that led to the JW Marriott Desert Springs opening in 1987 on his Palm Desert land—an enormous resort statement with water, golf, and scale that matched the valley’s rising national profile. 

As the center of gravity shifted away from old Palm Springs dominance, he kept moving down-valley—Palm Desert, Indian Wells, La Quinta—building major communities like Monterey, The Lakes, Palm Valley, Indian Ridge, Toscana, and PGA West. This wasn’t random sprawl; it was a deliberate bet that the valley’s future was master-planned and amenity-driven. 

People who met him often describe a mix that explains the results: a folksy, blunt, fast-talking operator who could negotiate big partnerships, but still cared about small preferences and details. Palm Springs Life and his own words tell you how he competed: sell lifestyle first, hold high standards, and don’t accept “satisfied customers” when the real goal is people who become loyal advocates. 

Today, even as leadership transitioned (with his son Randall in the CEO seat), Bone’s signature is still written across the Coachella Valley in the form of iconic clubs, resort corridors, and the very idea of “desert living” as a curated experience.