Cardinals’ development firm hires new CEO to oversee 217-acre north Phoenix campus

Article originally posted on Phoenix Business Journal on July 28, 2026

Rawhide Development Co., an affiliate of the Arizona Cardinals and the owner and developer of 217 acres in north Phoenix where the NFL team is building its new headquarters campus and performance center, has hired a CEO.

Ralph Ireland is now the president and CEO of Rawhide Development. His role will include managing the massive mixed-use property located at Scottsdale Road and the Loop 101 in north Phoenix that will include the NFL team’s headquarters.

Last year, Rawhide acquired the large swath of land for $136 million. The Cardinals are using 30 acres of the property for a 250,000-square-foot development that will house the team’s practice training facilities for players and offices for its business operations. That project broke ground earlier this year and is expected to be completed by the summer of 2028.

Beyond the Cardinals development, team ownership said the rest of the land will be leased out for other major commercial developments, including headquarters campuses for corporations. In May, Dignity Health announced plans to build a 300,000-square-foot medical center across eight acres of the property.

Ireland will oversee these developments, as well as bring on new users to the land. Office, retail, hospitality and multifamily developments have all been proposed on the land. Ireland has experience with all those types of developments and told the Business Journal he was excited for the opportunity this role presented.

“It starts with the great real estate opportunity – it’s 200 acres in one of the best markets in the country,” Ireland said. “I did not make a decision to do this lightly, but I became fascinated with the culture here and the vision of what [Cardinals Owner] Michael [Bidwill] and others were trying to achieve.”

Ireland joins Rawhide and the Cardinals after working the past two years as an executive vice president at Texas-based Howard Hughes Holdings. During his time there, he restructured and directed the company’s commercial development strategy, which including a multibillion-dollar, national portfolio of multifamily, retail, office and mixed-use developments.

Prior to Howard Hughes, he led the vertical development pipeline at the Signorelli Co., which spanned more than 2,200 acres. He also oversaw asset management and business development of the company’s operating multifamily, retail and office holdings. Ireland also has experience at the Tavistock Development Co. in Orlando, as well as at Steiner + Associates and at the Walt Disney Co., where he held development roles in spanning mixed-use, retail, entertainment, resort and cruise ship projects.

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